What Do Employers Want？ Views of Chinese and Canadian Job Seekers

I. Introduction Countries differ significantly in culture, and cultural differences affect businesses operation (Hofstede, 1980). East–West cultural differences can lead to confusion and misunderstanding. In order to obtain a better understanding of these issues, many studies have been conducted in the past two decades. In general, Chinese have been found to be more oriented towards collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance than Canadians (Hofstede, 1980, 2001; Ralston et al,…     

What Makes Older Job-Seekers Attractive to Employers?

Using a conjoint analysis with an hypothetical hiring process, in which managers chose repeatedly between two hypothetical candidates for a relevant vacancy, our study confirms that hiring probabilities decline with age, particularly after the age of 58. Several theoretical arguments are given for this, both from the economic and psychological literature. Estimation results point at three important mechanisms that may explain declining hiring probabilities with age: (1) Uncertainty about productivity levels of older job-seekers may cause risk averse employers to chose younger job-seekers with lower, but more certain productivity levels. All factors and policy measures that are informative about productivity levels and reduce uncertainty for employers, also increase the average hiring probability for older job-seekers. (2) Increasing labour costs compared to steady or declining productivity levels of older workers. Some of these costs are determined on a national level, but many are negotiated between employers and employees in central bargaining agreements. Employers themselves therefore have an important key to increase the attractiveness of older job-seekers. (3) Older managers hire more older job-seekers, the same is true for employers with an older workforce. It means that in an ageing society, the hiring probability of older job-seekers will increase, even if no additional policy measures are taken. The effect of this ageing is stronger than any of the policy measures analysed in our study.     

The Impact of Product Market Competition on Employers’ Training Investments. Evidence from German Establishment Panel Data

According to different training theories the sign of the relationship between competition and training is ambiguous. Using a large panel data set of German manufacturing establishments, this paper investigates the impact of product market competition on training incidence and on the share of trained workers. In our empirical analysis, we use three indicators of product market competition which are the Herfindahl index, the number of firms at the 3-digit industry level and the price-cost margin. After controlling for unobserved heterogeneity, there is no statistically significant effect of product market competition on training.     

China’s Corporate Governance and Reforms

I. IntroductionSince 1978, China’s economic reforms have called for an incentive mechanism to beincorporated in the state-owned enterprises (SOEs), while the reforms have demonstratedconsiderable success. In the early 1990s, the Chinese government took further steps andbegan to list SOEs on stock exchanges to raise external capital and improve their efficiency.Corporate governance still remains an important issue in China as shown by the largenumber of corporate failures and scandals in r…     

Wages and Teachers’ Hours of Work

This paper seeks to estimate the effect of teachers net marginal wages on their working hours, on the basis of a survey of Dutch teachers. The resulting uncompensated wage elasticity is significantly positive and has an average value of 0.2 for males and 0.4 for females. However, a general wage increase is a rather costly solution to teacher shortages. Alternatively, working full-time can be made attractive for part-time teachers by providing a premium for full-time teachers. This kind of premium provides part-time teachers with a stronger incentive to work full-time, as the negative income effect does not occur. Simulation results show that such a premium produces an effect that is almost seven times as large as a general wage increase.     

Alesina and the Keynesians: Austerity and Say’s Law

Alberto Alesina’s empirical work has led to re-examination of Keynesian theory and policy. His demonstration that reductions in public spending are often followed by improvements in economic conditions is a direct contradiction of modern macroeconomic theory, where increases in aggregate demand are seen as the most important precondition for recovery even where such increases in demand are unproductive in themselves and largely wasteful. The present paper suggests that the theoretical framework necessary to understand Alesina’s empirical results is embedded within the classical theory of the cycle which argues that only value adding production could lead to recovery. Most importantly, the paper argues that only through a correct understanding of Say’s Law of markets can Alesina’s empirical results be properly understood.     

‘Doing-good’ and ‘doing-well’ in Chinese publicly listed firms

Recently, the presumed benefits of corporate social responsibility have become an important issue, especially for China where institutional settings are quite different from other parts of the world. Using an internationally accepted benchmark (OECD's Principles of Corporate Governance, OECD, 2004), this study constructs a corporate social responsibility (CSR) index to measure the quality of the corporate social responsibility practices of the 100 major Chinese listed firms during 2004–2007. This enables us to evaluate the progress of the corporate social responsibility practices of Chinese firms. The results show that Chinese companies have been making progress in their corporate social responsibility practices. The findings also show that market rewards Chinese firms for improving their corporate governance practices which implies ‘doing-good’ leads to ‘doing-well’ in the equity market in China. We also find that overseas-listed and more profitable Chinese firms have better improvement in CSR practice. This study has policy implications in pushing for further CSR initiatives in other emerging markets.     

Intoxicants and the invention of ‘consumption’

In 1600 the word ‘consumption’ was a term of medical pathology describing the ‘wasting, petrification of things’. By 1700 it was also a term of economic discourse: ‘In commodities, the value rises as its quantity is less and vent greater, which depends upon it being preferred in its consumption’. The article traces the emergence of this key category of economic analysis to debates over the economy in the 1620s and subsequent disputes over the excise tax, showing how ‘consumption’ was an early term in the developing lexicon of political economy. In so doing the article demonstrates the important role of ‘intoxicants’—that is, addictive and intoxicating commodities like alcohols and tobaccos—in shaping these early meanings and uses of ‘consumption’. It outlines the discursive importance of intoxicants, both as the foci for discussions of ‘superfluous’ and ‘necessary’ consumption and the target of legislation on consumption. It argues that while these discussions had an ideological dimension, or dimensions, they were also responses to material increases in the volume and diversity of intoxicants in early seventeenth-century England. By way of conclusion the article suggests the significance of the Low Countries as a point of reference for English writers, as well as a more capacious and semantically sensitive approach to changes in early modern consumption practices.     

Technical change and the ‘technology’ myth

Abstract

In recent years, historians and other English-speaking commentators on technical change and technical functions have often chosen to discuss these matters under the heading ‘technology’. Thus, there have been discussions about such matters as ‘echnological innovation’, ‘technological invention’, and even ‘the imperatives of technology’, ‘the technostructure’ and ‘technological drivenness’.¹ One economist with a special interest in historical matters, Kuznets, has virtually defined a separable condition of ‘modernity’ as the era of ‘technology’ — ‘The epochal innovation that distinguishes the modern economic epoch is the extended application of science to problems of economic production’ alternatively, it is ‘the utilization of a potential provided by modern technology’. An economic historian (Musson) has it that ‘applied science is … the major force behind modern economic growth’. And a prominent historian of the so-called ‘technology’, Forbes, has argued that in ‘our modern world both technology and engineering are branches of applied science’.²     

Labor market institutions and firms’ location choices

The paper evaluates the empirical effects of labor market institutions (LMI) on foreign direct investment (FDI) decisions using an individual dataset describing French firms’ expansion strategies in OECD countries over 1992–2002. First, we provide evidence that labor market institutions do matter in location decisions. Precisely, we show that labor market rigidity significantly reduces the country’s attractiveness for foreign investors. Yet, the effect is of limited magnitude compared to FDI determinants related to the country’s market potential or supply access. Second, we go deeper in the precise role of various LMI dimensions. In line with the literature, we find that stringent employment protection laws have a dampening effect on the location probability. Besides, we show that this is not the only dimension that matters. In particular, we find that the generosity of the unemployment benefit system plays a significant negative role on the country’s attractiveness, even once the role of employment protection is controlled for.     

Renminbi internationalisation and China’s financial development

There is a widespread view that China’s currency can be used in international markets only after the liberalisation of China’s domestic financial markets and the opening of its capital account. Yet evidently the renminbi’s internationalisation is preceding these so-called preconditions. This article assesses the tensions inherent in renminbi internationalisation starting at a transitional period in China’s financial development. For now, effective capital controls allow the Chinese authorities to retain regulated deposit and lending rates, quantitative credit guidance and bond market rationing. Relaxation of the capital controls would put these policies at risk. Reserve requirements can be extended to bank inflows from the offshore market but only at a price.     

Race: China’s Question and Problem

Race poses a challenge to the ruling Communist Party of China. Contemporary news reports about China’s relationship with various African states warn of a reestablishment of 19th century colonial relations, with China standing in the shoes of England or France. When indictments of neo-colonialism are promoted, China recalls a historical brotherhood with African states under the banner of Third World solidarity. This paper attempts to shed light on both sides of this argument, demonstrating that for China, the issue of race in foreign relations poses both a question of motives and a problem of national identity.     

Examining employment discrimination in South Africa, 1997–2016

This study examines employment discrimination by race and gender in 1997–2016 by employing a sample that represents the labour force (excluding informal sector workers, agricultural workers, domestic workers, self-employed and employers) aged between 15 and 65 years. Probit models are conducted to estimate labour force participation, employment and occupational attainment likelihoods. This is followed by the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition, and the results indicate that the unexplained component of the white–African employment probability gap reveals a downward trend in absolute terms in 2002–2014, but in relative terms it still accounts for about 50% of the gap in 2016. The unexplained component is most dominant in the male–female employment gap decomposition. While these results suggest that employment discrimination (unexplained component) against Africans and females remains serious, the improvement of education and skills level of the workseekers (explained component) from the previously disadvantaged groups remain crucial to improve their employment prospects.     

Are Television Ratings of Baseball’s and Football’s Mega-Events Declining?

Atlantic Economic Journal -     

Russia’s energy systems: Opportunities and prospects

The paper considers macroeconomic forecasts of the performance of Russia’s Fuel and Energy Complex (FEC) up to 2030–2040 based on projections of economic development (worked out at the Institute of Economic Forecasting, Russian Academy of Sciences), predictive assessments of the economic aspects of the production of major fuel types, Russia’s involvement in meeting the world’s demand for oil and gas, and the progress in the development of new energy sources. It is demonstrated that, according to the expected demand for energy carriers and the proposed changes in the FEC structure and technological base, carbon dioxide emissions by FEC facilities in the considered term will not exceed the 1990 level recorded in the Kyoto Protocol. It is shown that the annual volume of investment in the energy industry by 2030 should be at least double the level of the 2000–2010 requirements and by 2040 it is expected to increase by another 15–20%.     

Global financial crisis and China’s pawnbroking industry

In most countries, pawnbroking is an intermediate financial instrument to help private households or individuals meet their short-term and urgent consumption needs. In China, due to market imperfection and institutional discrimination against the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by commercial banks and other formal financial institutions, pawnbroking has been used as a supplementary financing source for SMEs and private entrepreneurs when they cannot get access to bank credits or other financial sources such as usury (underground money shops). This paper uses first-hand survey data in 2009 in Zhejiang Province, China’s pioneering region for pawn business, and secondary data for the whole country during 2004–12, to understand the special characteristics of the pawnbroking industry and explain why it has become a viable and useful financing instrument in China. It also explains the puzzle of a serious setback and widespread losses in the industry during the world financial crisis. A corporate financing model of SMEs is developed to explain the substitution relationship between formal bank credits and pawnbroking. It suggests that the stimulus plan implemented by the central government of China during the global financial crisis reduced the borrowing cost and lowered the access barrier of bank credits to SMEs, leading to a temporary setback of an otherwise rapidly growing pawnbroking business in 2008 and 2009. However, as quantitative easing is gradually phased out after the global financial crisis, pawnbroking activities recover rapidly, implying that the industry will continue to play an important role in China’s economic development given its current financial system which is still unfriendly to the SME sector.