Inefficiencies in the Japanese National Health Insurance system: A stochastic frontier approach

In this study, I examine the cost inefficiency and production inefficiency of municipal insurers operating under the Japanese National Health Insurance system. I employ insurer-level panel data for 2005 and 2010 and adopt stochastic frontier cost and production models to overcome analytical problems encountered in previous studies. The cost frontier estimates indicate that adverse effects on efficiency are associated with aging of the insured population, soft budget constraints due to government subsidies, insurer contributions to the elder care systems, and an increase in care provider densities. A positive effect on efficiency is associated with an expansion in insurer scale. The production frontier estimates suggest that cost inefficiencies decreased by roughly 15 percent between 2005 and 2010. The correlation between cost inefficiency and technical inefficiency is not particularly strong, whereas the correlation between cost inefficiency and allocative inefficiency is strong and positive.     

Relative earnings of husbands and wives in urban China

This paper studies the relative contribution of Chinese husbands and wives to the family income in the process of economic transition. We find that the role of urban husbands as the main financial supporters of their families becomes relatively more important during economic transition. We argue that this trend may have reflected the restoration of the functions of household production and labor market in the process of economic transition. This restoration allows households to allocate time, effort and human capital investment for each household member and for each household and market activity in a more efficient way.     

Gender earnings differentials in LDCs: The case of Pakistan

Atlantic Economic Journal -     

A spatial autoregressive stochastic frontier model for panel data incorporating a model of technical inefficiency

By integrating Battese and Coelli’s (1995) model and the spatial autoregressive model (SAR), a spatial autoregressive stochastic frontier model for panel data is developed. The main feature of this frontier model is a spatial lag term of explained variables and the joint structure of a production possibility frontier with a model of technical inefficiency. The model addresses both spatial dependence and heteroskedastic technical inefficiency. This study applies maximum likelihood methods considering the endogenous spatial lag term. The proposed model nests several existing models. Further, an empirical analysis using data on the Japanese manufacturing industry is conducted and the existing models are tested against the proposed model, which is found to be statistically supported. The findings suggest that estimates in the existing spatial and non-spatial models may exhibit bias because of lack of determinants of technical inefficiency, as well as a spatial lag. This bias also affects the technical efficiency score and its ranking.     

Gender earnings gap among the youth in Malawi

While young women's engagement in economic activities is an essential component of development, gender gaps are still commonly observed worldwide and especially in developing countries like Malawi. This study introduces recent data to provide new evidence for a sub‐Saharan country that has yet been closely examined. Using the International Labour Organization's School‐to‐Work Transition Survey (ILO SWTS) individual‐level data, I examine the gender earnings gap among the youth in Malawi by conducting Mincer earnings regressions with Heckman selection correction and applying Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition methods. I find that young women in Malawi earn significantly less than young men and that women are significantly less likely to engage in income‐generating work activities. Also, substantial unadjusted gender earnings difference in Malawi is overwhelmingly due to differences in returns. Moreover, detailed decomposition results show that gender differences in work‐related individual characteristics and firm characteristics also contribute to the gender earnings gap. The results suggest that any effort to reduce the gender earnings gap should involve improved access to education as well as better workplaces for women.     

Labor productivity and migration in Chinese agriculture A stochastic frontier approach

The authors use a stochastic frontier approach with an endogenous error specification to measure China's agricultural labor requirement. They measure a significant apparent labor surplus, but find that it is correlated with factors that affect the incentives of farmers to leave the land. Thus their findings support the hypothesis that declines in the agricultural labor force are not adequately measured, whereas their surplus estimates are generally consistent with other studies using other approaches. The measured surplus ranges from 35% to 40% of the labor force, with significant differences by region. By 1995, there were perhaps 120 million farmers who were either in fact or potentially better employed elsewhere.     

台湾家庭负债高的原因与影响

台湾家庭负债与GDP的比率居亚洲之首。家庭负债过重,影响着家庭、金融、经济等秩序,反映出台湾贫富两级分化加重。要改变家庭高负债状况,从根本上说,台湾当局必须改变严重扭曲的经济发展路线,让经济成长的成果为全民共享。     

Inequality of opportunity in earnings in rural China

This paper explores the role of ‘inequality of opportunity’ in individual earnings in rural China, which is attributed to ‘circumstantial’ factors over which individuals have no control, including family background, gender, ethnic minority status and region of birth. These circumstances are contrasted with ‘efforts’ or choices that individuals make, which also impact on their individual earnings. Utilising the China Labour-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS) 2014, I measure the share of inequality of opportunity in the overall inequality of individual annual earnings for the entire sample and for each of four ten-year birth cohorts in rural China. The empirical results revealed that the share of inequality of opportunity in individual earnings for the full sample is 20.4% of the GE(0) coefficient. The adoption of machine learning methods provides a wide range of estimates between 16.4% (regression tress) and 25.4% (forests). Across all birth cohorts, gender is consistently the largest single contributor to inequality of opportunity, while family background is relatively more important for younger cohorts. A closer investigation indicates that those who find themselves in the worst circumstances are likely to exert lower level of effort, not because they don’t want to try harder, but because their circumstances prevent them from doing so.     

Migrant farmworker earnings: A human capital approach

Migrant farmworkers are essential to the supply of low-cost agricultural produce. However, employment earnings of this vital labor force are approximately equal to the federal poverty income. This study examines the role of health capital investments in enhancing farmworker productivity and employment earnings. Health capital investments are found to have a larger marginal effect on earnings than other forms of human capital investments, such as education or experience.     

Some evidence on the cohort earnings differentials of men in Japan

This study analyses the cohort earnings differentials of full-time working men in Japan using large micro data on individuals. Log earnings differentials between two cohorts of the same age calculated from 2012 and 2017 surveys reveal a substantial earnings decline for university graduates around age 43 and senior high school graduates around age 38 in 2017. These cohorts experienced a severe deterioration of job opportunities after the bubble burst. The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition shows that the composition effect dominates the wage structure effect. In particular, a shortened length of tenure and a decline in the share of those working in a large firm are the main causes of the earnings gap for senior high school graduates and for university graduates, respectively. While an increase in the proportion of those working in the service sector and a reduced share of regular workers are also important determinants for the earnings differentials for high school graduates, deteriorated opportunities for promotion to supervisory positions play an important role for university graduates. Extending this analysis to a longer time period and estimating the cohort earnings differential equation clarify that the observed stability of cohort earnings differentials for university graduates emerge not only from the importance of firm size differentials in determining their earning differentials, but also from the high stability of firm size differentials between cohorts for university graduates.     

Male–female wage differentials in Japan

This paper empirically analyzes the gender wage gap in Japan using a new data set KHPS2004 which contains a wealth of information on the work history of individuals. KHPS2004 enables us to estimate wage functions without overstating individual’s human capital accumulation by work experience especially for females. Neuman-Oaxaca decomposition method is employed to analyze why the gender wage gap appears to exist in Japan. Main reasons as follows. First, full-time work experience and seniority which affect significantly wages is shorter for females than for males. Second, there are significant differences in evaluation of full-time experience between males and females.     

White/ethnic minority earnings and employment differentials in Britain: evidence from the LFS

It is 20 years since Britain passed legislation to combat racialdiscrimination. Despite this, evidence presented in this papersuggests that Britain's non-white ethnic minorities still donot appear to face a level playing field in the UK labour marketand their relative position does not appear to have improvedsince the 1970s. Native ethnic minorities also appear to befaring little better than their parents. It is in gaining employmentthat the situation is particularly acute.     

Efficiency and technology gap in China's agriculture: A regional meta-frontier analysis

This paper utilizes a unique county-level dataset to examine technical efficiency and technology gap in China's agriculture. We classify the counties into four regions with distinctive levels of economic development, and hence production technologies. A meta-frontier analysis is used. We find that although the eastern counties have the highest efficiency scores with respect to the regional frontier but the northeastern region leads in terms of agricultural production technology nationwide. Meanwhile, the mean efficiency of the northeastern counties is particularly low, suggesting technology and knowledge diffusion within region might help to improve production efficiency and thus agricultural output.     

The impact of the 2007 reforms in China on the quality of earnings

Prior to 2007, in order to encourage international investment, China operated two parallel financial reporting systems, one based on Chinese GAAP for domestic investors and the other based on IFRS for international investors. In 2007, after a series of reforms to harmonise Chinese GAAP with IFRS, this system was replaced by a single set of standards for both classes of investor. We evaluate the impact of this significant change on earnings quality for stocks quoted on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges for the period 2003–2013. Using tests of earnings smoothing and early loss recognition, we identify three key features. Firstly, earnings quality improved consistently over the period. Secondly, prior to the reforms of 2007, IFRS earnings were of superior quality to Chinese GAAP earnings. A third and important finding is that earnings quality under Chinese GAAP after the 2007 reforms is comparable to that under pre-2007 IFRS.     

Female-male earnings differentials in the founder countries of the european economic community: An econometric investigation

Summary In this study an attempt was made to find out whether the female-male earnings differentials in the six founder countries of the EEC were caused by the differences in the work characteristics of the two groups or by a systematic bias against women. In cases where discrimination against women appeared to exist an estimate was made of its degree. It was found that in all countries considered, with the exception of the Netherlands, women had lower average earnings even after standardizing for their different work characteristics. In these countries a substantial part of the female-male earnings differential could not be explained by the differences in the work characteristics of women and could be attributed to other factors, among which sexual prejudice seemed the most likely.     

海峡两岸旅游交流:进程、瓶颈与展望

海峡两岸旅游交流处于一种极度不平衡的状态。迫于民众压力和大陆方面旅游合作的诚意,两岸旅游交流正日益密切,然而台湾观光业过强的政治功能是两岸旅游交流的最大瓶颈。开放大陆民众赴台旅游,加强合作实现双赢是台湾重振观光业的最佳路径。     

闽台港口物流合作研究

在金融危机余波未消及两岸直接三通之际,从闽台两岸港口物流合作的必要性入手,分析闽台两地开展物流合作的基础,并在此基础上探讨闽台两地港口物流合作的基本思路与方案,提出相应的建议与措施。     

Decomposition of the increase in earnings inequality in urban China: A distributional approach

This study examines changes in Chinese urban income distribution from 1987 to 1996 and 1996 to 2004 using nationwide household data and investigates the causes of these changes. The Firpo, Fortin, and Lemieux (2007, 2009) method based on unconditional quantile regressions is used to decompose changes in income distribution and income inequality measures, such as variance and a 10:90 ratio. The decomposition results show that wage structure effects, such as a widening gender earnings gap, increases in returns to college education, and increases in earnings differentials between industries, company ownership types, and regions, have been the major contributors to the overall increases in income inequality. It was also found that at different points on the income distribution (e.g., the lower or upper half), the contributing factors that increase income inequality are different.     

淮安市台商投资影响因素分析及对策研究

就台商在淮安市投资的特点、影响因素以及发展趋势进行了分析。本文认为淮安市目前台商投资呈增长趋势,知名企业不断增加,已经初具集聚态势。分析发现丰富的矿产资源,低廉的劳动成本,初具规模的台资集聚效应,优良的投资环境以及日臻完善的基础设施是淮安市吸引台商的有利条件。淮安市今后引进台资应突出发展高科技和新兴产业并注重现代服务业和高效农业的发展。