The Evolution of Individual Male Earnings in Great Britain: 1975–95

I study the dynamic structure of male wages in Great Britain using the New Earnings Survey Panel from 1975–95. Computing auto-covariances of individual wages by cohort I find evidence of a permanent component of earnings that increases over the life cycle and a highly persistent, serially correlated transitory component. In addition, the estimated variances of both these components have risen over this period, each explaining about half the rise in inequality. Using individual's occupation at age 22, I split the sample into four skill groups. I find some differences across these groups, with the rise in the permanent variance most important for the manual groups.     

监理工程师的职业道德

随着中国建设监理制的进一步推行实施,监理工程师对建筑工程的重要作用与影响越来越受到重视。监理人员为业主提供高水平服务,除了专业业务要求精、综合能力要求强之外,其职业道德素养的要求应有更高标准。正视监理工程师在工作中职业道德存在问题,并寻求解决方法提高工程师职业道德,已成为摆在众人面前不容忽视的重要课题。     

Explaining the Growth of Divorce in Great Britain

This paper tests whether the liberalisation of divorce law or economic factors can explain the post-war growth of divorce rates in Great Britain. Timing differences regarding the dates of legal innovations in England & Wales relative to Scotland are exploited to test for divorce law effects. No effect on marital dissolution of extending the grounds for the divorce can be detected, though other innovations in family law have had a powerful but generally temporary impact on divorce rates via their effect on transaction costs and settlement rules. Economic theory suggests that rising relative wages of women have reduced the gains from remaining married by inter alia diminishing the benefits of household specialisation and that rising real earnings of women have increased post divorce welfare by providing a measure of financial independence. The results are consistent with the real, but not the relative, wage hypothesis.     

The learning economy and embodied knowledge flows in Great Britain

This paper examines the `learning economy' from the perspective of occupational characteristics and changes in the British labour market between 1980 and 1992. Following a discussion of the learning and knowledge economy, cross-sectional employment data are analysed to ascertain which occupations can be classified as knowledge-based. Longitudinal career history data are then used to trace the flows of these `knowledge workers' over time. Sectoral shifts are examined, with a particular focus on the knowledge-intensive service sectors. The data come from the Employment in Britain survey: a large-scale employee survey from 1992. The approach used allows us to measure somewhat intangible aspects of economic behaviour such as learning and tacit knowledge and attempt to trace their flows. Shifts in knowledge from the manufacturing to the service sector are shown to be important and related to previous work which demonstrated the importance of knowledge intensive business services for both output and productivity in manufacturing.     

Ethnic Differences in the Incidence and Determinants of Employer-funded Training in Britain

Non-white full-time employees were offered, and undertook, less training than whites in Britain in 1993–4, according to data from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey. Estimates of the determinants of training outcomes and training offers show a marked consistency across white and non-white, male and female, employees. Over 90% of the average predicted training outcome differential, and 50%–60% of the difference in mean predicted training offers, cannot be explained by differences in observable characteristics between white and non-white employees. These findings suggest that equal opportunities legislation has been unsuccessful in eliminating unequal access to employer-funded training in Britain.     

财务分析师盈余预测精确度决定因素的实证分析

文章以2004~2005年的上市公司数据为样本,分析了我国财务分析师在预测上市公司未来盈余时影响其预测精确度的主要因素。研究发现,预测机构数量的增加、盈余可预测性以及信息披露质量的提高,将伴随着高的盈余预测精确度,而盈余波动程度越大、公司规模越大,预测的精确度则越低。同时,可预测性、盈余管理、盈余波动以及公司扩张速度对分析师的悲观预测有显著的影响,而可预测性、盈余管理以及公司规模则显著影响分析师对盈余的乐观估计。     

Exploring The Determinants Of Unhappiness For Ethnic Minority Men In Britain

This paper explores the determinants of unhappiness for ethnic minority men living in Britain, and compares these findings with those for White males. Data is drawn from the Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities conducted in 1994, which has the advantage of over–sampling members of Britain's ethnic minority population. Using this unique data source we are able to provide some of the first evidence of the psychological impact of unemployment, low levels of household income, residing in an ethnic enclave and living in fear of racial harassment for Black Caribbean and South Asian men.     

Headship rates and the household formation process in Great Britain

This paper looks at the changes in headship rates in Great Britain over the period 1960–1979, and attempts to explain them in terms of economic variables, such as real income and the real cost of housing. Such variables are found to be significant for some household types, but not for others. Notably, young single person household formation appears to be more supply constrained and to respond to appropriate supply variables.

Finally, some comparisons are made with similar studies done on similar data from the USA and France. These studies reeal a number of features in common, but also some differences, and these are commented upon.     

Housing Subsidies and Work Incentives in Great Britain

The relationship between housing costs, wages and transfer programmes is complex yet helps determine the incentive to work for individuals in low income or high housing cost households. We estimate a static discrete choice labour supply model that allows for housing benefit programme participation, using samples of married women and unmarried women drawn from Great Britain Family Resources Surveys 1994/5–97/8. We find women are quite responsive to labour supply incentives and that housing benefit income has similar incentive effects to earned income which suggests any 'stigma' is small. Our analysis is complemented by simulating housing benefit and direct rent subsidy reforms.     

Headship rates and the household formation process in Great Britain

"This paper looks at the changes in headship rates in Great Britain over the period 1960-1979, and attempts to explain them in terms of economic variables, such as real income and the real cost of housing. Such variables are found to be significant for some household types, but not for others. Notably, young single person household formation appears to be more supply constrained and to respond to appropriate supply variables." Furthermore, "some comparisons are made with similar studies done on similar data from the USA and France. These studies reveal a number of features in common, but also some differences, and these are commented upon."     

The Extent of Collective Bargaining and Workplace Representation: Transitions between States and their Determinants. A Comparative Analysis of Germany and Great Britain

The institutions of collective bargaining and worker representation are eroding in many nations, not least in Germany and Britain. This is the first article to explore transitions into and out of these arrangements. Using successive waves of the German IAB Establishment Panel and both cross‐sectional and panel components of the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey for the period 1998–2004, we find industrial relations are in flux, with many workplaces switching into and out of collective bargaining and other agencies of worker representation, respectively, works councils in Germany and joint consultative committees in Britain. Yet although there are some commonalities in behaviour, the driving forces behind the decline in collective bargaining differ markedly in the two countries.     

Establishment Level Earnings,Technology And The Growth Of Inequality: Evidence From Britain

It is often argued that technical change is responsible for the increase in wage inequality in Britain and the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. In this paper we examine this argument using data from individuals and establishments. It is found that the presence of micro-electronic technologies in workplaces is associated with higher earnings, especially for skilled workers. Decompositions suggest that technical change could have been a cause of the increase in skills premium for highly skilled workers. Nevertheless, our view is that the correlation between wages and plant-level technology is mainly driven by the effect of high wages on the propensity to introduce new technologies rather than vice versa. This view is supported by simultaneous models of the wage-technology relationship.     

英国刑法对隐私权的保护及其评析

隐私权是现代社会最重要的新兴基本人权之一,英国是普通法系的代表性国家,但长期以来英国法律不承认独立的隐私权,因此造成英国隐私权法律制度发展严重滞后。英国在隐私权刑法保护方面不但条文稀少,且相对零散,难以对隐私法益形成有效保护。但英国隐私权刑法保护并非一无是处,英国刑法独特的责任制度和刑罚制度在对隐私权刑法保护中别具一格,值得予以高度评价和特别关注。     

Deregulation of the labor market and chances of employment in Great Britain

This paper examines labor market mobility from an historical perspective, using the United Kingdom as a case study. Movements into and out of employment are related to the institutional developments of the last two decades. In Great Britain, the dynamics of transitions in the labor market have increased over the last two decades, but individual path dependency, that is, the transmission of risks along the life course, seems to have decreased. Women in particular have benefitted from a more flexible labor market while men's employment opportunities have decreased. Employment has also been increasingly tied to economic development.     

The amenity value of woodland in Great Britain: A comparison of economic estimates

Forests produce benefits over and above the revenue yielded from timber and other wood based products. Most important among these may be the recreational benefits for visitors, which have been examined in several studies. Total benefits for residents are perhaps more accurately captured in property values since, ceteris paribus, the price of a house reflects willingness to pay to live near an environmental amenity such as a forest to gain access to it, and also the amenity (non-use) value of the forest in so far as it creates a pleasant landscape. However, the total non-priced value of forestry is not the sum of HPM and ITCM benefit estimates. Recreational benefits will typically be less, and will be subsumed in the HPM estimates, since the hedonic price is partly induced by the value of recreational access.     

The behaviour of unemployment and unfilled vacancies in Great Britain: a search-turnover View

Previous empirical estimates of the relationship between unemployment and unfilled vacancies in Great Britain have been obtained from a mis-specified model. In particular, past studies have attempted to estimate an equilibrium relation directly from observations which have in general been generated from disequilibrium states of the labour market. This paper presents and estimates a disequilibrium, job search-labour turnover model of the labour market, using quarterly British data, from which a static equilibrium ‘UV’ relationship can be derived. The empirical results suggest that there is no statistically significant equilibrium relationship between unemployment and vacancies in Great Britain. Consquently, the recent controversy over explanations for alleged for alleged shifts in this relationship may have been ‘much ado about nothing’.     

The Pre-programme Earnings Dip and the Determinants of Participation in a Social Programme. Implications for Simple Programme Evaluation Strategies

The key to estimating the impact of a programme is constructing the counterfactual outcome representing what would have happened in its absence. This problem becomes more complicated when agents, such as individuals, firms or local governments, self-select into the programme rather than being exogenously assigned to it. This paper uses data from a major social experiment to identify what would have happened to the earnings of self-selected participants in a job training programme had they not participated in it. We investigate the implications of these earnings patterns for the validity of widely-used before-after and difference-in-differences estimators.