Multilevel governance and broadband infrastructure development: Evidence from Canada

This paper investigates the contributions of digital infrastructure policies of provincial governments in Canada to the development of broadband networks. Using measurements of broadband network speeds between 2007 and 2011, the paper analyzes potential causes for observed differences in network performance growth across the provinces, including geography, Internet use intensity, platform competition, and provincial broadband policies. The analysis suggests provincial policies that employed public sector procurement power to open access to essential facilities and channeled public investments in Internet backbone infrastructure were associated with the emergence of relatively high quality broadband networks. However, a weak essential facilities regime and regulatory barriers to entry at the national level limit the scope for decentralized policy solutions.     

Long‐Run Patterns of Labour Market Polarization: Evidence from German Micro Data

The past four decades have witnessed dramatic changes in the structure of employment. In particular, the rapid increase in computational power has led to large‐scale reductions in employment in jobs that can be described as intensive in routine tasks. These jobs have been shown to be concentrated in middle‐skill occupations. A large literature on labour market polarization characterizes and measures these processes at an aggregate level. However, to date, there is little information regarding the individual worker adjustment processes related to routine‐biased technological change. Using an administrative panel dataset for Germany, we follow workers over an extended period of time and provide evidence of both the short‐term adjustment process and medium‐run effects of routine task‐intensive job loss at an individual level. We initially demonstrate a marked, and steady, shift in employment away from routine, middle‐skill, occupations. In subsequent analysis, we demonstrate how exposure to jobs with higher routine task content is associated with a reduced likelihood of being in employment in both the short term (after one year) and medium term (five years). This employment penalty to routineness of work has increased over the past four decades. More generally, we demonstrate that routine task work is associated with reduced job stability and more likelihood of experiencing periods of unemployment. However, these negative effects of routine work appear to be concentrated in increased employment to employment, and employment to unemployment transitions rather than longer periods of unemployment.     

The Dynamic Effects of Works Councils on Labour Productivity: First Evidence from Panel Data

We estimate dynamic effects of works councils on labour productivity using newly available information from West German establishment panel data. Conditioning on plant fixed effects and control variables, we find negative productivity effects during the first five years after council introduction but a steady and substantial increase in the councils’ productivity effect thereafter. Our findings support a causal interpretation for the positive correlation between council existence and plant productivity that has been frequently reported in previous studies.     

Factors Influencing the Value of Urban Land: Evidence from Halifax-Dartmouth, Canada

This study is a hedonic analysis of land values for Halifax-Dartmouth, Canada. The study has demonstrated that conventional, well-known urban explanatory variables such as zoning, lot size, centrality, neighborhood, and so on, found to determine values in the United States also work for a typical Canadian land market. The findings on effects of lot shape, and high traffic (in combination with other than single-family residential zones) is particularly interesting.     

Flexibilization at the Core to Reduce Labour Market Dualism: Evidence from the Spanish Case

Institutionalist explanations of the high non‐standard employment rate in the Spanish labour market have pointed to the relevance of flexibilization at the margin, that is, the deregulation of non‐standard jobs. Using Spanish social security micro data, we find evidence that the liberalization reforms of 2010 and 2012 had flexibilization at their core, that is, greater instability due to open‐ended and full‐time contracts (erosion of employment protection) and a rise in turnover among periphery workers, increasing the segregation gap. We conclude that there is a high level of deregulation and simultaneous dualization due to the combination of flexibilization at the margin (until 2008) and the core (2010–2012).     

Rising Wage Inequality, Returns to Education and Labour Market Institutions: Evidence from Ireland

Institutional factors and increased supply of skilled labour have been advanced in an effort to explain why some countries have experienced smaller increases in earnings dispersion and in returns to education than the USA and the UK. Ireland has had a highly centralized wage bargaining structure and the supply of skilled labour has increased sharply in recent years; hence, relatively little change in earnings dispersion might be expected. We compare the distribution of earnings in Ireland in 1987 and 1994 and find a surprisingly large growth in earnings dispersion. In addition, using a decomposition technique, we find that much of this is accounted for by increasing returns to measured.     

Concertational and Free-Market Paths to Successful Territorial Economic Adjustment: Labour Unions and Adjustment in the 1990s

A growing body of recent research suggests that successful industrial adjustment at the local level today reflects the capacities of unions and management to identify problems and pursue solutions co-operatively through processes of micro-concertation which enlist the work-force substantially in the adjustment process at the firm level. The presence of such capacities to engage in micro-concertation has in turn been linked by some studies to a variety of local-level political and social realities which facilitate worker skill formation (including the ability to identify and solve problems), while encouraging communication and the development of trust between workers and management. Strong unions able to legitimize managerial decisions and to enlist the acquiescence and support of the work-force are seen as key to the success of such micro-concertational systems. This recent research on micro-concertation would seem to conflict with the liberal–conservative view that successful industrial adjustment occurs not when unions are strong, but when they are too weak to impede managerial choices. This paper examines successful processes of industrial adjustment in several textile–clothing–footwear centres of northern and central Italy. The paper observes that both strong-labour ‘micro-concertational’ and weak-labour ‘free-market’ models of successful adjustment exist, and that they prevail, respectively, in different geographical areas. The paper argues that successful micro-concertational adjustment is most likely where unions are strong, united and encompassing, and that successful free-market adjustment is most likely where unions are weak, divided and non-encompassing. This observation parallels the insights of Alvarez et al. (1991) on successful national-level macroeconomic performance, and suggests that the political-economic logic observed by Alvarez et al. at the national level obtains also at the local level. The paper observes further that the existence of both models suggests that successful adjustment may be linked to capacity of either micro-concertation or union weakness to remove impediments to labour market flexibility.     

The Impact of Training on Labour Mobility: Individual and Firm‐level Evidence from Britain

We investigate the impact of different types of training on the mobility expectations of workers, using three surveys. Most training episodes produce some transferable skills, and most transferable training is paid for by employers. Overall, training has no impact on mobility in three out of every five cases; the remaining cases are split equally between those where training increases and those where it decreases mobility. We find that training is more likely to lead to lower mobility when it is less transferable to other firms, is sponsored by firms, and where its objectives include increasing the identification of employees with corporate objectives.     

Broad-Based Employee Ownership and Labour Productivity During the 2008 Recession: Evidence from Public Firms in Europe

Did publicly traded European firms with employee ownership (EO) realize higher firm performance during or after the Great Recession? Contributing to the growing interest in exploring the association between EO and firm performance during and after the 2008 economic crisis, we draw on a longitudinal sample of 4,259 firm-years representing 892 publicly traded firms from 28 European countries. The results show that compared to firms without EO, those with EO experienced higher firm performance during or after the recession, albeit with small effect size. Consistent with past findings, we found that firms with EO were less likely to lower their employee count during or after the recession. Findings are robust to controlling for contemporaneous endogeneity and alternate specifications. Our results indicate that publicly traded European firms with EO, on average, realized higher firm performance in the face of the Great Recession.     

Implications of mandatory labeling of GM food in India: Evidence from the supply side

We assess the supply-side economic implications of introducing a strict mandatory labeling policy for genetically modified (GM) food in India as proposed in 2006. We apply our analysis to the case of cottonseed oil and soybean oil, two products that would be the first affected by such regulation. We find that GM food labeling would generate adjustment and implementation costs and consumer benefits would not always be visible and would highly depend on the degree of enforcement.     

Effects of Occupational Licensing and Unions on Labour Market Earnings in Canada

Using longitudinal data from the Canadian Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics from 1999 to 2011, the article compares the pay and benefits of licensed and unionized workers. In a cross section of respondents and using ordinary least squares estimates, it finds a pay premium of 0.155 log points for those with an occupational licence compared to those without one; the comparable union wage premium is slightly more than half, that is 0.085 log points. Fixed‐effects estimates go in the opposite direction (0.028 and 0.046 log points for licensing and unionization, respectively), suggesting the existence of unobservable factors correlated with licensing and union status. Unionized workers are more likely to access standard benefits, such as medical insurance and pension plans, but licensed workers benefit little from their licensing status in access to benefits. Finally, union workers are significantly less likely to receive incentive pay, such as profit sharing, while the association between occupational licensing and incentive pay is close to zero and statistically insignificant.     

Knowledge Sharing through Face‐to‐Face Communication and Labour Productivity: Evidence from British Workplaces

We investigate whether the adoption by workplaces of human resources management (HRM) practices that enhance face‐to‐face communication (FTFC) among employees is associated with productivity gains. The analysis is based on a nationally representative sample of over 500 British trading establishments drawn from the linked 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey and Annual Business Inquiry, for which objective measures of labour productivity (value added per employee) are available. We find a positive association between productivity and FTFC in problem‐solving groups, teams and meetings of senior or line managers and employees, provided that FTFC is adopted on a continuous basis. Our finding suggests that British workplaces in the trading sector could increase their productivity by implementing HRM practices in such a way as to enhance knowledge sharing through employees' personal interactions.     

Disconnected Amid the Networks and Chains: Employee Detachment from Company and Union after Offshoring

Much has been written about the relocation of services jobs away from OECD nations by offshoring. But what happens to those who remain employed at workplaces where offshoring has been carried out? Based on survey and interview data of UK insurance and banking staff, this article explores employees' subjective understandings of the impacts of offshoring. The article brings together literature on Global Commodity Chains and Labour Process Theory, as it expands the focus of research on offshoring from macro/meso discussions of globalization and firm strategy into more micro‐level analysis of employee interpretations of workplace change. The data indicate a collapse in morale and work dignity for UK financial services workers and suggest that offshoring is not associated with a rise in skill levels of surviving jobs. Many staff reported a climate of detachment and cynicism after offshoring. Detachment and disaffection applies to employees' feelings towards their employer and their union, and is discussed as a paradoxical by‐product of the growing incorporation of services work into Global Commodity Chains or Global Production Networks.     

Make or Buy: Offshoring of Services Functions in Manufacturing

Review of Industrial Organization - About 40% of employment in manufacturing is in services functions. This paper develops a measure of narrow outsourcing: the matching of services functions that...     

Service Regulations,Input Prices and Export Volumes: Evidence from a Panel of Manufacturing Firms

Using a panel of firm‐level data from Spanish manufacturers, this study shows that better service regulation reduces the price of intermediate inputs paid by downstream firms. The beneficial cost effects of services reforms extend to both large and small‐to‐medium sized corporations (SME’s), but the former tend to enjoy greater gains. This feature also manifests itself in international markets. We find evidence of an input cost channel through which service regulations affect the volume of exports of large manufacturers, while the evidence of such a channel is weaker for SME’s. Our estimates indicate that, from 1991 to 2007, large firms increased their volume of exports by an average of 20 per cent as a result of the direct input cost effect of services reforms, such that the firms that benefited the most typically belonged to industries more dependent on service inputs. Furthermore, convergence to the ‘best practice’ regulatory framework in services would have raised exports at least by an additional nine per cent. We conclude that firm size is relevant for the connection between services reforms, intermediate input prices and export volumes.     

Opting Out,Collective Contracts and Labour Flexibility: Firm-Level Evidence for The Italian Case

This article analyses the role of deviations from higher level collective agreements adopted in firm-level bargaining to regain higher labour mobility, net positive employment effects and a resurgence of labour productivity. Using Italian firm-level data, after performing preliminary pooled ordinary least squares and fixed effects estimates, we adopt a difference-in-difference approach combined with a propensity score matching. All the estimations show that opting out clauses notably increases both hiring and separations, but without significant variations in terms of net employment. In addition, no significant labour productivity gains are obtained. The only significant change concerns the increase in the share of temporary workers.     

Wi-Fi as a Commercial Service: New Technology and Policy Implications

While Wi-Fi has enjoyed explosive growth and deployment for use in residential homes, the rollout of commercial Wi-Fi service has been more limited. Part of the holdback on large-scale commercial deployment has been the strategic concern that the commons model to spectrum management lacks the incentives for service providers to invest due to the limited ability to manage interference in the unlicensed band. Today, however, this situation appears to have changed. To explain the new confidence by service providers in commercial Wi-Fi, the activities of the Wi-Fi Alliance and IEEE 802.11 standards body are analyzed to show how these groups essentially replicate many, but not all, of the functions traditionally employed by an effective band manager that is optimizing efficiency on a licensed spectrum block more typically associated with the deployment of commercial services. Consequently, with the Wi-Fi ecosystem functioning as an effective spectrum manager, it is concluded that the service provider investment in Public Wi-Fi networks is rational and the risk posed by saturation or overuse has been reduced to an acceptable level. The strategic implications of this finding on the Wi-Fi platform are the examined. How the requirements from service providers are already significantly influencing the evolution of the Wi-Fi standard is discussed, and an attempt is made to address the risks and liabilities associated with the unlicensed spectrum management model. Thus, service providers increasingly need functionality in Wi-Fi technology to manage interference, and monitor and improve network performance. The current ideas under discussion are elaborated for the next version of Wi-Fi to support both commercial Wi-Fi requirements, which address the interference concerns, but only up to a point, as the unlicensed model intrinsically leaves some risk to participants of spectrum saturation through overuse.     

Matching and Inverse Propensity Weighting Estimates of the Union Wage Premium: Evidence from Canada, 1997–2014

I estimate the union wage premium for private‐sector workers using Canadian data from Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey from 1997 to 2014, examining the trend and gender differences in the premium. I obtain my estimates using matching and inverse propensity weighting estimators, which form counterfactuals for union workers. These estimators create better covariate balance and can also be used to address the bias that arises from the log transformation of wages.