Does family planning help the employment of women? The case of India

This paper gives some insight into the existence of a positive effect of family planning programmes on women's employment in developing countries. We study married women aged 15–49 living throughout India using a sample drawn from the National Health Family Survey (NFHS-2) for 1998–1999. We focus on a programme of doorstep services delivered by health or family planning (FP) workers who are sent to visit women in their assigned areas. Results derived from the estimation of fixed effect linear probability and conditional logit models show a positive and significant correlation of the share of women living in a local area (village, town or city) that has been visited by FP workers with the probability of women's employment. A multinomial analysis also shows that the largest positive effect of FP in rural India is to be found on paid work, as opposed to unpaid work, suggesting a potential empowering feedback of demographic measures through labour earnings.     

The growth in U.S. male earnings inequality Changing wage rates or working time?

Increasing earnings inequality among working-age males since the early 1970s has been documented in several studies, some of which have also apportioned the change due to the inequality in wage rates and working time. This study presents an alternative decomposition using earnings capacity and earnings capacity utilization. We find that increases in the inequality of working time accounts for at least 30 percent and perhaps, as much as 60 percent of the increase in earnings inequality. We also show the sensitivity of measures of earnings inequality and its determinants to the exclusion of jobless males from the estimation.     

Pay as incentive or pay as reward? The case of Taiwan

By the 1980s, Taiwan had gradually transformed itself from an economy in which labor was plentiful, while capital was in short supply, into an economy in which a surplus of capital was accompanied by a shortage of labor. For labor economists interested in rapidly evolving labor markets, there are many intriguing questions arising out of this transition. This study explores how conventional labor market and efficiency wage theories apply during this transformation. Based on monthly data over the period 1982–2007, we examine the linear causality between pay and productivity using Geweke's [Geweke, J. (1982). Measurement of linear dependence and feedback between multiple time series. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 77, 304–313] linear feedback technique. The results indicate that both pay as reward and pay as incentive behaviors are significant in the Taiwanese economy, with pay as incentive especially strong in the manufacturing sector.     

Re-examination of wage, employment, and hours adjustments: what is crucial for differences in the adjustments?

Manufacturing wage, employment, and hours adjustments are significantly different among developed countries, typically between Japan and the US. The problem of explaining the differences is closely related to that of what effect the extent of wage flexibility has on labor market adjustments. However, prevailing theories are invalid or incomplete for explaining the differences. The differences in the adjustments cannot be unrelated with institutional features of the labor market. Indeed, the extent of wage flexibility depends on the differences in the institutional features. Using a new model with such an idea, this paper theoretically re-examines the cause of the differences in the adjustments. The crucial causes are the characteristics of wage flexibility as well as the differences of the institutional features. The characteristics are that wage adjustment is discontinuous, infrequent, and has a lower limit in comparison with changes in demand.     

Job satisfaction and relative income in economic transition: Status or signal?: The case of urban China

We use two datasets for urban China to examine whether an increase in reference group income lowers or increases job satisfaction. The former is consistent with a status effect — an increase in the income of others lowers my satisfaction because I feel jealous. The latter is consistent with a signal effect — an increase in the income of others might make me jealous, but it also provides an information signal about my future prospects. When we use a single item indicator of job satisfaction we find no support for a status or signal effect; however, when we use a psychometrically valid instrument to measure job satisfaction, we find some support for the existence of a status effect. We consider the components of job satisfaction through which the status effect operates. We find that the status effect operates through satisfaction with co-workers, operating procedures, pay and supervision.     

Do labour market institutions matter? Micro-level wage effects of international outsourcing in three European countries

This paper studies the impact of outsourcing on individual wages in three European countries with markedly different labour market institutions: Germany, the UK and Denmark. To do so we use individual-level data sets for the three countries and construct comparable measures of outsourcing at the industry level, distinguishing outsourcing by broad region. We discuss some possible intuitive reasons for why there may be differences in the impact of outsourcing across the three countries, based on labour market institutions.     

Is the development of the agro-processing industry pro-poor?: The case of Thailand

We examine how the development of the agro-processing industry contributed to poverty reduction in Thailand. The effects on farmers’ income are emphasized because most of the poor in Thailand are farmers. The development of the agro-processing industry could improve farmers’ income through two channels: (i) the purchase of agricultural products; and (ii) the employment of the poor farmers at factories. We show that the development of the agro-processing industry, which also played a leading role in the high economic growth of the Thai economy, contributed to poverty reduction through both of the two channels. It was hence pro-poor.     

The gender wage gap in Myanmar: Adding insult to injury?

Using two surveys from 2017, we analyze the gender wage gap for urban workers in Myanmar. We start from a standard wage equation and condition on education, experience, health and a small set of household demographic attributes. Subsequently we control for differences in occupational choice and sector of employment. We estimate the models with sample selection correction and this leads to estimated average wage offers that are lower than the observed average wages for women. Selection into wage work results in a workforce where female wage-workers have higher levels of education compared to their male counterparts. However, average wages for female workers continue to be 29% lower than male average wages. Differences in observable attributes do not account for this gap. Instead, it is associated with a lower base wage and lower remuneration of women’s experience. Going beyond the traditional decomposition methods, we utilize our matched employer–employee survey to generate exact comparisons of female and male production workers with equal levels of education and experience, employed in the same enterprises. Even in this setting, we find a gender wage gap of 13%. Our analysis thus indicates discrimination against women in Myanmar’s labor markets.     

Are multinationals exporting jobs? The case of Taiwan

Does offshore production always result in job exportation? Using firm‐level data for Taiwanese multinationals that allow us to avoid reverse causality issues, this paper finds that while increasing offshore production has a negative impact on the demand for domestic manufacturing workers, this is not the case for domestic research and development workers who are often more skilled. The results also suggest that for Taiwan, there is geographical fragmentation of production activities in such a way that more skilled jobs are maintained domestically and less‐skilled jobs are exported to other developing countries. These findings confirm the prediction of the knowledge‐capital model.     

What affects intranational price dispersion?: The case of Japanese gasoline prices

The empirical analysis on price dispersion, as described by [Engel, C., Rogers, J.H., 1996. How wide is the Border? American Economic Review 86, 1112–1125], is to investigate the determinants of international relative price fluctuations. Using data from the Japanese gasoline industry, we investigate the implications of the market structure for intranational price dispersion. Our empirical results suggest that: (1) in conformity with the double marginalization model, the dispersion of the wholesale gasoline price is affected by the relative retailer’s margin and (2) the dispersion of the retail gasoline margin is influenced by the degree of competition and advertising. Considering these results synthetically, the retail price dispersion is amplified by the retail market structure both directly and indirectly.     

The nature and causes of intra-industry trade: Back to the comparative advantage explanation? The case of Spain

The Nature and Causes of Intra-Industry Trade: Back to the Comparative Advantage Explanations? The Case of Spain. — The aim of this paper is to contribute empirically to the knowledge of the nature and causes of intra-industry trade (IIT), distinguishing between vertical and horizontal IIT. To this end, we estimate a more general empirical model than those used in previous studies, by introducing simultaneously both national and industry-specific variables which include measures for human and technological capital endowments. The results show that vertical IIT is positively related to industry technological intensity and differences in human and technological capital endowments between countries. On the other hand, horizontal IIT is explained by the traditional monopolistic competition model.     

The determinants of increasing equity market comovement: economic or financial integration?

This paper investigates to what extent the substantial increase in exposures of local European equity market returns to global shocks is mainly due to a convergence in cash flows (“economic integration”), to a convergence in discount rates (“financial integration”), or to both. We find that this increased exposure is nearly entirely due to increasing discount-rate betas. This finding is robust to alternative ways of calculating discount-rate and cash-flow shocks.     

Market wage or discrimination? The remuneration of male and female wool spinners in the seventeenth‐century Dutch Republic1

In the historical debate, the gender wage gap is usually attributed either to productivity differences or to gender discrimination. By analysing a newly constructed series of spinning wages in the seventeenth‐century Dutch Republic, the wages of male and female textile workers for the same work could be investigated. At first sight, the evidence on equal piece rates for spinning men and women seems to rule out wage discrimination. Nevertheless, more deeply rooted gender discrimination resulting from the segmented seventeenth‐century labour market restricted women's access to many professions. Exactly this segmentation determined differences in wage earning capacities between men and women.     

Does an upper limit on foreign direct investment matter?: The case of Taiwan

In this paper, we present a partial least squares (PLS) path model developed to investigate foreign direct investment (FDI) by Taiwan in China. The main purpose of the study is to answer the question, “Has the Taiwanese government's upper limit on investments interfered with Taiwanese firms’ decisions about whether to undertake FDI in China?” The question was answered by testing six hypotheses derived from the model. Using data on Taiwanese manufacturing firms from the Integrated Circuit industry for the years 1998–2007, we found no significant evidence supporting the effectiveness of the upper limit. The most influential of the model's five determinants of Taiwan's FDI in China are factors specific to individual firms. The second most influential is the macroeconomic environment of the host country. Previous studies have paid little attention to the parent country when analyzing FDI, a deficiency we remedied in the present study. Our study reflects an integrated perspective on the FDI literature by including the host country, the parent country, and firm-specific factors as determinants of FDI.     

From financial repression to financial crisis? The case of China

This study explores the connections between financial repression policies and the possibility of financial crisis, a relationship that has been overlooked in previous literature. We focus on China, a country with one of the highest levels of financial repression in the world. China's case shows that when financial repression is maintained at a modest level, as the government did before 2008, the possibility of a financial crisis is low; however, when financial repression policies are pushed to an excessive level, as the government did after 2008, the national asset‐liability structure may be damaged to such an extent that a financial crisis becomes likely. The key to understanding the changing role of China's financial repression policies lies in the survival strategy of the Chinese party‐state, which regards finance as a powerful weapon and is eager to use it to address certain economic, political, or social problems that may endanger its rule.     

The role of migration in regional wage convergence: Evidence from Sweden 1860–1940

Sweden experienced a decline in inter-county real wage differentials for agricultural workers between 1860 and 1940, historical evidence of early labor market integration well before widespread unionization in agriculture occurred. By means of dynamic panel data analysis, this paper examines whether internal and external migrations caused real wage beta convergence across Swedish counties. To account for statistical problems such as endogeneity of migration, time-invariant county characteristics and autocorrelation in the regression model, we adjust our estimates using fixed effects, instrumental variables and GMM. The preferred model shows that both internal and external migrations contributed to wage convergence before the First World War and internal migration mainly during the interwar years. The agglomeration effects of urbanization were not sufficiently pervasive to offset the labor supply effects of internal and external migrations.     

China’s expansion of higher education: The labour market consequences of a supply shock

In the decade 1998–2008 China expanded enrolment in higher education almost six-fold. For the examination of its short term labour market consequences, this unprecedentedly huge and sudden policy change might be regarded as a natural experiment. After providing a theoretical framework for analysis, the paper uses urban labour market surveys to analyse how the labour market adjusted to the supply shock. Three outcomes are examined: the effect of the expansion on wages, on unemployment, and on access to ‘good jobs’. The shock is found to reduce relative wages, raise the unemployment rate, and reduce the proportion in good jobs, but only for the entry-year or entry-period cohort of graduates. The effect is fairly powerful for entrants, especially university rather than college graduates, but incumbent graduates are largely protected from the supply shock. An attempt is made to examine the labour market effects of the quantitative expansion on educational quality. The paper provides insight into the operation of China's labour market in recent years.     

Why do commercial banks hold government bonds? The case of Japan

We investigate the determinants of the demand for Japanese government bonds (JGBs) by commercial banks in Japan. In particular, by estimating portfolio equations for JGB demand and bank loans, based on a panel data set from the late 1990s to the 2000s, we rigorously test the popular assertion that the long stagnation of the real economy caused a shift in the portfolios of commercial banks from bank lending to JGBs. We find that the popular assertion is not empirically supported. Rather, the portfolio shift from loans to JGBs has been caused by a fall in the ratio of the loan rate to unit lending costs, or the bank’s price–cost margin for lending.