The determinants of marital happiness

This study contributes to the literature by providing an empirical analysis of the determinants of marital and general happiness. The empirical analysis is conducted using US data from the General Social Survey (GSS) and an Ordered Probit Model. We also attempt to overcome the endogeneity problem between marital happiness and infidelity using a recursive bivariate probit model. One of the advances of this study is to show that the determinants of marital happiness differ between men and women in interesting ways. While infidelity has similar effects for both sexes, we find that women have a detectable preference for a traditional division of labour within the household. In addition, social class, religion, age, children and income have differential effects between men and women. In particular, for marital happiness we find diminishing returns from household income for women and satiation for men. Hence, we find that most of the existing literature has left hidden important differences in the determinants of marital happiness between men and women.     

The division of labour and market structure

Most firms produce most of the time under conditions of substantial economies of scale. The division of labour, according to Adam Smith the mainspring of wealth, is intrinsically an economies of scale phenomenon. Market structure in most industries in characterized by a small number of suppliers and a larger number of customers. I explain this law of small numbers as the equilibrium of two forces: the deconcentration effect of imitation and the market spliting effect of further refinements in the division of labour by innovation. A deconcentrated market creates larger incentives for market splitting (product differentiation) by innovation than a concentrated market. But market splitting raises concentration in the market and it raises the number of different markets in the economy. Before the economies of scale of old products are fully exploited, new products are being offered which again are produced under conditions of economies of scale.     

The impact of work-limiting disabilities on earnings and income mobility

This article uses the 1968–2007 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to examine how work-limiting disabilities influence the intragenerational earnings and income mobility of individuals. The results show that work-limiting disabilities increase the probability of downward mobility for several years after onset. Furthermore, the probability of being in the bottom portions of the distributions increases significantly, not only during the year of onset but also for at least 10 years afterwards. These results are more pronounced for those individuals suffering from a disability that is more chronic or severe in nature. Income from spousal earnings and government transfer payments offers some protection against disability’s adverse effect, with more protection being provided to those who are more chronically disabled.     

Capital structure and value of reported earnings: evidence from an emerging market

This article documents a nonlinear impact of capital structure on the value of reported earnings in India during the period between 2009 and 2015. Our results show that earnings reported by firms with moderate level of debt are more valuable than earnings reported by firms with low or high level of debt. Our results are robust across various proxies of capital structure and across various sub-samples. This article argues that moderate level of debt is associated with low-agency problems, while low and high level of debt is synonymous to high-agency problems. Differences in agency problems result in reported earnings that have very different levels of relevance.     

The impact of health on wages: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey

While income is generally considered an important determinant of health, little evidence has been offered on the reverse relationship, particularly for developed economies. This paper considers the effect of self-assessed general and psychological health on hourly wages using longitudinal data from six waves of the British Household Panel Survey. We employ single equation fixed effects and random effects instrumental variable estimators suggested by Hausman and Taylor (1981), Amemiya and MaCurdy (1986), and Breusch, Mizon and Schmidt (1989). Our results show that reduced psychological health reduces the hourly wage for males, while excellent self-assessed health increases the hourly wage for females. We also find the health variables to be positively correlated with the time-invariant individual effect. Further, we confirm the findings of previous work which suggested that the majority of the efficiency gains from the use of the instrumental variables estimators fall on the time-invariant endogenous variables, in our case academic attainment, and add further support to the hypothesis of a negative correlation between educational attainment and individual characteristics which affect wages. First version received: January 2000/Final version received: October 2000     

The impact of economic and monetary uncertainty on the demand for money in emerging economies

By introducing uncertainty, monetary volatility and economic volatility are said to make the public cautious, hence increase their cash holdings or their demand for money. On the other hand, because of monetary and economic uncertainty if the public seek safer assets than money, they may hold less cash. In the absence of any paper testing for the impact of economic and monetary uncertainty on the demand for money in emerging economies, this article fills the gap by considering the experiences of six Central and Eastern European emerging economies and four other emerging economies. We found that the impact is transitory in most countries. Moreover, money demand is found correctly specified and stable in most countries, suggesting that policy based on monetary targeting could still be effective despite significant output and monetary uncertainty.     

The impact of private vs. public ownership on the level and structure of employment

We examine the effects of private vs. public ownership on the level and structure of employment using uncommonly rich data on the population of Portuguese firms from 1991 to 2009. We find that private ownership is associated with sizeable job losses. This occurs whether we consider privatizations or nationalizations, and the relationship tends to be stronger in the presence of foreign capital. We also find some evidence that private ownership is associated with higher skill utilization, particularly following privatizations and when foreign investment is present. The estimated job losses associated with private ownership are consistent with a theory in which the shift in ownership increases the degree of profit orientation and leads to lower job security.     

The impact of job mobility on earnings growth of migrant workers in urban China

Using survey data on migrant workers in urban China, this paper carries out a positive study on the impact of inner-industrial and inter-industrial job shifts on earnings growth of migrant workers. Results show that low human capital, low employment grades and low income are the most important reasons for migrant workers to switch jobs. The migrant workers who are young, unmarried new entrants with low level of education, no training and low income tend to change their jobs within the industry. And those who have high income and who find their jobs by themselves are more likely to switch jobs inter-industrially. Inner-industrial job switches have a significant positive impact on earnings growth of low-income migrant workers and a significant negative one on that of high-income migrant workers. Moreover, inter-industrial shifts have a significant negative impact on earnings growth of migrant workers of all income levels. The inner cause for the positive effect of inner-industrial shifts lie in the fact that the cumulative effect of years of service within enterprises is not obvious while continuing engagement in the same type of job within an industry will lead to accumulation of qualifications, which has a significant augmentation effect on earnings of migrant workers.     

论杭州湾大通道与北仑深水港建设对宁波市经济发展的影响

杭州湾大通道与北仑深水港两项巨型交通基础设施工程均地处宁波，且互为配套，是国家大力实施沿海经济发展战略的重大部署与关键举措。杭州湾大通道与北仑深水港的建成，将有力地推动宁波市整个基础设施的建设，大大优化投资环境，提升区位优势，吸引国内外产业资源，尤其是国际资本、国际先进技术、国际信息和国际人力资本等资源向宁波市的新一轮更大规模、更快节奏和更高层次的集聚。这种产业资源的集聚将通过产业结构高速的作用机制－－结构效益、基础效益和联动效益，促进宁波市第二产业的升级、第三产业的的发展和第一产业的转型，从而对宁波市产业结构的优化升级和经济的可持续发展产生积极和深远的影响。     

The impact of the Paasche-Laspeyres choice upon econometric results

Does it make any difference to econometric results whether ones uses the Laspeyres or Paasche index? In general, the divergence between these two is small, suggesting that index choice makes little difference to econometric results. We estimate 72 Malthusian models and because the Paasche and Laspeyres indices we use show below average divergence, these reslts should be conservative. We find that parameters differ substantially, that parameter signs can be reversed, thatr ²s change markedly and that hypothesis test results are reversed. These findings indicate the importance of estimating exact indices.     

The impact of China's millennium labour restructuring program on firm performance and employee earnings1

Around the turn of the century, China experienced perhaps the largest labour restructuring program in the world. This paper uses a new dataset of Chinese industrial enterprises to examine what leads to downsizing, and tries to understand the effects of labour downsizing on firms’ technical efficiency, financial performance and employee wages. We find that downsizing is more prevalent in state‐owned enterprises (SOEs), and is more likely when enterprises are older, larger and have higher excess capacity. For both SOEs and private firms, downsizing is more likely when the prices of their products drop, but private firms respond more dramatically. Moreover, downsizing has serious short‐term costs in terms of total factor productivity (TFP). For mild downsizing, private firms suffer more deterioration in productivity. The distribution of surplus after downsizing is more favourable to labour in SOEs. For severe downsizing, both SOEs and private firms exhibit lower TFP growth with similar magnitudes. Our findings imply that private firms emphasize profit goals, while SOEs place a greater weight on labour protection.     

Formal and real ownership structure of the Polish economy: state-owned versus state-controlled enterprises

This article analyses the difference between the state’s formal and real shares in the Polish economy. We identify two basic types of corporate control exercised by the state over enterprises through ownership (in the case of majority ownership) and non-ownership tools (in the case of minority ownership). Consequently, we distinguish between two types of state enterprises: state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and state-controlled enterprises (SCEs). In post-communist economies, SCEs mainly originate from so-called reluctant privatisation, in which the transfer of ownership rights takes place without the appropriate transfer of control rights. We discuss the tools of non-ownership control used by the state. Our estimates of the real share of state enterprises in the Polish economy (which include both SOEs and SCEs) show that it is almost two times higher than the formal share (only SOEs). The share of state enterprises is also highest in the group of Poland’s largest and most important firms. We conclude that the real importance of state enterprises in the Polish economy is much higher than might be expected if only the formal share of state ownership is taken into account.     

The impact of dual network structure on firm performance: the moderating effect of innovation strategy

ABSTRACT

Firm innovation is embedded in a collaboration network among researchers and a knowledge network composed of knowledge elements; the two networks are decoupled. Guided by social network theory, this study puts forward the definition and the classification of firm dual network structure, probes into the influence of dual network structure on firm performance, and explores the alignment between innovation strategy and firm dual network structure. We conduct an empirical study of 183 listed companies in China from 2004 to 2018. It is found that the four types of dual network structure all have positive impacts on firm performance, and the impact of a collaboration network is slightly higher than that of a knowledge network. Besides, innovation strategy plays a positive moderating role in the relationship between dual network structure and firm performance. Our findings provide new ideas for firms to identify and optimise knowledge and collaboration network structures and match them with innovation strategy to improve performance.     

河北省服务业发展现状与结构特征分析

河北省地处环京津、环渤海经济开发区,由于天然的地理优势和良好的经济基础,其正在成为21世纪华北地区产业链向纵深化拓展的重要载体。本文主要分析了河北省服务业的总体发展现状,以及行业结构和就业结构的特征,指出了河北省服务业在进行结构升级时应注意的一些问题,从而为提升河北省服务业竞争力、优化河北省产业结构提供借鉴。     

The impact of financial liberalization on capital structure adjustment in Pakistan: a doubly censored modelling

The purpose of the study is to explain adjustment rate towards target capital structure of Pakistani nonfinancial listed firms and to investigate the impact of financial liberalization (FL) on capital structure adjustment rate. We control for the unobserved heterogeneity and the fractional nature of adjustment rate by applying an unbiased dynamic panel fractional estimator on an unbalanced panel data of Pakistani nonfinancial firms listed during 1972–2010. We find that these firms adjust at an annual rate of 24–51% to reach their capital structure targets. We argue that in order to optimize the benefits of FL the government should strengthen financial as well as judicial institutions to enforce the creditors’ rights that will enable access to more options to Pakistani firms to raise cheaper external financing.     

The effects of agglomeration economies on technical efficiency of manufacturing firms: evidence from Indonesia

This article examines the effects of agglomeration economies and industrial structure upon firm-level technical efficiency in the Indonesian manufacturing industry over the period 2004–2009. A stochastic production frontier and three channels of agglomeration economies consisting of specialization, diversity and competition are used. The empirical results show that the effects of specialization and diversity upon firm-level technical efficiency are positive and negative, respectively, indicating that specialization is more favourable than diversity for stimulating firms’ technical efficiency. Competition has a positive sign, showing that region with high levels of competition tend to be more conducive in accelerating firm-level technical efficiency. In terms of firm location, both dummy for urban region and industrial complex turn out to be positive, indicating that firms located in both areas are experienced higher technical efficiency. Both firm size and age also have positive effect upon technical efficiency.     

The impact of job mobility on earnings: using occupational and industrial classifications to identify job changes

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median number of years that a US worker has been with their current employer is 4.4 years. Although many job changes may not be classified as ‘career changes,’ any type of job change may have an impact on a person’s future earnings. In the present study, the following three types of job changes are examined in order to determine which ones result in higher incomes: a change in occupational status; a change in industry; or a change in both. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), a log-linear wage regression with a correction for self-selection is estimated. Results suggest that changing jobs within the same industry or within the same occupation both increase a person’s income. However, a job change that is characterized by both a change in industry and occupation reduces a person’s income. The present study is one of the few studies to examine the effects of job mobility on earnings when mobility is defined in the context of changes in occupational and/or industrial classification.     

The changing role of education in the distribution of earnings and household income

This article draws on income surveys from the last two decades to report on trends in earnings disparities and household income inequality in the Czech Republic. Education has been the main axis of change in this area, having acquired a much greater role in the entire process of collecting and distributing income. First, an increasing influence of education is evident in the personal earnings of employees, returns to education having doubled. Second, in couples, education has an important impact on both women’s employment and their earnings. Third, the importance of marital partners’ education levels on household income grew even more than its effect on earnings.     

The impact of universal child benefits on family health and behaviours

In 2006, the Universal Child Care Benefit was introduced in Canada for all children aged less than 6 years. This program aims to help cover the cost of children and to provide financial assistance to families with young children in their choice of childcare. We exploit this policy change to estimate the effects of unconditional family cash transfers on the health and behaviours of two-parent families and their children. Using a difference-in-differences model, we find no evidence that the program improved child and parental outcomes in aggregate. A modest but fragile beneficial effect is found for low-education families and for girls.     

征税成本领先性假设与中国税务组织结构优化——兼析中国国税、地税机构是否存在合并趋势

本文从征税成本领先性假设出发探讨了中国税务组织结构的优化问题 ,并分析了社会各界广泛关注的中国国税、地税机构是否存在合并趋势的问题。本文在对中国现行税务组织机构运行绩效考察的基础上 ,发现中国征税成本曲线呈抛物线状 ,表明中国征税成本正呈递减趋势。以此为出发点 ,本文详细论证了中国国税、地税机构不存在合并的趋势 ,相反 ,分设更为彻底却是今后的发展趋势 ,得出了与一般看法不同的结论 ,并对优化中国税务组织结构提出了政策建议