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.     

国际劳工标准与中国劳动治理——一种政治经济学分析

作为国家治理的基本内容之一,中国对劳动关系的规制不可能回避国际劳工组织制定的劳工标准。20世纪90年代以来,中国劳动关系的失衡在一定程度上影响了社会的稳定,损害了国家实施长期发展战略的能力。正是在对国家自主性的寻求中,中央政府批准了一系列国际劳工公约,并借鉴了国际劳工标准来推动国内劳动立法。但作为渐进式改革的结果,中国对国际劳工标准的导入仍受到国内制度结构的限制和约束。     

International Labour Migration in East Asia: trends, patterns and policy issues

This paper examines emerging patterns of labour migration in East Asia and related policy issues from the perspective of labour-importing countries. Following a survey of the characteristics of labour flows stemming from, but more importantly occurring within, the region, it probes inter-country differences, both in the timing of the entry of migrant workers and the degree of dependency on migrant labour in the context of rapid economic growth and labour market change. There is clear evidence that labour migration is now a structural feature of the economic landscape in these countries. The policy challenge is to design market-based systems for making the new reliance on labour inflows consistent with changing domestic labour market conditions and the priorities of national development policy, while minimising social resentment and adverse implications for political relations with neighbouring labour-sending countries.     

International Rent Sharing and Domestic Labour Markets: A Macroeconomic Analysis

Compared to international trade relations relatively little is known about the role foreign direct investment linkages play in the transmission of disturbances from one country to the next. Inspired by the microevidence on profit sharing within multinational corporations and within industries, we investigate for six countries whether a cross-border rent-sharing phenomenon can be identified at the macroeconomic level. The rent-sharing hypothesis implies that an increase in foreign profitability should boost wages and/or employment in the domestic economy. We find corroborative evidence for Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. US labour market conditions, by contrast, are not affected by changes in profitability in other countries. JEL no. E32, F23, F40, J23, J31     

国际劳工标准的贸易效应分析

随着贸易自由化的发展，传统的关税壁垒逐渐下降，然而劳工标准等社会壁垒问题随之产生，劳工标准与贸易交织在一起，其与贸易的联系具有必然性，二者的挂钩对贸易将产生不容忽视的影响。正因为如此，国际劳工标准正日益受到多角度的关注，并引发发达国家与发展中国家之间的争论。文章将主要就劳工标准的贸易效应加以具体分析。     

美国首都银行落户重庆

3月31日,美国首都银行股份有限公司重庆代表处挂牌成立,这是美国首都银行继厦门代表处后成立的又一个在华办事处。美国首都银行股份有限公司是家华资银行,于1987年在美国的德克萨斯顿市成立,1998年在纳斯达克股票市场成功上市,2007年被列为德克萨斯州10家最大的上市银行之一。银行公司董事长王敦正介绍说:"     

广东对外劳务参与“一带一路”建设的法律挑战与规制

广东对外劳务深度参与了"一带一路"的建设并取得了长足发展,但也面临着"一带一路"沿线国法律制度差异、我国对外劳务合作法律规定不完善和对外劳务纠纷解决机制不统一等法律挑战。为此需要我国政府与"一带一路"沿线国签订对外劳务合作双边协议,掌握沿线国的法律制度,完善我国对外劳务合作规定,建立高效公平公正的对外劳务合作纠纷解决机制。     

‘Australian sailors wanted’: Labour supply and Australian shipping,c. 1870–c. 1914

In the pre-1914 era Australia did not develop an ocean-going merchant navy. The problem is well recognised in previous studies that assumed that it was high Australian wages that made the operational cost of deep-sea vessels uncompetitive on a global scale. This article reconstructs historical shifts in the Australian market for a seagoing workforce and demonstrates there was low recruitment of Australian labour. Drawing on new sources and inspired by efficiency wage theory the article argues that it was this shortage of a domestic labour supply that constrained the development of a national deep-sea shipping industry.     

Setting It Right: Employment Protection,Labour Reallocation and Productivity

This paper provides a critical review of the recent empirical evidence on the links between regulations affecting the hiring and firing of workers, labour reallocation and productivity growth. It also reviews how workers affected by labour mobility fare and discusses policy options to support them. The upshot is that stringent employment protection has a sizeable negative effect on labour market flows and, through this channel, hinders productivity growth. At the same time, the evidence also shows that while greater labour market reallocation benefits many workers through higher real wages and better careers, some displaced workers lose out via longer unemployment durations and/or lower real wages in post-displacement jobs. In this context, reforms of employment protection should be considered as part of a comprehensive package that also includes an adequate safety net for the unemployed and effective re-employment services.     

构建企业和谐稳定的劳动关系：从短期劳动合约到长期劳动合约

当前我国企业对于劳动力的雇佣具有很大的灵活性,劳动合约短期化行为严重,对此,理论界和政府极为关注,企业处于其发展的成长期、正式制度的缺失、外部市场的不确定性是短期化劳动合约存在的客观原因,这使得我们有必要考察企业的契约性质及劳动合约的特性。长期劳动合约通过降低合约方的流动性,来达到激励和约束的双重功效,使人力资本获得的剩余收益真正成为风险收益。从建立和谐稳定的劳动关系及其企业长期发展的角度来看,长期劳动合约的推行具有重要的意义。     

Labour migration and economic performance: London and the Randstad,c. 1600–18001

In most studies of early modern north‐western Europe, England is regarded as the successor of the Netherlands in terms of economic leadership. Whereas related topics like institutional and technological change or changes in trade and capital flows have been incorporated into the research on the comparison of these two rival states, labour migration is usually omitted. This article aims to fill this lacuna by focusing on labour migration to the two core regions of the Netherlands and England: the Randstad and London. Two main research questions are raised in this article. First of all, in what way did the two cores and their hinterlands differ with regard to their demographic, economic, and spatial structures, and how did this contribute to different trends in labour migration over time? Secondly, what was the effect of the configuration of the demand and supply factors of London and the Randstad for their economies and for those who lived in them? By trying to answer these two questions this article aims not only to shed light on a hitherto largely unexplored topic in the comparative geographic, economic, and demographic history of the two countries, but also to contribute to the understanding of migration as a factor in the promotion of economic growth.     

Labour Shortage in Hong Kong: Causes,Consequences and Policies*

This paper addresses the issue of labour shortage in Hong Kong. Labour shortage is a secular phenomenon caused mainly by a stagnation in the growth of the labour force. The major long-term factors that explain this stagnation are a decline in fertility, a fall in the labour participation rate, a reduced intake of immigrants and a rising outflow of emigrants. Labour imposes a capacity constraint on the growth of the economy. This paper considers policies which may alleviate the supply constraint on the economy, including reducing emigration, importing labour and increasing immigration intake. These policies, which would lead to a faster expansion of the labour force, are evaluated and compared.