Jobs in the 1980's and beyond

Research by the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not support the view that present trends in the workplace will have negative effects on future productivity, wages, and job creation. The shift towards a service-producing economy will not necessarily result in generally lower productivity levels, slower rates of growth, and lower wage levels, as commonly believed. Further demographic changes may bode well for productivity; the future work force will have a higher proportion in the most stable and productive years. Although there will continue to be serious problems of high unemployment for some groups and job loss due to new technologies, gloomy predictions of a huge labor surplus and a trend towards low-paying jobs are unwarranted.     

Analytical Problems in Decomposing the System-wide Effects of Sectoral Technical Change

The disaggregated structure of input–output (IO) analysis makes it very attractive in analyzing technical change. Various authors have applied IO models in comparative static experiments to measure the effects of observed technical changes in individual industries on economy-wide total output (or related primary input) requirements. Less often have researchers performed similar analyses on the effects of changes across all consuming industries in the productive consumption of a sector's output, because of the need to append an external analysis of substitution. Despite the obstacles to joint analyses of sectoral production and cross-sectoral consumption change, its appeal has long been recognized. In this paper, an anomaly in such analyses is presented: the sum of the separate effects of changes in production and changes in productive consumption does not equal the effects of the joint change. A comparative static exercise reveals the root cause of the anomaly: essentially, an index number problem. Empirical analyses are performed across a comprehensive set of US sectors to estimate the range of discrepancies.     

The problem of private under-investment in innovation: A policy mind map

This paper reviews the major finance-related causes of private under-investment in innovation and the consequent alternative choices for public policy. The focus is on (i) incentive-based arguments that address the problem of limited appropriability of new knowledge, and (ii) the lacking access to external sources of finance caused by imperfections in the capital market. Drawing a policy mind map, which aims to enhance the mutual awareness and coordination of policy makers at the crossroads of technology and corporate finance, the paper is organised along the following chain of thought: (i) causes and rationales, (ii) aims and targets, (iii) critical constraints, and (iv) the main finance-related instruments of innovation policy.     

Decomposition of Technological Change and Factor Bias in Indian Power Sector: An Unbalanced Panel Data Approach

Technological change and factor bias in the Indian power sector are analyzed using a translog cost function. Various components of technological progress and factor bias are identified and estimated, using a 21 year unbalanced panel data of Indian states and union territories. Heterogeneity across states is incorporated in the model using a variance component model. Appropriate corrections are made for unbalanced panel data. Empirical results show that the annual average rate of technological progress has been 2.4% for the country as a whole. Accumulation of knowledge and increasing scale are found to be the major factors contributing to technological progress. In contrast, the effects of factor price changes and fixed capital accumulation on technological progress have been unfavorable. Pure factor bias measure indicate saving in the use of fuel and labor, and increased use of materials. Tests are performed to check the curvature properties of the underlying technology.     

Factors of trade in Europe

We analyze how a set of determinants affect trade among European countries over the period 1992–2008. The factors encompass variables from the areas of geography, culture, institutions, infrastructure, and trade direction. Trade is analyzed for four types of goods: primary goods, parts and components, capital goods, and consumer goods. For each type of good we also distinguish its definition in terms of flows, intensive margin, and extensive margin. Methodologically, we first derive country-pair fixed effects over all possible pairs of export–import partners, and in the second stage we relate fixed effects with a set of influential factors. We show (i) the intuitive and varying effects of geographical, cultural, and institutional factors; (ii) the beneficial effects of soft and hard infrastructure; and (iii) the key importance of trade between old and new EU members.     

Self-organization of R&D search in complex technology spaces

We extend an earlier model of innovation dynamics based on percolation by adding endogenous R&D search by economically motivated firms. The {0, 1} seeding of the technology lattice is now replaced by draws from a lognormal distribution for technology ‘difficulty’. Firms are rewarded for successful innovations by increases in their R&D budget. We compare two regimes. In the first, firms are fixed in a region of technology space. In the second, they can change their location by myopically comparing progress in their local neighborhoods and probabilistically moving to the region with the highest recent progress. We call this the moving or self-organizational regime (SO). The SO regime always outperforms the fixed one, but its performance is a complex function of the ‘rationality’ of firm search (in terms of search radius and speed of movement). The clustering of firms in the SO regime grows rapidly and then fluctuates in a complex way around a high value that increases with the search radius. We also investigate the size distributions of the innovations generated in each regime. In the fixed one, the distribution is approximately lognormal and certainly not fat tailed. In the SO regime, the distributions are radically different. They are much more highly right skewed and show scaling over at least 2 decades with a slope around one, for a wide range of parameter settings. Thus we argue that firm self-organization leads to self-organized criticality. The online version of the original article can be found under doi:.     

The Convergence and Divergence of Job Discretion Between Occupations and Institutional Regimes in Europe from 1995 to 2010

Drawing on technical change and institutional theories, this paper examines the convergence and divergence of job discretion between occupations and institutional regimes in Europe from 1995–2010. Latent growth modelling of a pseudo‐panel data set derived from the European Working Conditions Survey reveals that significantly different rates of change have led to an increasing polarization of job discretion between occupations and between Nordic and other European countries. Across occupations the findings are in keeping with routine‐biased technical change rather than skill‐biased technical change theories and suggest that the effects of technical change on job discretion depend largely on whether technology substitutes or complements job tasks. Across countries, the results are in line with employment regime theory, which suggests that institutional differences (particularly employment policies and trade union influence) are driving cross‐national variation in job discretion. Overall, a more comprehensive empirical and theoretical understanding is provided of factors shaping change in a key aspect of job quality, namely job discretion.     

Learning and technological capability building in emerging economies: The case of the biomass power equipment industry in Malaysia

There is increasing recognition that the transfer of foreign technology to developing countries should be considered in light of broader processes of learning, technological capability, formation and industrial development. Previous studies that have looked at this in the context of cleantech industries in emerging economies tend to overlook firm-level specifics. This paper contributes to filling this gap by utilising in-depth qualitative firm-level data to analyse the extent to which the use of different learning mechanisms can explain differences in the accumulation of technological capabilities. This is explored via an examination of eight firms in the biomass power equipment industry in Malaysia during the period 1970–2011. The paper finds that firms relying on a combination of learning from foreign technology partners and internal learning by planned experimentation make most progress in terms of technological capability. Nevertheless, local spill-over effects were found to be important for some firms who learned principally from imitation of local competitors, although significantly, firms learning from local spillovers failed to advance beyond extra basic operating technological capabilities. Those firms who proactively pursued learning from foreign partners, on the other hand, advanced further, reaching basic innovative levels of technological capabilities. These findings are relevant for a wider range of industrial sectors in emerging economies.     

面对我国人口老龄化加速趋势下的世界自然遗产地旅游发展探讨

随着我国社会生活水平的提高,养老不再只是满足老年最基本物质生活上的需要,而是如何使他们的精神生活也更加丰富,这可能是我国现今以及将来必须面对的社会问题之一,而旅游无疑是一个不错的解决办法。面对我国丰富的旅游资源,特别是极为稀有、绝妙的世界自然遗产地,如果能结合老年人特点,开发一些适合老年人的旅游项目;加强对智慧景区的建设等,应该会吸引更多的老年游客,这不仅仅是服务了社会,同时也促使自然遗产地的升级及经济得到了更广阔的发展,进而更好地保护好我国的世界自然遗产。     

欧洲一体化对东亚经济一体化的启示

区域经济一体化是当前世界发展中的一个重要趋势。在探讨东亚经济一体化这一问题上,回顾欧洲一体化走过的道路无疑会给我们带来很多启示。针对东亚经济合作目前所呈现出来的多元化模式,我们不难看出,东亚经济一体化的发展瓶颈在于各国关系的有效处理和各国利益的合理分配。总之,从欧洲一体化的历程看东亚经济一体化,更应该确立合作的理念。同时,东亚经济一体化也可以借鉴欧洲经济一体化的经验,用具有约束力的条约机制去巩固每一个一体化成果。     

Enhancing the Credibility of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility in Europe

This paper studies variables that have an effect on the choice of whether or not reports on corporate social responsibility are assured and who is selected to provide assurance. Such assurance reports increase the credibility of environmental and social reporting. In a European sample we observe some differences from previous research. Overall, industry effects seem small, but size and media visibility have a significant impact on assuring CSR reports. It seems that companies differentiate less between auditors and consultants. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

中国对外贸易方式变化对经济增长影响分析

首先对我国对外贸易方式变化对经济增长影响的正负效应进行了理论分析;接着,对我国贸易方式变化与经济增长的关系进行实证了分析。分析的结论是,我国贸易方式变化对经济增长产生了负面影响;我国进出口贸易方式的变化是导致经济增长变化的格兰杰原因;而且进出口贸易方式变化产生了不同的作用,一方面我国进口贸易方式变化对经济增长产生了负面影响,另一方面出口贸易方式变化促进了经济增长。     

欧洲生态城市规划设计的案例研究

经历了20世纪发达国家工业社会的畸形发展之后,生态城市规划设计成为21世纪城市规划领域发展的核心。欧洲在生态城市规划设计理论和实践方面走在了世界前沿。分别根据不同的方法手段以及规划所涉及的地域范围大小,可以对生态城市规划的各种方法进行种类划分,形成生态城市规划设计方法类型矩阵。列举各类型中欧洲城市的优秀规划实例。通过这些具体的实例来阐述前沿的、经实践证明切实可行的生态城市规划设计理念和原则。     

产学研结合技术创新链的主体要素、问题及对策辨析

本文通过对产学研结合技术创新链中各主体要素的分析,给出政府、企业、大学或科研院所、市场在产学研结合技术创新中的作用及其关系模型,进一步分析出我国产学研结合技术创新中存在的问题,并给出相关对策建议。     

The impact of value added components of GDP and FDI on economic freedom in Europe

This paper investigates the possibility of a long-run relationship between the Economic Freedom Index (EFI), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and value added components of GDP in thirty Eastern, Central and Western European countries. The study further examines whether the FDI and sector-specific components of GDP have any significant impact on economic freedom for these countries. We use annual data and employ Pedroni and KAO panel cointegration analyses to assess the long-run relationships. The results indicate that there is a significant long-run relationship between the variables under study. Moreover, the evidence shows that the service and industry value added components positively affect EFI, while the agriculture value added component has a negative effect on EFI. However, contrary to the prior literature, we observe a marginally significant and negative relationship between EFI and FDI in the random effects model.     

混凝土浇筑质量问题的处理

为解决混凝土浇筑过程中出现泌水、离析,混凝土实体表面出现麻面、气孔、水纹等质量问题,在混凝土浇筑过程中运用系统控制理论,精心组织,合理布置施工方案。     

北京人口调控举措的选择——来自国外特大型城市的经验借鉴

人口变化与地区发展密切相关。近年来北京人口加速、过快集聚已成为其人口发展的主要趋势。本文着重对东京、伦敦、纽约的人口发展情况、结构变化规律、人口调控措施进行分析,并与北京目前的人口增长与地区发展情况进行对比,建议北京在把握人口变化规律的基础上通过建设副中心、制定城市规划、运用经济与产业调整等举措推动人口合理、适度化发展。     

结构设计过程中的含钢量控制

基于合理的建筑设计方案，在结构设计过程中，设计人员深刻理解规范条文和对结构各构件进行细致设计，是降低含钢量的有力措施。     

高职导数概念教学的教学设计

在高职数学的教学中,导数的概念是微积分最基本最重要的概念之一,它关系到后面一系列的运算和应用,若对该概念理解不透彻,则对后面的学习将会大打折扣。在对导数概念的教学时采取从简单入手,提高学习积极性为主导,强化概念内涵和应用的挖掘出发,教法上进行精心的教学设计,可在教学中达到理想的教学目标。     

广州工业遗产保护方略初探

广州在中国近现代工业文明发展史上,占有重要的地位.梳理广州工业遗产的固有脉络,找出现阶段研究的要义和难点,坚定传承历史文化的立场、实施保护利用双赢的方略,对维护城市的个性特色,提升城市的价值品位,很有必要.