Labour Market

The pace of improvement in the labour market has stepped up in recent months in line with the stronger performance of the wider economy. The latest Labour Force Survey data, for the three months to November, showed that the level of employment increased by 280,000 on the quarter, the strongest growth on record, while the unemployment rate fell by 0.5 percentage points over the same period to 7.1%…     

South Africa's Victory Against Capitalism

The South African economy is widely misrepresented, not least by the Western media, as being an oppressive capitalist regime. Walter Williams, Professor of Economics at George Mason University, Virginia, demonstrates how South Africa's economy has been socialist for many decades. What South Africa requires is less socialism, not more.     

The Lessons of Africa's Market Tradition

Africa has a lengthy tradition of markets which could be adapted to provide an indigenous solution to economic conflict in southern Africa. George Ayittey, a Ghanaian economist at present Professor of Economics, University of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, contrasts the 20th-century oppression of black by black with the lessons of history.     

Overeducation in the Labour Market

Abstract.  This paper presents a review of the literature on overeducation. The paper assesses the consistency of overeducation within the context of a number of theoretical frameworks including Human Capital Theory (HCT) and Assignment Theory. The analysis goes on to discuss the various measurement controversies associated with the study of overeducation in order to provide an assessment of the extent to which the impacts of the phenomenon represent an economic reality as opposed to a statistical artefact. After reviewing the literature, it is concluded that the impacts of overeducation are likely to be non‐trivial and that the phenomenon may potentially be costly to individuals and firms, as well as the economy more generally. The existence of overeducation also raises some doubts with respect to the validity of some of the central assumptions and predictions of HCT that are unlikely to be fully explained by gaps in the standard wage equation framework.     

Representation of Developments in Labour Market Research

A knowledge graph is a kind of semantic network representing some scientific theory. The paper describes the state of art in this field and addresses a number of problems that has not been solved yet. These are: implicit relations, strength of (causal) relations, and conditions. Concepts might be too broad or complex to be used properly, directions for solving this problem are explored. The solutions are applied to a knowledge graph in the field of labour markets.     

Distortionary Taxation and Labour Market Performance

Quarterly estimates of consumption, capital and labour tax rates are provided for six major OECD countries. We then use the 'stylized facts' methodology to evaluate the strength, sign and phase of cyclical comovements between tax rates and labour market variables. Labour taxes distort labour market de-cisions and help explain why the unemployment rate is so high in continental Europe. However, labour taxes cannot be the only determinant of diverging unemployment rates since the labour force is also reduced by higher taxes. Finally, we offer some preliminary structural evidence showing employment growth in particular to be negatively related to the taxation of labour.     

On Labour Market Policies and Aggregate Unemployment Outflows

This paper is interested in the modelling of the relationship between active and passive labour market policies and the aggregate unemployment outflow rate. Our model is based on a matching function and includes a simple representation of the competition between various groups of job searchers. The empirical analysis uses Belgian data. Faced with variables that are often integrated of order 1 according to the usual tests but which cannot strictly speaking be integrated, we contribute to an important methodological debate by comparing the conclusions of a classical econometric analysis and a cointegration approach.     

Temporary Separations and Firm Size in the German Labour Market

We estimate the duration of out-of-work periods in the German labour market from 1980–90 and their relationship with employment protection legislation. We distinguish between Employment Interruptions that are legally protected and ordinary Layoffs. We investigate the question of whether the size of employer has an impact on the choice of the type of temporary separation. We find that firm size does matter, in both the type and the duration of temporary separations, and we examine the complex re-hiring process.     

Promotions in the Spanish Labour Market: Differences by Gender

In this paper we compare the professional careers of women and men in the Spanish labour market. We use a sample from the Encuesta de Estructura, Conciencia y Biografia de Clase (1991) to estimate count data models (negative binomial models) to explain the number of promotions received in the firm, for males and females separately. Then, using the estimated coefficients from these models, we apply a variant of Oaxaca's decomposition approach to divide the gap in average promotions by gender into two parts: one of them due to differences in endowments and the other is associated with differences in the 'return' of such as endowments in terms of opportunities of upward mobility. The findings indicate that women receive fewer promotions than men with the same qualifications due to differential treatment in the market.     

Government Employment and Wages and Labour Market Performance

Government wage, benefit, and employment decisions are not taken on a profit-maximizing basis, and have a substantial impact on aggregate labour market performance and unemployment. In a two-sector labour market model with free mobility of labour, an increase in government wages or benefits reduces private sector employment, and government employment is not an effective counter-cyclical instrument. Empirical tests for Greece confirm that the expansion of the public sector in the 1980s contributed to the deterioration of labour market performance.     

On Kin Groups and Wages in the Ghanaian Labour Market

A common feature of African societies is that individuals belong to kin groups which impose reciprocal obligations upon their members. In the modern economy, where large scale production is required, forms must employ multiple kin groups. In such cases kin groups will try to favour their own members in the assignment of good jobs. We analyze the effects of kin group patronage in the modern sector. We set out a model in which kin group favouritism is shown to give rise to a wage premium for the largest kin group. We then use an unusually rich data set from Ghana to test for kin group favouritism, empirically distinguishing it from 'taste for discrimination'. We find that in the private sector there is no evidence for kin group patronage and earning functions (corrected for selection into the various sectors) reveal that workers are paid according to their human capital attributes. By contrast, public sector workers are rewarded for their credentials and membership of the right kin group, not for their productive characteristics. The kin group premium is about 25 percent and is statistically robust to alternative specifications.     

从南非世界杯看中国元素的国际化发展

南非世界杯已经圆满落幕,但是那些在世界杯闪耀的中国元素仍然吸引着全世界的目光。呜呜祖拉、普天同庆、中国英利、哈尔滨啤酒等一系列中国元素弥补了中国队缺席世界杯的遗憾,同时昭示着中国元素的国际化发展。然而,中国元素的世界杯之旅也暴露出诸多问题,优势与弊端并存,机遇与挑战并进,唯有明确意识,深入分析,努力创新,中国元素才不至于成为过眼云烟。     

Are South Africa's cities changing? Indications from the mid‐1990s

Books reviewed in this article: Scott A. Bollens, Urban peace‐building in divided societies: Belfast and Johannesburg Alan Morris, Bleakness and light: inner‐city transition in Hillbrow, Johannesburg Robert Cameron, Democratisation of South African local government: a tale of three cities Susan Parnell, Edgar Pieterse, Mark Swilling and Dominique Wooldridge (eds.), Democratising local government: the South African experiment Grant R. Saff, Changing Cape Town: urban dynamics, policy and planning during the political transition in South Africa     

Transient Jobs and Lifetime Jobs: Dualism in the British Labour Market

How long does a job last in Britain? We find that many workers have very short jobs and many have very long jobs. We estimate that in 1990, 40 percent of men were in jobs that will last 20 years or more. On the other hand, 24 percent were in jobs lasting less than five years. We conclude that the labour market is still capable of offering ‘lifetime jobs’ to many workers. Policy analysis of issues such as reform of the welfare state, pensions, and training should take note that reports of the death of ‘jobs for life’ appear to be exaggerated.