Employment Protection and Labour Mobility in Europe: an empirical analysis using the EU's labour force survey

Does dismissal protection stabilise employment contracts? This study analyses whether the different dismissal laws in the EU countries have an impact on employment stablitiy or, to put it the other way around, whether worker mobility is higher in less regulated labour markets. The paper first discusses the national dismissal laws and some methodological issues and then presents an econometric anaylsis of data from the EU's labour force survey. The study concludes that national regulations have an impact on employment stability but that industry-specific variables and the macroeconomic situaion are also important.     

Offshoring, labour market institutions and the elasticity of labour demand

This paper analyses the evolution of the elasticity of labour demand and the possible role of offshoring therein using industry-level data for a large number of OECD countries. The first main finding is that the wage elasticity of labour demand has increased substantially since 1980, although some of this increase may reflect a trend increase in the speed of adjustment rather than an increase in the long-run wage elasticity. The evidence on the potential contribution of offshoring to raising labour demand elasticity is mixed. No association is found between increases in offshoring and demand elasticity during the second half of the 1990s, but there is a significant cross-sectional association between higher average offshoring intensity during this period and higher demand elasticity. We also find some evidence that strict employment protection legislation weakens the cross-sectional association between offshoring and higher labour demand elasticity, suggesting that the relationship between offshoring and the labour demand elasticity may depend on the national institutional environment.     

The disaggregated demand for labour in Greek industry

This paper employs the Granger test to examine the causal relationship between growth in the money supply and inflation for the US over the period 1959 to 1986. Alternative procedures, including both statistical search and non–statistical ad hoc methods, are utilized to determine the order of the bivariate distributed lag models used in implementing the test. In general, the results show feedback between movements in the money supply and price level changes. Unlike the results of Thornton and Batten (1985), one of the ad hoc methods for lag–length determination is found to perform somewhat better than the statistical search methods in correctly assessing the causal relationships involving money growth and inflation.     

The demand for skills and labour costs in partner countries

We analyse the consequences of trade integration in Europe (1995–2005) detecting how the labour costs in partner countries affect the domestic demand for high‐ and low‐skilled labour in ‘Old’ (EU‐15) and five ‘New’ EU member states. In general, independently of the skill level of workers, the results suggest complementarity between domestic and foreign labour. However, when we take into account the typology of sectors, the demand for the high skilled in low skill intensive sectors in ‘New’ EU members is boosted by the increase of the average labour cost in ‘Old’ EU members. Thus in low skill intensive sectors, the high skilled in ‘New’ member countries can substitute for employment in EU‐15 countries.     

Explanations of the demand for labour in the United Kingdom engineering sector

This paper presents a set of employment functions for nine individual engineering industries using annual data for the period 1954–1987 for the United Kingdom. A brief review alternative theoretical specifications is undertaken. A set of co-integrating regressions is computed to establish the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship between employment and inter aliaoutput and real wages. Based on the results of the co-integration exercise, full unrestricted dynamic equations are obtained and these are then reduced to a more parsimonious representation. The finally preferred restricted models are then tested against a number of diagnostic statistical criteria to establish their robust and efficient properties. The value of these equations for explaining past and predicting future employment and training in the engineering sector is assessed.     

A dynamic heterogeneous labour demand model for German manufacturing

There is currently general agreement amongst economists that the discount rate to compute the present value of benefits and costs in the economic evaluation of public policies is defined according to the social time preference approach. However, whether this rate has to be used for the discount of non-monetary health consequences is a question for which there is no satisfactory reply. In this paper, it is argued that such a reply rests on the estimation of the relationship between the individual time preference for health and money in the contexts of private and social choice. In support of this argument an empirical analysis has been carried out in which the individuals making-up a representative sample of the population of Zaragoza (Spain) have been faced with a series of hypothetical inter-temporal choices. Their replies have implicitly revealed their temporal preference rates and have led to the conclusion that health consequences are discounted at a higher rate than monetary consequences. This would appear to be contrary to the standard practice applied in the economic valuation of health programmes.     

Testing for separability between commodity demand and labour supply in West Germany

In this paper we use a methodology for testing for separability of commodity demands from male and female labour supply on a single cross section. In the empirical section of our paper we apply the methodology to a representative micro data base for West Germany. We estimate the corresponding demand systems for nine goods, analyse their economic properties and test the hypothesis that male and female leisure are separable from commodity demand. We reject the hypothesis that goods are separable from male and female time. Moreover, we show the implications of our results for optimal taxation of goods and labour supply.     

Trade and technological explanations for changes in sectoral labour demand in OECD economies

This paper sets out to establish the main determinants of variations in the demand for aggregate labour in manufacturing and service sectors (22) for a cross-section of OECD countries (14). A relatively new panel data set is employed in the analysis, the OECD's International Sectoral Data Base. Preliminary analysis revealed that the ‘within’ sector variation in the wage share dominated overall variation for most countries and time periods. A separate dynamic model was thus generated to explain the ‘within’ sector variation in the wage share. This model contained real wages, output, the capital stock, technological change (total factor productivity) and trade (the imports to value-added ratio) as independent variables. In addition the wage level was also interacted with these explanatory variables on the presumption that skill is positively correlated with the level of wages. Because of the potential for simultaneity bias, estimation was conducted by IV and OLS. The main findings were that the capital stock and technological change were the main determinants of shifts in labour demand. While some countries reported the trade variable as significant its influence was only of slight importance in most cases. The interaction terms proved to be significant in a large number of countries. Some evidence was found that capital and technological were complementary with skill. Overall it was found that broad agreement existed across countries in the factors which influence labour demand despite considerable differences in the cross-country nature of labour market institutions.     

Employment and Environment in a Sustainable Europe

major challenges in Europe. The EuropeanTreaties require an integration of environmental, economic and social policies in orderto allow for a Sustainable Development. This is of special importance for the linkbetween environmental and employment policy. This paper starts with a definition of thethree pillars of sustainable development, the viability (resilience) of environmental, economicand social systems. With regard to economic development and the social field,these objectives are relatively easy to operationalise: GDP and employment are generallyused headline indicators of sustainable development. The total material input into aneconomy can be seen as an indicator showing the environmental impact.This view brings about major challenges for economic theory:We include the total material input along with resource productivities to describe, explainand evaluate possible developments of economic and environmental variables.With the help of the results from a German research project weshow the relationships between the indicators, the productivities and how they can beinfluenced by policy measures. The simulation results indicate the possibility ofwin-win situations concerning the environment and employment. Additionally, we investigatewhether the developed minimum conditions of sustainable development are valid for Austria.     

The role of labour demand elasticities in tax incidence analysis with heterogeneous labour

Whether labour bears full burden of household level income and consumption taxes ultimately depends on the degree of substitutability among different types of labour in production. We find more variation in incidence patterns across households with less than perfectly substitutable heterogeneous labour than with perfectly substitutable homogeneous labour in production. This finding is based on results obtained from homogeneous and heterogeneous labour general equilibrium tax models calibrated to decile level income and consumption distribution data of UK households for the year 1994. We use labour supply elasticities implied by the substitution elasticity in households' utility functions and derive labour demand elasticities from the substitution elasticity in the production function. First version received: March 1998/Final version received: April 1999     

Job security regulations and the dynamic demand for industrial labor in India and Zimbabwe

Government permission is required to dismiss or lay off even a single worker in India and Zimbabwe. Dynamic labor demand equations, derived from a CES cost minimization model, are estimated for 64 manufacturing industries in these two countries. The data reveal a substantial reduction in demand for workers but no slowing in adjustment of number of employees following enactment of the labor laws. In India, no comparable reduction in labor demand occurred in small scale plants uncovered by the job security regulations. Among larger Indian plants, the drop in labor demand is estimated to be largest in industries where: coverage of the legislation is more extensive, private ownership dominates, and there are fewer union members.     

Determinants of demand for green products: An application to eco-label demand for fish in Europe

In this paper, we confront the theoretical motivations of the consumption of eco-friendly products and the factors influencing the European perceptions regarding the fact that “fish caught using an environmentally friendly technique may carry a special label”. We take advantage of the recent integration of non-economic elements in the microeconomic analysis of consumers' behavior in order to highlight the factors leading to their demand for green products. Thanks to an original European survey on seafood product carried out on more than 5000 consumers, we test the influence of intrinsic motivation, information, localization and socio-economic factors on the demand for an eco-label for fish.Our results show a significant connection between the desire for eco-labeling and seafood features, especially the freshness of the fish, the geographical origin of the fish and the wild vs farmed origin of the fish. Moreover, we prove the major role played by the fish price. We also demonstrate that the ecological issue regarding fisheries is highly connected to consumer information, intrinsic motivation and socio-economic status: the typical “green fish consumer” is a young woman, well educated, well informed on the state of marine resources and not very trusting of the regulation of the fisheries. Consumers who are aware of the importance of marine resource preservation have the same profile.     

Multinational companies, backward linkages, and labour demand elasticities

Abstract .  This paper investigates the link between nationality of ownership and wage elasticities of labour demand at the level of the plant. In particular, we examine whether labour demand in multinationals becomes less elastic with respect to the wage if the plant has backward linkages with the local economy. Our empirical evidence, based on a rich plant level dataset, shows that the extent of local linkages does indeed generally reduce the wage elasticity of labour demand. This result is economically important and holds for a number of different specifications.     

Employment Effects of Product and Process Innovation in Europe

This paper develops a model of the employment impact of innovation considering, on the one hand, the interactions with demand and labour costs and, on the other, the variety of patterns of technological change. Different technological strategies are considered. First, a search for technological competitiveness is based on product innovation and productivity rooted in quality advantages; second a strategy of active price competitiveness has productivity growth rooted in process innovation-based restructuring; third a passive price competitiveness strategy is pursued by non-innovators relying on cost-cutting. The new European innovation database drawn from the Community Innovation Survey 1994-96, merged with structural and macroeconomic data 1994-99 drawn from the OECD are analysed at a sectoral level across eight European countries: Italy, France, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, the UK, and Sweden. The innovation survey data provide information on several quantitative and qualitative aspects of firms' innovative activities. A comparison of the results from the first (1990-92) and second (1994-96) Community innovation survey data is also carried out. The results show that, in the last decade, technological change has had a major impact on employment in manufacturing industry, associated with the dominance of an active price competitiveness strategy.     

促进河北农村富余劳动力就业的对策研究

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