Labour markets, welfare, and the personal scope of employment law

The issues which confront those concerned with employment law,about the types of workers to whom employment laws apply, arehighly relevant to the subject of labour markets and welfare.The formulation and application of the personal categories ofemployment law is or involves a welfare allocation, often seenas a trade-off between welfare and efficiency. This articledescribe the basic legal framework for determining the personalscope of employment law in the UK, considers some recent adaptationsto that framework, engages in comparison with some continentalEuropean legal systems, examines empirical evidence about theworking of the personal categories of employment law, describesthe debate within the ILO about employment status and 'contractlabour', canvasses some ideas about the growth of complex workrelationships, and concludes by assessing a remaining task offurther refinement of theory in this area.     

Overshooting,reform and retreat of the welfare state

Summary The paper discusses various reforms that may lower the costs of the contemporary welfare state, including a shift from taxes to actuarially fair, although still compulsory, insurance premia; wider use of co-insurance,etc. It is also suggested that social security entitlements are made more robust against political interventions by moving them outside of the government budget. Freer competition is suggested in the provision of social services. Reform of the political process is also discussed to avoid an overshooting of the welfare state in the sense that imperfections in the political process result in excessive welfare state spending.Seventh Tinbergen Lecture delivered on October 1, 1993 at De Nederlandsche Bank, Amsterdam for the Royal Netherlands Economic Association. I Am grateful for comments on an early draft of this paper by Thorvaldur Gylfason, Torsten Persson, Agnar Sandmo, Karl Gustaf Scherman, Lars E.O. Svensson, Paul Söderlind and Lars Söderström.     

Growth, inequality, and welfare: comparisons across space and time

We propose and apply several welfare measures that combine averageincome with a measure of inequality to undertake cross-countrycomparisons of aggregate welfare for the 1970 to 2000 period.Our welfare measures, which are based on theoretical and empiricalfindings on the role of inequality in social welfare, drasticallychange the impression of levels of welfare, significantly affectthe welfare ranking of countries in different benchmark years,affect changes in ranking over time, and affect convergencebetween industrialized and developing countries. While the resultsare sensitive to the type of inequality and its presumed effecton welfare, the results are robust to different ways to addresscomparability problems inherent in the inequality data used.     

The systems approach to household labor supply in the Netherlands

Summary Deaton and Muellbauer's `Almost Ideal Demand System' is employed to model the joint determination of family income and male and female labor supply of individual households in the Netherlands. Family composition effects are incorporated as quasi-price effects, as originally proposed by Batten. The model is estimated for a cross-section of households in the Netherlands in 1982, to explain both actual hours of work and preferred hours of work. An analysis of the effects of rationing of male labor supply, by a mandatory reduction of the length of the working week, points to a sizeable compensating effect on female labor supply.The authors thank Jacques Siegers, Joop Hartog, Tom Wansbeek and a referee for helpful comments on an earlier draft. Geert Ridder kindly provided his maximum likelihood computer program GRMAX, which was used in the estimation of the model.     

Measuring and Interpreting Trends in the Division of Labour in the Netherlands

This paper introduces indicators about the division of labour to measure and interpret recent trends in the structure of employment in the Netherlands. Changes in the division of labour occur at three different levels: the level of the individual worker, the level of the industry and the spatial level. At each level the organisation of work is determined by an equilibrium of forces that glue tasks together or unbundle them. Communication costs are the main force for clustering or gluing together tasks; comparative advantage stimulates unbundling and specialisation. The estimates suggest that on average the Netherlands has witnessed unbundling in the period 1996?C2005, which implies that advantages of specialisation have increased. These developments explain to a considerable extent changes in the structure of employment. Especially at the spatial level it explains a substantial part of the increase in offshoring tasks abroad.     

Relocation of state services and regional unemployment in the Netherlands

Summary In addition to the stimulation of the less developed regions in The Netherlands by regional investment subsidies and infrastructural improvement, the Dutch government pursues a relocation policy with respect to government activities. Public institutions have been or are to be moved from the government center of The Hague to less prosperous regions in the north, east and south of The Netherlands. This article describes the main characteristics of the interregional input-output model that has been developed to calculate the employment and unemployment effects of relocation policy. Further the results of some model exercises are given. Three variants are calculated: a central variant in which the migration rate of civil servants is assumed to be equal to the actual observed value of 15% and two extreme variants in which the migration rates are assumed to be 100% and 0% respectively. This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the twenty-second European Congress of the Regional Science Association; Groningen, The Netherlands; 24–27 August, 1982.     

劳动和劳动价值理论的新变化及其重要启示

本文在分析新历史条件下劳动新特点的基础上，认为马克思主义劳动价值理论的创新概括起来，其实质就是从狭义走向广义。广义劳动价值论是当代马克思主义经济理论的基石。最后，作者从劳动价值论的创新中阐明五个方面的重要启示。     

Women's relative wage rate in The Netherlands, 1950–1983: A test of alternative discrimination theories

Summary This article presents the results of an inquiry into the relationship that is to be expected on theoretical grounds between women's wage rate compared to men's on the one hand and some macroeconomic variables on the other. Becker's discrimination theory is confronted with alternative theories. On the base of data for the Netherlands the authors investigate which theory is most suited to explain the development of women's relative wage rate for the period 1950–1983. They conclude that the results of the empirical analysis predominantly support Becker's theory.The authors wish to thank Mr. R. Haagsma and Professor C.K.F. Nieuwenburg for their comments on an earlier draft of this article. Furthermore, they are grateful to Miss M.J.R. Key for computational assistance.     

The impact of the exchange rate system on the effectiveness and implementation of stabilization policy in The Netherlands

Summary An economic model is presented with as the most important features a parameter indicating the exchange rate flexibility, the splitting of the internal objective into domestic output and the average price level, the distinction between the price of domestic production and the average price level, and the price indexation of nominal wages. The stability conditions of this model are developed. Based on a qualitative analysis the directions of the impact of policy instruments on objectives are determined and used for obtaining rules and conditions for stable (de)centralized policies under fixed and managed floating exchange rates. These are confronted with empirical results about Dutch adjustment policy. Helpful comments from Mr.. W. J. Ferkranus and Prof. S. K. Kuipers are acknowledged.     

The assessment: environmental policy objectives, instruments, and institutions

The article provides a critique of British environmental policy,focusing in particular on the role of sustainable developmentas an organizing principle, the use of cost benefit analysis(CBA) and economic instruments, and the design of the institutionsresponsible for implementing policy. It is argued that, whileconsiderable progress has been made in the theoretical literatureto define sustainable development, successive governments inthe UK have widened the definition to the point where it provideslittle guidance for policy. Obstacles to the use of CBA arediscussed, as are the political constraints on implementingeconomic instruments in particular, the income effect. Finally,it is argued that the institutional design of the EnvironmentAgency and the Department of the Environment, Transport andthe Regions partly explains the overwhelming reliance on command-and-controlregulation.     

Communities,institutions and natural resources: An assessment of case‐studies from KwaZulu Natal

This article describes three community‐based organisations (CBOs) that were established to protect natural resources in parts of KwaZulu Natal. The object is to determine why some CBOs are more successful than others. The case‐studies (Dukuduku Forest, Shongweni Resources Reserve and Thukela Biosphere Reserve) are analysed and compared using criteria suggested by the theory of institutional economics. It is concluded that the rural poor are unlikely to comply with rules restricting their access to natural resources unless the benefits are obvious. Creating appropriate management institutions is a necessary first step, but it may also be necessary to subsidise their enforcement costs and development programmes.     

The cyclical behavior of profits and labor income in the natural rate hypothesis

Any remaining errors are solely the authors' responsibility.     

Innovation, Knowledge Creation and Technology Policy: The Case of the Netherlands

This paper explores and analyses the concept of knowledge and its application in economics by means of the Schumpeterian framework provided by New Growth Theory. In doing so, we focus on the particular role of knowledge spillovers in a small open economy such as the Netherlands.     

Unit Labour Costs, International Competitiveness, and Exports: The Case of Senegal

Despite some favourable conditions and a number of policy reforms,Senegal's participation in the global economy remains tenuous.This paper uses a Ricardian framework to study Senegal's internationalcompetitiveness in manufacturing. Wages, productivity and unitlabour costs in Senegal are compared to those of other developingcountries. Senegal's labour productivity has grown much moreslowly than in successful emerging economies. The 1994 devaluationof the CFA franc has dramatically improved Senegal's internationalcompetitiveness but further improvements in competitivenessdepend on productivity growth given the constraint of the fixedexchange rate. We find a significant effect of relative unitlabour costs on exports, particularly of manufactured goods.Sustained export-led growth, however, requires additional structuralreforms.