Adult labour market implications of antisocial behaviour in childhood and adolescence: findings from a UK longitudinal study

While antisocial behaviour in younger age groups is largely viewed as a public externality issue, there are also reasons for expecting less favourable life-course outcomes for those individuals who follow antisocial developmental pathways. Data from a UK longitudinal study of delinquent development in a cohort of working class boys are used to model the adult labour market implications of different antisocial developmental pathways to age 32. A series of probit estimations suggests that children identified as troublesome by peers and teachers at an early age, and who subsequently engaged in delinquent behaviour throughout their adolescence, had a significantly higher probability of experiencing long periods of time out of the workforce prior to age 32 and lengthy periods of unemployment and/or low paid work at both age 18 and at age 32. A Heckman selectivity model estimated on weekly earnings at age 32 does not provide evidence that antisocial development in children and adolescents is associated with a lower wage. However, the findings from a two-part model suggest that antisocial boys will have significantly lower levels of expected earnings from employment at 32 years––an effect that is almost entirely the result of lower rates of workforce participation. While a full causal, structural model of labour outcomes is not developed, there is tentative evidence that relatively poor employment outcomes for antisocial boys are mediated through poor educational attainment at secondary school and higher rates of criminal conviction in early adulthood.     

Foreign trade and its impact on employment: The Mexican case

This paper discusses the relationship between foreign trade and employment in a small open economy, and carries out some empirical work using Mexican data. It is argued that employment multipliers are not stable if intermediate inputs are imported. Actual employment multipliers will be given by the relationship between effective demand and installed capacity in each sector, and will depend strongly on whether quotas or tariffs are in operation. It is also found that Mexican exports are capital intensive relative to its imports.     

The impact of recent mental health changes on employment: new evidence from longitudinal data

This study uses longitudinal data and four different measures of mental health to tease out the impact of psychiatric disorder onsets and recoveries on employment outcomes. Results suggest that developing a mental health problem leads to a significant increase in the probability of transitioning to non-employment, while a recovery increases the probability of return to work among the not employed with a mental health problem. No consistent effect was found on hours worked and earnings. Research and policy attention is needed with respect to early interventions such as job retention programmes to help workers with mental health problems remain employed as well as interventions that may lead to recovery and return to work. More research is needed especially with data and models that can differentiate between the effects of mental health onsets and recoveries on employment exit and return to work transitions.     

Intermarriage and the Intergenerational Transmission of Ethnic Identity and Human Capital for Mexican Americans

We investigate whether selective intermarriage and endogenous ethnic identification interact to hide some of the intergenerational progress achieved by the Mexican-origin population in the United States. In part, we do this by comparing an "objective" indicator of Mexican descent (based on the countries of birth of the respondent and his parents and grandparents) with the standard "subjective" measure of Mexican self-identification (based on the respondent's answer to the Hispanic origin question). For third-generation Mexican-American youth, we show that ethnic attrition is substantial and could produce significant downward bias in standard measures of attainment which rely on ethnic self-identification.     

Shirking and employment protection legislation: Evidence from a natural experiment

The Italian employment protection legislation was modified in 1990 making more costly for small firms to dismiss employees. Using a difference-in-differences estimator to compare absenteeism rates in small and large firms we find a strong increase of shirking in small firms.     

A bivariate probit approach to the determination of employment: a study of teen employment differentials in Los Angeles County

Following a bivariate probit approach and using the 1990 Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) for Los Angeles County, this study shows that the employment of teenage workers depends on both the worker's participation decision as well as the employer's hiring decision. Omission of the role of participation decision from the estimation of employment probability yields misleading evidence of hiring discrimination against Blacks. This evidence, however, disappears when the participation and hiring equations are estimated jointly in a bivariate framework. The study finds no evidence of discrimination against females and Latinos. In addition, the study shows that family, household and neighbourhood characteristics play significant roles in the determination of teen employment.     

Firm age and liquidity ratio as predictors of firm growth: evidence from Indian firms

The result of the study shows that liquidity ratio and firm age increases the probability of firm becoming high growth or low growth. However, the result indicates that the chances of being high-growth firm are higher for young firms. Quantile results show that the coefficient of liquidity ratio switches from negative in lower quantiles to become positive in upper quantile with the strong positive effect and firm age coefficients are largest in the lower quantiles. These results also confirm the probit result as per which firm age is negatively significant with the growth of the firm. The present study considers an innovative approach that considers balance sheet issued the year prior to the observation of rapid growth as predictors of firm growth (similar to the credit scoring models, i.e. the Z-score model, to measure the probability of default).     

Later is better: mobile phone ownership and child academic development,evidence from a longitudinal study

ABSTRACT

Digital technologies have become an increasingly prominent feature of children’s lives both within and outside educational environments (McCoy, Quail, and Smyth 2012. Influences on 9-Year-Olds’ Learning: Home, School and Community. Dublin: Department of Children and Youth Affairs). Despite considerable media debate, we have little robust evidence on the impact of technology use on children’s development, both academically and socially. Much of the literature in this area relies on small-scale cross-sectional studies. Using longitudinal data on 8500 9-year-old children in Ireland, we examine the influence of early mobile phone ownership on children’s performance in reading and maths between 9 and 13 years of age. Across both reading and maths domains, children who already report owning a phone by the age of nine fare less well in terms of their academic development as they move into adolescence. The measured effects are sizeable, implying about 4 percentile lower ranking on standardised tests for an average student. Our results are consistent with the idea that there may be significant educational costs arising from early mobile phone use by children. Parents and policymakers should consider whether the benefits of phone availability for children are sufficiently large to justify such costs. We suggest a range of direct and indirect cognitive effects that could help explain these results.     

非农就业比率与城市化水平关系的比较研究

随着工业化程度的提高,产业就业人口逐步从第一产业转移到第二、第三产业。图1是从1952年开始,中国产业就业结构比率在工业化过程中的变化状况,分别表示第一、二、三产业就业人口占总从业人口的比率。从图1可以看出,第二、第三产业就业比率从1962年开始逐年上升,特别是第三产业就业比率,在90年代中期开始超过了第二产业就业比率。与此同时,第一产业的从业比率逐年稳步下降,三个产业就业比率呈楔型快速缩小。     

Technological capabilities accumulation and internationalization strategies of Mexican biotech firms: a multi case study from agro-food & pharma industries

ABSTRACT

In this paper our aim is to analyze the relationship between technological capabilities accumulation of Mexican biotech firms and their different types of internationalization strategies. Because of the determining effect of firms’ capital investment level, we analyzed three groups of firms: start-ups, small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) and multinational firms (MNEs). We made use of a wide range of information: The First Survey of Biotechnology Development Firms in Mexico, the systematization of 20 case studies, interviews with key persons in the industry and public sources. We confirmed the two hypotheses outlined: (i) TCA process does not follow a linear path in Mexican biotech firms and (ii) firms with lower capital investment levels exhibit a lower level of TCA and less complex internationalization strategies; while firms with higher capital investment levels are associated with higher TCA levels and more complex internationalization strategies. Biotechnology requires high levels of capital investment and these to a large extent determine the development and technological capabilities accumulation. Therefore, we suggest that a capitalization program is much needed to foster Mexican biotech firms’ TCA processes and develop internationalization strategies.     

ICT and employment generation: evidence from Turkish manufacturing

This study is said to be the first attempt in exploring the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) capital on employment generation/destruction in Turkish manufacturing industry by using labour demand estimation framework. The analysis is based on firm-level data, which includes all firms employing 20 or more employees in Turkish manufacturing for the period 2003–2013. Our findings based on system GMM estimations show that ICT has employment-enhancing effects in Turkish manufacturing. Moreover, our results provide the evidence that tangible ICT capital has stronger employment generation impact than that of intangible ICT capital in medium- and low-tech industries.     

The size of public employment: An empirical study

Previous empirical studies of government have focused primarily on aggregate financial measures of size. This analysis examines a different measure: the share of public employment in total employment. In empirical tests on OECD countries for 1970 and 1980, the level of public employment is shown to be a clear reflection of voter demand for public goods, electoral support for socialist parties, and political response to the problems of unemployment. In contrast, variables that measure characteristics of the political process, such as degree of government decentralization, strength of interest groups, and voter participation in elections, are not statistically significant.     

Reparations for African‐Americans as a Transfer Problem: A Cautionary Tale

We examine how different methods of reparations payments to African‐Americans affect both the black and nonblack populations of the United States using the framework of the transfer‐problem from international trade theory as a theoretical foundation. We find that reparations payments that provide incentives for blacks to use the payment toward purchases of goods and services produced by nonblacks might expand the income gap. Also a reparations payment in the absence of productive capacity owned by blacks is found to have no final positive impact on black income. These results indicate that a reparations payment strategy must be carefully and cautiously conceived in order to achieve the desired effects.     

The employment elasticity in manufacturing: a rejoinder

The trend in the share of wages is one of the factors affectingemployment elasticity over a specified period of time. Thereare alternative ways of dealing with this trend in a decompositionequation. The method suggested in Mazumdar (2003) might be preferredbecause it yields additional information.     

Coaching and the supply of hope:The Economics of commitment and a case study of supported employment services

Coaching and hope are related to supported employment provision.     

A study on the role of guanxi in entrepreneurship and employment

This paper examines the role of guanxi in influencing the decision of an individual to be an entrepreneur facing a risky technology or to become a worker facing an unemployment rate. Individuals are assumed to vary in terms of the strength of their established guanxi that could be utilized either to lower the set-up cost as entrepreneurs or to secure jobs as workers. Compared with the case where guanxi can only be used to reduce the individual's set-up cost to become an entrepreneur, it is shown that if guanxi can also help a worker find a job, then whether the employment rate might be improved or worsened will depend on the absolute risk aversion that is increasing or decreasing in income.