Human resource management,trade unions and empowerment: two cases from India

This paper discusses the introduction of schemes aimed at employee empowerment within a context of strong industrial relations in India. The pressure put on profit margins by a competitive business environment is forcing an increasing number of Indian enterprises to view employee empowerment as a serious strategic option. Getting workers to take responsibility for shop-floor decisions over quality, safety, productivity and material use appears, at first sight, an alluring prospect. It would seem that men and women at the bottom of the pyramid cannot but be warmly appreciative of power-sharing arrangements from which they have something to gain, but there are forces at work which can actively obstruct or quietly subvert attempts at redistributing power. In this paper the focus is on some of the motives a trade union might have to do so.     

Democracy and trade unions*

In the context of the current debate over the Government's proposals to regulate by statute the internal democratic arrangements of trade unions, this article examines the origins of the debate, the case for legislative intervention, the actual proposals and their wider implications.     

Trade Creation and Trade Diversion

SUMMARY

In this paper we raise questions regarding the appropriateness of the traditional gravity model for evaluating the existence of trade creation and trade diversion in the context of regional trade arrangements. We demonstrate that existing methods fail to separate multilateral and allocation effects, and are therefore unable to say anything useful about either. Further, we point out that omitted variables-perennially unobservables-further contribute to the contamination of the results. Bearing these criticisms in mind, we provide a new methodology for assessing the effect of preferential trading arrangements on the trade volumes, and hence, the welfare of member and non-member countries. We offer a test that separates these effects, and employ it in an assessment of the EC. We find that the allocation effects of the EC caused 5 of its 11 members to divert trade toward bloc members, and 2 of its members to divert trade away from the EC. We also find that the EC increased multilateral trade for both members and non-members.     

测度中国与G-7的双边贸易成本——一个改进引力模型方法的应用

传统引力模型方法在测度贸易成本时,由于缺乏微观理论基础,往往事前假定贸易成本的构成并且忽略多边阻力的影响而广受批评。基于一个融入双边冰山型贸易成本的多边一般均衡贸易模型,本文采用的改进引力模型能够弥补上述缺陷。运用该模型我们综合测度了1980~2006年中国与G-7各国关税等价的双边贸易成本。结果表明,中国与这些国家关税等价的贸易成本都已经低于50%,与1980年相比,到2006年平均下降幅度高达30%,并且在入世以后呈现加速下降的趋势。这充分说明近30年来,中国的对外开放程度不断提升,正加速融入全球经济一体化之中。     

Democracy, autocracy and the likelihood of international conflict

This is a game-theoretic analysis of the link between regime type and international conflict. Democratic leaders can credibly be punished for bad conflict outcomes, whereas autocratic leaders cannot. Due to the fear of being thrown out of office, democratic leaders are (i) more selective about the wars they initiate and (ii) on average win more of the wars they start. Foreign policy behaviour is found to display strategic complementarities. Therefore, the likelihood of interstate war is lowest in the democratic dyad (pair), highest in the autocratic dyad with the mixed dyad in between. The results are consistent with empirical findings.     

北京与上海:国际服务贸易发展比较研究

在比较分析北京和上海服务贸易发展现状的基础上,指出两地在服务贸易发展环境、总量水平和结构布局方面都具有共同特征,但基于不同的城市性质和功能定位以及不同的经济发展环境和条件,两地服务贸易发展也存在一定的差异。因此,今后两地在保持已有发展优势的同时,应根据自身发展目标定位和产业基础,在服务贸易支持、贸易促进和战略规划方面充分挖掘新的服务贸易增长点。     

中国劳务输出对进出口贸易影响的实证分析

本文采用修正的贸易引力模型,应用中国与175个国家(地区)1995~2004年的面板数据,就中国劳务输出对进出口贸易的影响进行实证分析。对样本总体的回归结果表明,我国对外劳务输出与出口之间存在互补关系,劳务输出能够带动出口增加;而劳务输出对进口没有明显影响,二者之间呈现不显著的替代关系。对样本国家(地区)按区域和收入分组的回归结果与对样本总体的回归结果基本一致:我国对大多数国家(地区)的劳务输出与出口之间存在正相关关系,特别是外派劳务最为集中的东亚和南亚,劳务输出对出口有着明显的拉动作用;在进口方面,除拉美和加勒比海国家外,对其余各组国家(地区)的劳务输出与进口之间均为负相关关系,而这种关系通常不显著。     

On the distributional effects of trade policy: Dynamics of household saving and asset prices

This paper studies the effect of trade liberalization on inequality. We develop a theoretical framework that generates economy-wide distributions of wealth and income for different levels of trade protection. The model unambiguously determines the effect of liberalization on inequality; and rationalizes why larger inequality can be the outcome of a welfare enhancing policy, as households reduce their buffer savings when liberalization lowers the price of food. The framework reconciles the increase in inequality, the fall in the value of land, and farmers’ opposition to freer trade, that have featured in different liberalization episodes. We also present empirical support for the model’s predictions.     

Globalization and trade union strategy: industrial restructuring and human resource management in the international civil aviation industry

For trade unions, the central problematic of globalization is the growing disparity between the mobility of capital and labour. The ability of capital to operate on a trans-national basis is widely perceived to have precipitated a process of cost cutting as international companies seek to cut workers' remuneration and other conditions of employment. However, systematic empirical evidence on the impact of globalization on human resource management is hard to find, as is any assessment of the differential impact of globalization on different occupational groups or the response of trade unions to any deterioration in their members' terms and conditions of employment. Focusing on the international civil aviation industry, we examine the effects of globalization on human resource management and the national and international strategies developed by organized labour in response. Although the evidence suggests that there is indeed a concerted effort by major airlines to cut costs, trade unions have been able to retard the pace of change and effectively defend the interests of some occupational groups. Moreover, the future course of globalization will be contested through new international strategies and repertoires of collective action developed by the trade union movement.     

中国与金砖国家间农产品贸易成本弹性测度与分析

本文在Novy(2013)超越对数引力模型基础上把国内民主化程度作为政治因素从出口国和进口国两条路径引入该模型对其进行改进,并利用改进后的模型对中国与金砖国家部分农产品贸易成本弹性分别进行测度。结果显示中国与金砖国家农产品贸易成本弹性均为正,中国与金砖国家通过降低贸易成本均可提高贸易量。然而中国出口与进口贸易成本弹性差值均为负,中国总体不具有相对优势。从细分产品结构来看,中国可以优先考虑本国优势产品,重点在优势产品领域积极推进贸易自由化和便利化。中国与金砖国家存在产业内贸易潜力较大产品,中国可以与金砖国家在不同层次加深农业分工与合作,分散中国农产品贸易风险,实现对外贸易多元化和可持续发展。     

The political economy of international trade and factor mobility

Abstract. Free trade in goods and factors is efficient. When we move away from economic theory and consider the policies actually followed by governments, we observe distortions being implemented both on goods and factors trades. It is natural then to question the relative merits of the two types of intervention, and the normative literature has provided only partial answers. We ask then why is the international flow of goods and factors not free, and the political economy literature has looked at the two issues only separately. In studying the determination of trade policy, a theoretical paradigm has emerged, focusing on the role of influence driven contributions. This approach has also found strong empirical support. The literature on the political economy of factor mobility, on the other hand, is fragmented. Distortions in labor and capital flows are typically the subject of different studies, and only recently a unified framework has been proposed. More work has to be done in this area as well as in integrating the political economy of trade and factor movements.     

Local trade networks and spatially persistent unemployment

This paper studies the effects of local trade networks on the spatial distribution of employment in a model that allows for effective demand externalities as well as home bias. It is shown that, if labor can be hired in continuous quantities, then the long run spatial distribution of employment is uniform, and independent of any trade network topology. When labor has binary support, however, local trade networks are found to generate spatial unemployment clusters which can persist indefinitely.     

中国与中东欧各国进口贸易的潜力分析——基于时变随机前沿引力模型的实证研究

运用时变随机前沿引力模型,基于2011—2018年中国与中东欧17国的进口贸易数据测度进口贸易潜力、技术效率及其影响因素。实证结果表明:中国与中东欧国家进口的贸易潜力较大,且不同国家之间呈现较大的不均衡性,波黑、克罗地亚、黑山可挖掘的进口潜力较大,匈牙利、保加利亚、斯洛伐克和波兰的进口效率较高。从影响因素看,中东欧国家的供给能力、中国的市场规模、“17+1”合作机制等因素推动了进口贸易的发展,而中国的供给能力、中东欧国家的市场规模、文化距离等因素对进口贸易有阻碍作用。经济自由度、基础设施质量、中欧班列等构成了影响进口效率的重要因素。     

中国双边金融服务贸易出口潜力及贸易壁垒研究

本文利用OECD数据,基于扩展的引力模型拟合了一个\"典型\"经济体(包括中国)双边金融服务的出口流量方程,并在此基础上对中国双边金融服务贸易的出口潜力及贸易壁垒等问题进行了研究。结果发现:进出口双方的GDP、双边距离、进出口双方的经济自由度及是否使用共同语言会对中国双边金融服务出口产生显著的影响;中国对主要的金融服务出口市场(包括中国香港、美国、卢森堡等)普遍贸易过度,而对小型的出口市场则普遍贸易不足;中国双边金融服务出口贸易过度的经济体,贸易壁垒水平较低,而贸易不足的经济体,贸易壁垒水平则相对较高。     

Autocorrelation of the trade process: Evidence from the Helsinki Stock Exchange

This study investigates how duration-based trading intensity modifies the first-order autocorrelation and the transitory variance of the trade process. Because prices are conditional expected values, a structural model in which the trade duration represents the rate at which prices incorporate new information is developed. This refined model is an extension of the one developed by Madhavan, Richardson, and Roomans (1997) and allows parameters characterizing the arrival rate of new information to be derived. Testing this model with data from the Helsinki Stock Exchange, I was able to determine that a model ignoring trading intensity effects on price changes would underestimate the transitory effects of the trade process. This finding suggests that trade duration captures neglected elements of implicit trading costs that increase with market microstructure effects.     

Repatriation of European female corporate executives: an empirical study

The increased internationalization of business in recent years has made the understanding of international human resource management problems more important for executives in multinational companies. In recent years, researchers have paid considerable attention to the issues of adjustment of managers to international assignments. Interestingly, comparatively little research has been undertaken on the topic of repatriation, i.e. re-entry and readjustment of international managers and their families to their home countries. Despite the growth of women in international management there are very few studies that document the repatriation experiences of female international managers. In particular, very few studies have been conducted outside North America on the topic of repatriation of female corporate executives. This paper reports on the experiences of re-entry to home organizations and home countries by an exclusively senior sample of female international managers in Western Europe. Based on extensive empirical research, the findings establish that the repatriation phase of the international career move may be even more stressful than expatriation. The findings also establish that female international managers experience more difficulties than their male counterparts because of their pioneering roles. Finally, the paper suggests that home-based mentors and access to networks while abroad are important factors in contributing to the successful repatriation of international managers. The research findings make a theoretical contribution, not only to the analysis of gender and international human resource management but, also, to wider debates within the contemporary women in management and career theory literatures.     

Using nonparametric methods in social surveys: an empirical study

The most common form of data for socio-economic studies comes from survey sampling. Often the designs of such surveys are complex and use stratification as a method for selecting sample units. A parametric regression model is widely employed for the analysis of such survey data. However the use of a parametric model to represent the relationship between the variables can be inappropriate. A natural alternative is to adopt a nonparametric approach. In this article we address the problem of estimating the finite population mean under stratified sampling. A new stratified estimator based on nonparametric regression is proposed for stratification with proportional allocation, optimum allocation and post-stratification. We focus on an educational and labor-related context with natural populations to test the proposed nonparametric method. Simulated populations have also been considered to evaluate the practical performance of the proposed method.     

The effect of trade and FDI on inter-industry wage differentials: The case of Mexico

Taking advantage of the liberalization process under NAFTA, this paper assesses the relative importance of the degree of trade openness and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in explaining inter-industry wage differentials for the case of Mexico. Using INEGI's National Survey of Urban Employment for the period 1994–2004, the empirical analysis is conducted on two stages. In the first stage, individual wages are regressed on worker characteristics, job and firm attributes, informality and a set of federal entity and industry indicators. In the second stage, inter-industry wage differentials (derived from the coefficient estimates of the industry indicators) are regressed on trade and FDI variables. The main findings show that trade openness does not have a statistically significant effect on inter-industry wage differentials, whereas for the case of FDI, a positive nonlinear relationship is found to exist.     

Turnover propensity and its causes among Singapore nurses: an empirical study

Nurse turnover has been a serious challenge to the efficiency and effectiveness of any health-care delivery system. Various antecedents of turnover are examined in this study in attempt to identify the most critical causes of the problem. One hundred and eighty nurses from a large hospital in Singapore participated in the survey. The results show that a) stress strikes throughout different stages in turnover development; b) professional commitment is a significant cause of turnover cognition, but not turnover intention; and c) organizational commitment and supervision satisfaction are among the top predictors of turnover intention. These results deviated from the apprehension of many health administrators about the causes of the nursing turnover, thus provided clues as to how to mitigate the problem. And, as they were compatible with the results of studies on Canadian and American nurses, these results contributed to the empirical generalization process. The implication of the findings is discussed in the paper.