Employment and Labor Laws

Abstract

This article reviews and compares the employment and labor laws of three countries-US, South Africa, and Ghana. The methodology employed is a qualitative review of each countries employment and labor laws that are centered on collective bargaining, employment discrimination and other workplace standards, unemployment compensation, pensions, workplace safety, and workers compensation. Even though, the three countries have laws covering various areas of employer/employee relationships, perusal of the various countries' laws reveals there are considerable differences between the three countries with respect to the importance of labor market institutions and the role they play in determining the terms of employment.     

就业与失业统计指标的国际比较及借鉴

由于我国就业与失业统计数据长期遭到西方许多国家的猜度和质疑,实现我国就业与失业统计指标与国际一致势在必行。通过对部分西方发达国家和我国就业与失业统计指标的系统比较,剖析我国当前就业和失业统计中存在的问题,明确了其中的缺陷和不足,并就我国就业与失业统计指标体系的构建进行了思考。     

Why Does Employment Differ in the Course of Time and Across Nations? An Institutional Answer In The Light of the ‘Regulation’ Theory

The paper argues that contemporary unemployment is related not so much to the short run malfunctioning of the labor market as to the erosion of the growth regime in the post-war period. What most theories attribute to increasing labor market rigidities is in fact closely related to the mismatch between the national institutional forms and the trends associated with a new production paradigm and the transformation of the international regime. Some long run historical analyses inspired by the “regulation” theory are then used in order to interpret the unprecedented pattern of French unemployment. Similarly contemporary international comparisons help to explain why employment performances differ so much in North America, Japan, Continental Europe and Scandinavian countries. Some general objectives for economic policy are then suggested but the general conclusion stresses the obstacles to the transition from one growth regime to another which arise from institutional inertia and complementarity.     

Fair wages, unemployment and technological change in a global economy

This paper analyzes the effects of global and national technological change on employment and relative wages in an integrated two-country world (“Europe” and “America”), where both countries are characterized by equilibrium unemployment due to fair wage constraints. The asymmetry between the countries arises from country-specific preferences towards wage inequality, with Europe's preferences being more egalitarian. Furthermore, we look at integration between this two-country world and a third country (“low-wage south”). We derive an analytical tool, the Virtual Integrated Equilibrium, that allows us to adapt Dixit and Norman's Integrated Equilibrium approach to a situation where both countries have endogenous unemployment levels.     

中韩自由贸易区的建立对中韩两国净出口与就业影响的实证分析

本文主要运用计量经济学的方法就中韩建立自由贸易区对中韩两国净出口与就业的影响进行了实证分析。实证分析主要分三步:第一步,分析了FTA的建立对两国之间净出口的影响;第二步,分析了净出口的变动分别对中韩两国GDP的影响;第三步,分析了两国GDP与失业率之间的关系,从而得出FTA的建立对两国就业的影响。结论为:若在2009年中韩建立自由贸易区,中国对韩国的贸易逆差会减少64.9196亿美元,韩国对中国的贸易顺差会减少64.9196亿美元;自由贸易区的建立会使中国的GDP增加约0.426%,韩国的GDP减少约0.938%;会使中国的失业率下降约0.069%,韩国的失业率上升约0.157%。     

Trade with developing countries and employment in the European Community

The opposition to a liberal stance on imports of manufactures from developing countries is growing as certain specific groups of products made in these countries prove increasingly competitive and the industrialized countries suffer from persistent high unemployment. Model computations for the six most important EC countries reveal however that the imports from developing countries have only a small impact on employment in these economies seen as a whole.     

Explaining National Differences in the Size and Industry Distribution Employment

What forces determine national differences in the size and industry distribution of employment? We stress the role of the economic policy environment as determined by business taxes, employment security laws, credit market regulations, the national pension system, wage-setting institutions and the size of the public sector. We characterize these aspects of the economic environment in Sweden prior to 1990–91 and compare them to the situation in other European countries and the United States. Our characterization and international comparisons show that Swedish policies and institutions strongly disfavored less capital-intensive firms, smaller firms, entry by new firms, and individual and family ownership of business.

We also compile evidence that these forces affect outcomes. Taking the U.S. industry distribution as a benchmark that reflects a comparatively neutral set of policies and institutions, Sweden's employment distribution in the mid-1980s is sharply tilted away from low-wage industries and industries with greater employment shares for smaller firms and establishments. Compared to other European countries, Sweden has an unusually high share of employment in large firms. Furthermore, the Swedish rate of self- employment in the 1970s and 1980s is the lowest among all OECD countries.

The institutional and policy factors emphasized by our study differ greatly across countries. This fact suggests that our approach can be fruitfully applied to other studies of national differences in industry and size structures and their evolution over time. As an example, the tax reform wave of the 1980s – which largely evened out cross-country differences in corporate taxation among OECD countries – offers some basis for projecting a movement towards greater similarity among wealthy countries in the size and industry distribution of employment.

     

Gewerkschaften auf dem Rückzug? Mythen,Fakten und Herausforderungen

A comparison across 20 advanced countries shows that trade union density has fallen in most countries over the last 50 years, with substantial differences between countries. However, unions are not about to vanish everywhere, and some prominent explanations for union decline such as globalization do not hold on closer scrutiny. Current trends that pose serious problems for union membership are demographic change, the declining employment share of the public sector, the rise in atypical employment, and the decline in average firm size. Upholding union presence at the workplace is crucial for keeping and winning members, and union recruiting should focus more on young and atypically employed workers.     

The end of full employment? On economic development in industrialized countries

In view of high and rising jobless rates in the industrialized countries the solution of the unemployment problem becomes a cardinal question for politicians and economists. What factors have determined the unemployment trend since the 1960s and what conclusions can be drawn for employment policy?     

奥肯定律在中国的实证分析——我国经济高增长率与高失业率并存

近些年,中国经济出现了高增长、高失业的态势,由此使得为多数国家所证实的西方的奥肯定律在中国发生了明显的背离。通过运用Eviews软件进行线性回归分析方法,可以看出：中国经济高增长、高失业的态势之所以不符合奥肯定律所揭示的发展规律,其原因主要在于在于中国自身的特殊国情。政府应从国情出发,切实解决好高增长与高失业的矛盾,要发挥好政府的主导作用,采取适当的财政政策和货币政策;将促进就业作为宏观调控的首要目标,加强就业服务和人才培训发展多种就业形式;并在深化企业改革的同时,建立一套完整的失业保障体系。     

Structural Reforms and Labour‐market Outcomes: International Panel‐data Evidence

This paper explores the impact of structural reforms on a comprehensive set of macro‐level labour‐market outcomes, including the unemployment rate, the average wage index, and overall and female employment levels and labour force participation rates. Together, these outcome variables capture the overall health of the labour market and the aggregate welfare of workers. Yet, to our knowledge, there seems to be no other comprehensive empirical investigation in the existing literature of the impact of structural reforms at the cross‐country macro‐level on labour‐market outcomes other than the unemployment rate. After documenting the average trends across countries in the labour‐market outcomes up to 10 years on either side of each country's structural reform year, we run fixed‐effects ordinary least squares and instrumental variables regressions to account for the likely endogeneity of structural reforms to labour‐market outcomes. Overall, the results suggest that structural reforms lead to positive outcomes for labour. Redistributive effects in favour of workers, along the lines of the Stolper‐Samuelson effect, may be at work.     

Entrepreneurial Women and Men: Two Different Species?

The ability of the self-employed to create additional job opportunities is a fundamental concern given the huge increases in public resources targeted at new venture creation in the U.K. and other countries since 1979. This study initially concentrates on identifying differences in the personal and demographic characteristics of women and men in four potential labour market states, namely; unemployment; waged employment; single self-employment, and; job creating self-employment. It then goes on to consider labour market transitions over a four year period between 1991 and 1995. The key findings are firstly that women entrepreneurs are better educated than their male counterparts and secondly that flows into self-employment were considerably higher for men than women. Furthermore, proportionately, three times as many male self-employed in 1991 had gone on to become job creating self-employed by 1995.     

Labour market policies in the western industrialised countries

The longer the high levels of unemployment continue in western countries the greater is the discussion about a policy aimed at reducing unemployment which is independent of general counter-cyclical and growth policies. What type of labour market policy measures have been adopted up to now in these countries?

     

LABOUR SUBSIDIES: A NEW LOOK

This paper reexamines the case for subsidizing employment. One superficially promising approach, based on the idea that government cofinancing of unemployment benefits could induce firms to lay off too many workers in bad times, turns out to be an unsatisfactory argument for employment subsidies when worker-firm contracts are optimal. But efficiency wage explanations for unemployment offer considerable scope for a revenue-neutral combination of a specific labour subsidy and ad valorem wage tax. When pitched low enough, unemployment must fall under a wide set of conditions.     

Equilibrium Unemployment and Endogenous Public Sector Employment

This paper develops a model of the equilibrium rate of unemployment with an endogenous share of public sector employment. We show how various macroeconomic shocks drive up the equilibrium rate of unemployment, accompanied by predictable variations in the public sector share of employment. In particular, under the empirically plausible assumptions that the public sector is relatively labor-intensive and the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor is less than unity, public sector employment is shown to be countercyclical. When the equilibrium unemployment rate rises over a prolonged time period, the public sector share of employment also rises.     

The Effect of Government Spending on the Debt‐to‐GDP Ratio: Some Keynesian Arithmetic

According to the standard approach to the issue of public debt sustainability, fiscal austerity is the route that many countries must currently follow to reduce their debt‐to‐GDP ratios back to sustainable paths. We challenge this conventional wisdom and argue that, below full employment, an increase in government spending may paradoxically reduce the debt‐to‐GDP ratio. This claim is particularly relevant today because with Central Bank interest rates near zero there is no alternative to fiscal policy, and the only argument against increasing government expenditure as a way to fight unemployment is its supposed negative effect on the state of public finances.     

西方失业理论对解决我国大学生就业难问题的启示

西方主要的失业理论包括古典学派的自愿失业理论、凯恩斯学派的非自愿失业理论、新古典综合派的失业理论等。目前我国大学生存在就业难问题,主要原因有劳动力市场和教育体制之间未能有效衔接,以及社会福利和城乡差异等因素。当前在短期内存在大学生就业难的问题,与我国的经济发展阶段相适应。根据西方失业理论,得出解决大学生就业的几点有益启示：合理设置专业和课程,加大农村投入,重视政府在劳动就业中的作用及人力资本投资的重要性。     

Factors Influencing the Choice of Initial Qualifications and Continuing Development in Australia and Britain

This article presents the outcomes of an exploratory study into the factors that influences individuals' choice of different types of qualification at stages throughout their employment history. The survey of individuals in Australia and Britiain sought information on individuals' training and education decisions between school and employment; after gaining employment; and of their future intentions for further study. There were few differences between Australians and British respondents at the school‐leaver stage, but once in work differences emerged between the two countries. Few differences were observed between males and females. Comparison of those opting into academic and vocational programmes indicated that those who choose academic programmes are motivated by a cluster of mainly internal factors while those opting for the vocational route were more likely to have been influenced by their manager and the possibility of funding. Implications for the marketing of qualifications are discussed.     

INTERNATIONAL OUTSOURCING,THE REAL EXCHANGE RATE AND EFFECTIVE DEMAND

We develop a two‐country model of international trade with outsourcing opportunities, and analyze the effects of outsourcing on employment and effective demand under stagnation. Increased outsourcing proves not only to lower employment but also to depreciate the real exchange rate which has the effect of boosting employment. The latter also dominates the former, such that employment and consumption are stimulated. The home and foreign countries respond in opposite ways, however, to the production shift and the real exchange rate adjustment. Furthermore, we find that the effects of outsourcing on consumption are opposite in the presence, and the absence, of unemployment.     

Employment Trends in the Hotel and Catering Industry in Great Britain

As in other service industries, the outstanding feature of recent increases in employment levels in the hotel and catering trades has been the extensive utilisation of part-time labour, accounting for 95 per cent of new jobs between 1971 and 1981. Growth of part-time employment in the industry reflects changes in the patterns of employers' labour demands. The simultaneous growth in unemployment emphasises the permanent role of part-timers in the industry. Reductions in working hours associated with part-time employment provide a means of controlling wage costs, whilst carrying implications for employees' rights and benefits under employment and social welfare legislation.