The effect of import competition on labor income inequality through firm and worker heterogeneity in the Japanese manufacturing sector

This study estimates the effects of import competition from Asia on the labor income inequality of Japanese manufacturing workers, considering firm and worker heterogeneity. Parameters are obtained from regression results of annual salary by using constructed worker–establishment panel data. The estimated salary change is positively and negatively larger for higher- and lower-paid workers, respectively, implying that labor income inequality among industry–size–skill–gender groups has increased due to imports from Asia. However, the actual evolution of income inequality during 1998–2014 is not successfully explained by Asian imports: other shocks overshadow import competition to determine actual income inequality.     

Issues on Future of Offshoring and Global Sourcing

In recent years, outsourcing strategies have undergone a profound evolution, moving from being a pure make or buy tactical decision to becoming part of strategy. By tradition, firms originally considered outsourcing as a solution to short-term problems, such as a sudden or unexpected increase in demand, an interruption in plant or equipment functioning, or the launch of a new product. Today firms consider outsourcing as a network of stable agreements with specialized suppliers as part of a long-term strategic perspective. The tendency is to attain offshoring and global sourcing. However, researchers are unanimous in recognizing that there are many obstacles to adopting a long-term outsourcing and offshoring strategies. They have also been heavily criticized by governments （the U.S. and Europe in particular） as recognized as a cause of further weakening national economies. Recently, some studies and research found that the large multinational corporations, mainly in the United States, are moving their production back or considering it such a strategic decision in the near future. So what is the future for offshoring and global sourcing？     

Employment Effects of Offshoring across Sectors and Occupations in Japan

In the case of Japan, the studies conducted so far focus alone on firm‐level data and delve into the productivity effects and the skill upgrading between skilled and unskilled workers. Here, we carry out an empirical analysis of the employment effects of offshoring for Japanese industries on a broader classification of skills or occupations, while considering the three major sectors of the economy and taking account of both services and materials offshoring. The results suggest that various types of offshoring affect occupations differently. In particular, services offshoring tends to benefit highly skilled occupations more, while materials offshoring tends to benefit production workers instead.     

中国当前劳动力技能短缺与企业应对

随着人口红利减弱,中国技能短缺问题愈发突出,如何有效应对技能短缺成为当前经济社会发展面临的紧迫问题。文章就雇主应对技能短缺的方式提出四个假设,并基于中国人民大学劳动人事学院"中国雇主—雇员匹配数据追踪调查",采用Tobit模型考察了雇佣条件在改善技能短缺上发挥的作用。结果表明：工资对技能短缺的影响并不显著,没有证据显示上调工资能改善企业的技能短缺问题,而签订长期劳动合同有利于缓解高技能劳动力短缺,强化在职培训和劳动保护有助于改善低技能劳动力短缺。本研究为破解技能短缺难题提供参考,企业应对技能短缺应因事为制,避免提高工资的惯性思维,注重高技能劳动者在职业发展上的需求,关注低技能劳动力在劳动保护上的诉求,并保证持续有效的在职培训。     

The rise and fall of the sliding scale, or why wages are no longer indexed to product prices

Though almost no postwar union contracts indexed wage rates to prices of the employer’s products, union agreements linking wage rates to product prices, known as sliding scales, were common in some industries in the United States and Britain from the 1860s through the 1930s. This paper explains why sliding scales disappeared after the 1930s, and examines what practical experience with sliding scales revealed about fundamental constraints on wage indexation. Paradoxically, the history of sliding scales confirms that workers’ information about product prices and materials costs is generally imperfect, in ways that would substantially constrain wage indexation in long-term contracts. Sliding scales were not indexed long-term contracts, but rather devices to forestall costly strikes in the absence of contracts by revealing employers’ private information about product demand. In the postwar US, unions and employers failed to link wage rates to product prices because they had gained the ability to enter binding contracts, which could achieve the benefits of preventing strikes without incurring the extra negotiation costs and information problems associated with product-price indexation. I present a model to show how sliding scales could forestall strikes by revealing information, and how the introduction of binding union contracts reduced incentives to link wages to product prices.     

Labor productivity, wages, nationality, and foreign ownership shares in Thai manufacturing, 1996–2000

This paper compares labor productivity and wages among nationality and ownership groups of foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) and local plants in Thai manufacturing for 1996, 1998, and 2000. Disaggregating foreign MNCs by nationality or foreign ownership share revealed a few significant differences in both labor productivity and wages that were not present in more aggregate specifications. In these cases, there was a weak tendency for MNCs from Europe, Japan, and the United States to have relatively high labor productivity and wages, for wholly-foreign MNCs to have relatively high labor productivity, and for majority- and wholly-foreign MNCs to pay relatively high wages. However, these results suggest that the relationships among labor productivity or wages, on the one hand, and nationality or foreign ownership shares, on the other hand, were generally weak in Thai manufacturing. These results are also consistent with those of previous studies in suggesting that the relationship between labor productivity and foreign ownership in general was also rather weak, though the relationship between wages and foreign ownership was somewhat stronger.     

Did firms cut nominal wages in a deflationary environment?: Micro-level evidence from the late 19th and early 20th century banking industry

This paper examines wage adjustment in the late 19th and early 20th centuries using personnel records from the Union Bank of Australia and Williams Deacon’s Bank (England). During the period of this study there was steep and prolonged deflation. Firm-specific and industry-specific demand shocks also put downwards pressure on wages. Although it was common for individual wages at the banks to remain unchanged from year to year, wage cuts were very rare even for senior workers. Turnover at both banks was extremely low and, thus, despite flexibility in the wages of incoming workers, did not offset the effects of individual-level wage rigidity. Consequently real wages moved counter-cyclically.     

Whites,Blacks, and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Brown</Emphasis> in the Labor Market in Brazil: A Study About Inequalities

This paper examines inequalities between white and black and brown populations in Brazil within occupations that require university degree. The main result confirms that once reached the university degree, blacks/brown usually obtain smaller but comparable income to that of whites. Although some racial discrimination in labor market may exist, such result corroborates other studies that identify schooling differentials as the main reason for the high income inequality found in Brazil.     

Specialization, outsourcing and wages

This paper studies the impact of outsourcing on individual wages. In contrast to the standard approach in the literature, we focus on domestic outsourcing as well as foreign outsourcing. We argue that if outsourcing is associated with specialization gains arising from an increase in the division of labor, domestic outsourcing tends to increase wages for both unskilled and skilled labor. We use a panel data set of workers in Danish manufacturing industries to show that domestic and foreign outsourcing affect wages as predicted.      

我国的动态劳动需求及就业保护制度的影响:基于动态面板数据的研究

动态劳动需求描述了劳动力应对外部冲击的调整过程,是劳动力市场灵活性的重要体现,本文首次使用动态面板数据,对我国的动态劳动需求进行了研究,并检验了就业保护制度对动态劳动需求的影响。结果发现,我国国有及具有规模以上非国有工业企业的就业调整存在明显的刚性,遇到外部冲击时,企业需要2.56年时间完成劳动力调整的50%,对雇佣和解雇行为进行管制的就业保护制度显著减缓了劳动力调整速度。当经济环境变好时,就业保护制度减缓了企业劳动力投入的增长速度;当经济环境恶化时,就业保护制度减缓了企业裁减劳动力的速度。总体来说,就业保护有利于维护已经就业的劳动者的利益,但会使失业劳动者和新进入劳动力市场的劳动者寻找工作更加困难。     

试析当前我国劳动力市场现状和存在的问题

我国劳动力市场现状是新生劳动力增长快,供大于求矛盾突出；公有制企业就业人数大幅度减少,而非公有制就业人数大幅度增加；劳动力使用成本偏低；技能型人才总量严重不足等。存在的问题主要有劳动力资源不能任意流动,统一、开放的劳动力市场还没有形成；劳动力市场秩序不规范；供需结构性失衡和信息不畅等。     

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.     

Fiscal stimulus and labor market dynamics in Japan

The paper studies the effects of fiscal expansion on the Japanese labor market. First, using a structural VAR model, we find that the unemployment rate falls and employment rises following an increase in government spending. We also find that fiscal expansion affects flows in and out of unemployment. While an increase in government spending increases the job-finding rate, it reduces the separation rate. We then incorporate search and matching frictions into a standard dynamic general equilibrium model, and study whether the model can explain what we observed in data. While the model fails to predict the exact size of the impact of government spending shocks on the Japanese labor market variables, it can consistently capture the empirical pattern of responses of labor market variables to shocks.     

Global commodity prices and global stock market volatility shocks: Effects across countries

We investigate the time-varying dynamics of global stock market volatility, commodity prices, domestic output and consumer prices. We find (i) stock market volatility and commodity price shocks impact each other and the economy in a gradual and endogenous adjustment process, (ii) impact of commodity price shock on global stock market volatility is significant during global financial crises, (iii) effects of global stock market volatility on the US output are amplified by endogenous commodity price responses, (iv) effects of global stock market volatility shocks on the economy are heterogeneous across nations and relatively larger in twelve developed countries, (v) four developing/small economies are more vulnerable to commodity price shocks.     

户籍歧视对劳动报酬差异的影响

在我国，户籍歧视是形成劳动力市场分割的重要原因，它不但通过阻碍劳动力流动造成城乡收入差异，也会促成农民工和城镇工人之间劳动报酬的差异。本文利用中国健康与营养调查（CHNS）多年的数据，对我国户籍歧视影响劳动报酬差异的程度进行计算和分析。结论表明，近几年户籍歧视现象并没有明显改观，政府在制定相应政策时，仍需关注这方面的问题。     

构建和谐经济利益关系与市场失灵、政府失灵的矫正

改革开放以来逐步形成的经济利益关系格局特别是重大的经济利益关系,已经影响了构建和谐社会的基础。本文从经济学的角度,揭示了经济利益关系矛盾的根源在于市场失灵和政府失灵,并提出了相应的矫正措施。     

Non-traded goods,firm dynamics and wages in a service economy

By considering the term-of-trade and volume-of-trade effects, Jones (2012) examines the distributive effect in a competitive economy with non-traded goods. This paper reexamines the effect in an imperfectively competitive economy with firm dynamics. A rise in foreign demand can generate revenue and also mitigate market distortion, whereas skilled-unskilled wage inequality can be magnified or mitigated via the effect on firm entry or exit. Thus, how to achieve the trade-off among growth, inequality and the environment becomes an important task for government decision-makers, especially so during the pandemic of Covid-19.     

The impact of migration and remittances on labor supply in Tajikistan

Remittances from labor migrants abroad have become the largest component of financial flows to developing countries. While they are an important source of foreign currency for low-income countries, the impact of outmigration and remittances on the economic development of the sending country is ambiguous. To narrow this knowledge gap, this paper examines their impact on the domestic labor market, using the case of Tajikistan – a labor migrant contributor and remittance dependent country in Central Asia. Specifically, we estimate the impact of international migration and receipt of remittances on the labor supply decisions and employment of the family members left behind. To ensure rigorous inferences, we apply a control function approach using unique high-frequency household panel data. Our method enables us to correctly address the simultaneity of migration/remittance and labor supply decisions of the left-behind members. Our main estimates are that sending migrants reduces the labor supply of the left-behind members by 5.4 percentage points, and that receiving remittances reduces it by 10.2 percentage points, respectively. These findings suggest that the reservation wage effect of having a migrant member and receiving remittances is large and surpasses other positive effects they might have.     

Negishi–Solow efficiency wages, unemployment insurance and dynamic deterministic indeterminacy

This paper introduces efficiency wages designed to provide workers with incentives to make appropriate effort levels, and involuntary unemployment, along the pioneering lines of Negishi (1979) , Solow (1979) and Shapiro and Stiglitz (1984) , in a dynamic model involving heterogeneous agents and financial constraints as in Woodford (1986) and Grandmont et al. (1998) . Effort varies continuously while there is unemployment insurance funded out of taxation of labor incomes. Increasing unemployment insurance is beneficial to employment along the deterministic stationary state, and can even in some cases lead to a Pareto welfare improvement for all agents, through general equilibrium effects, by generating higher individual real labour incomes, hence larger consumptions of employed and unemployed workers, and thus higher production. In contrast, the local (in)determinacy properties of the stationary state are opposite to those obtained in the competitive specification of the model: local determinacy (indeterminacy) occurs for elasticities of capital-efficient labor substitution lower (larger) than a quite small bound. Increasing unemployment insurance is more likely to lead to local indeterminacy and, therefore, to generate dynamic inefficiencies due to the corresponding expectations coordination failures.