Wage Differentials in Taiwanese Manufacturing, 1982–1997

The present paper examines the impacts of technological change and trade flows on wage inequality across manufacturing industries. Using micro–level data from the Taiwan Manpower Utilization Survey (TMUS), 1982–1997, a slight decline in the log–wage differential between college and high–school workers is detected during this period. These results indicate that the accelerated growth in the relative supply of college graduates, combined with steady demand growth in favor of more highly educated workers, can largely explain the narrowing wage differentials within Taiwanese manufacturing over the period 1982–1997. In terms of demand–side factors, this study concludes that technology and trade are the two major forces driving the differences in wage inequality across industries.     

The Supply Side of the Race Between Demand and Supply: Policies to Foster Skill in the Modern Economy

In his celebrated book on income inequality, Jan Tinbergen (1975) wrote about the race between demand and supply in determining the evolution of wages and inequality. The demand side of the recent labor market is well understood. Skill-biased technical change favors skilled workers in many different economic environments. The supply side is less well understood. In the Netherlands, until recently, the supply side was winning and the returns to education were declining or stagnant. The exact reasons for this phenomenon are not well understood. Recently, however, there is evidence that suggests that the returns to schooling are increasing and that demand is outstripping supply, as it has done in most developed countries around the world. This has produced rising wage inequality. Unless more active supply side measures are undertaken, this trend is likely to continue. This problem, joined with the persistent problem of immigrant assimilation and the growing role of immigrants in the Dutch economy, renews interest in the supply side of the labor market. This lecture examines the determinants of the supply of skills in the short run and the long run. It examines the roles of short- term credit constraints and long-term family factors in fostering or retarding skill accumulation. It summarizes the evidence on a number of policy proposals to foster skills including early childhood programs, programs to alleviate short-term financial pressure, job training and second chance programs, and tax policies. This lecture stresses the cumulative dynamic nature of skill production and the importance of recognizing that skill begets skill in designing suitable policies to reduce inequality and foster economic growth. While the evidence is based on American data, the lessons are relevant for economies around the world. Specific lessons for the Netherlands are emphasized.     

Race, Inequality, and Anti-Chinese Violence in the Netherlands Indies

Movements in wages for subjects of the Netherlands Indies for the period 1908-1917 are analyzed. The analysis reveals a sharp increase in inequality between the ethnic indigenous and Chinese communities between 1910 and 1916, the period of the birth and rise of the anti-Chinese Sarekat Islam movements in Java. It also reveals that this inequality was most severe in a number of residencies of Java, where the movements first took hold. While there is statistical evidence of a link between interracial wage differentials and anti-Chinese violence, there is no link between absolute wages and violence. This evidence suggests that “relative deprivation” is important in understanding ethnic tension.     

Dutch and Danish agricultural exports during the First World War

Abstract

The Danish agricultural sector continued to maintain agricultural exports to Great Britain during the First World War, even when higher prices ruled on the German market. Dutch agricultural exporters, 011 the other hand. continued to sell to the highest bidder; until, in 1916, British pressure forced them to do otherwise. It was not the Danish government but the Danish cooperatives who were responsible for Danish agricultural export policy, especially in the first years of the war. More than was the case with the Dutch exporters, the Danes were highly dependent on the British market. The strong Danish cooperatives (in contrast to the weaker Dutch agricultural organizations) forced the Danish government to support their strategy in order not to lose their suppliers to the newly establishedfirms who were exporting to Germany.     

Education,globalization and catch-up: Scandinavia in the Swedish mirror

This paper estimates and analyses wage inequality trends in Portugal, from 1944 to 1984, a period that comprises the Estado Novo dictatorship and the first decade after the transition to democracy. Wage inequality is measured by the gap between skilled and unskilled labour, and reveals a downward trend in most of the period in analysis. We provide an explanation for the observed trends by looking at the influence of domestic and international forces on changes in the relative supply and demand of skilled labour. According to our findings, the skill premium declined due to the combined influence of two major forces: an increase in the relative supply of skilled labour due to the mass emigration of unskilled labour, and the decrease in the relative demand for skills, related to trade-induced changes stemming from the country's increasing openness, which followed the country's unskilled labour comparative advantages. Our findings point to the conclusion that the impact of openness on wage inequality is related to the country's relative level of development among its major trading partners.     

The Great Compression of the 1940s: The Public versus the Private Sector

Between 1940 and 1950 wage differentials narrowed substantially, a phenomenon that economic historians have called the “Great Compression.” This paper dis-aggregates the Great Compression into changes within and between the public and private sectors. We show that wage differentials declined in the public sector as well as in the private sector; had the public sector decline not taken place, the Great Compression would have been substantially smaller. In this regard, the experience of the 1940s stands in stark contrast with that of the past two decades, during which a relatively rigid public sector wage structure has dampened overall increases in wage inequality.     

技术与霸权兴衰的关系——国家与市场逻辑的博弈

以技术为主要解释变量,可以从国家逻辑和市场逻辑互动的角度分析技术与霸权兴衰之间的关系。市场寻求财富,国家寻求权力。国家逻辑与市场逻辑之间存在矛盾互动,既有张力也有统一。两种逻辑之间的张力出现于两种情况:其一,技术周期更迭且新技术研发滞后。其二,霸权国比较权力优势下降,安全威胁感上升。为了护持霸权,主导国会基于国家逻辑"校正"市场逻辑。然而,"天平重心"偏向哪种逻辑并不必然决定霸权兴衰的结果。未来高科技领域的竞争会越来越激烈,各国会更加强调加强自主研发能力的重要性。人工智能等新技术将带来诸多新挑战,甚至可能重塑世界格局。大国之间的冲突并无益于问题的解决,只有诉诸国际交流与合作,各国才能共同应对挑战并共享发展与繁荣。     

Free Trade and Wage Inequality in an Advanced Economy

This paper develops a formal model for examining the impact of free trade on the wage inequality in the Northern economy and the sensitivity of wage inequality indices to changes in causal factors within a general equilibrium setting.The model has three types of labor: sector-specific high-skilled, mobile unskilled and immobile unskilled labor. Thus, three types of wage inequality indices are derived. Selected comparative statics for changes in consumer expenditure shares, biased technological changes, changes in relative endowments are provided.     

课程史,学校教育及其现状

介绍了课程作为理论的系统的一门学科的历史。第一部分的内容为:在美国进步教育时期,清教徒认为教育即传教和计算,将课程看作转化条例。第二部分为:跨越大西洋的宗教改革运动为社会教育学和心理教育学奠定了基础。最后探索了数学、文学和音乐教育的形成。这些科目被看作是与社会问题关联的转化条例。与社会史和思想史思路不同,本文考察了沉思和行为产生的实践活动。     

Global Outsourcing and Wage Inequality in Middle-Income Countries: Evidence from South Korea

A substantial number of studies have suggested that global outsourcing can induce wage inequality. As Feenstra and Hanson [(1996a) Foreign investment, outsourcing, and relative wage, in: R. C. Feestra, G. M. Hanson, and D. A. Irwin (Eds.) Political Economy of Trade Policy: Essays in Honor of Jagdish Bhagwati (Cambridge: The MIT Press), pp. 89–127] argued, global outsourcing is comparable to skill-biased technological change in that global outsourcing is more likely to increase the wage of skilled workers rather than their unskilled counterparts. We examine the effects of outsourcing on wage of skilled and unskilled workers in Korea's manufacturing sector with a focus on the dissimilar effects of outsourcing to developed countries (DCs) and less developed countries (LDCs) on relative wage. The results of system and difference GMM estimation based on manufacturing data from 1992 to 2006 indicate that outsourcing to DCs and LDCs have opposite (and significant) effects on relative wage, that is, outsourcing to DCs (LDCs) decreases the wage of skilled (unskilled) workers.     

美国最低工资制度的发展及启示

美国最低工资有联邦与州之分.由于适用普遍性与合理工资水平之间的内在紧张难以消除,最低工资呈向下发展趋势.为了补足最低工资的低水平,20世纪90年代,一些地方政府启动了生活工资立法,形成新的最低工资形式.我国最低工资实施的背景与美国有相似之处,可考虑借鉴其经验,构建多元最低工资结构,这种多元结构应建立在劳动者“参与中心型”的立法机制之上.     

推进产业技术联盟建设提升科技内涵发展质量

建设产业技术联盟对高校的人才培养、科技创新、社会服务具有重要的促进作用.本文结合湖南农业大学科技服务“三农”的实践,针对产业技术联盟建设过程中出现的问题,分析了推进产业技术联盟建设的重要性和紧迫性,并从强化执行力度,提升管理水平,创新体制机制,促进产学研结合等四个方面探讨了推进产业技术联盟建设的策略和措施.