Industrial Relations and Relative Income Shares in the United States

This paper examines the effects of unemployment on the relative incomeshares of labor and capital in the post-World War II U.S. economy. In our econometric model, the "reserve army" effect of unemployment is mediated by the "inertia" effect of prevailing bargaining norms. Estimates of this model indicate: (1) the presence of a significant reserve army effect through the mid-1960s, a diminished effect in the late 1960s and 1970s, and a restored effect in the 1980s; and (2) a significant decline in the inertia effect of bargaining norms in the 1980s.     

美国车用代用燃料发展趋势

1992年的美国《能源政策法》指定LPG（液化石油气）、天然气、E85（酒精作为调合组分至少在85％以上）、氢气、电力,以及后来指定100％的生物柴油、P系列燃料作为运输燃料的替代燃料。据估计,到2000年底,美国有超过43万辆的代用燃料汽车,其中90％是LPG汽车和天然气汽车。1994年以前,LPG是美国主要的车用代用燃料,大多数代用燃料汽车是汽油车或柴油车改善的。现在天然气和其他燃料正在逐步影响LPG的主导地位,代用燃料原装车在代用燃料汽车中的比例已从1995年的29％上升到1998年的78％。自20世纪70年代后期开始,美国对车用乙醇实行消费税减免;最近美国能源部又投入100万美元,计划通过采用新技术,提高乙醇产量,降低生产成本,为美国谷物种植者建立新的市场,减少美国对进口石油的依赖。     

Differences across Cohorts in Finnish Intergenerational Income Mobility

Trends in intergenerational economic mobility in Finland are analyzed using panel data from 1950 through 1999 on more than 250,000 sons and daughters born between 1930 and 1970. A significant decline is estimated in the intergenerational transmission elasticity from the 1930 birth cohort until the baby boom cohorts of the early 1950s. After that we observed no increase in the extent of mobility for 1950s and 1960s birth cohorts, but rather the reverse. The result holds both for sons and daughters. A decomposition of the intergenerational transmission elasticities across cohorts shows that most of the early decline in transmission reflected a drop in the influence of parental income on the children's earnings that operated through investments in the child's schooling. This early pattern is postulated to reflect the phases of secondary educational expansion at the time. Throughout, a rise is estimated in the intergenerational transmission elasticity with age at which sons and daughters are observed. This has also been noted in prior U.S. studies and, at least in this Finnish context, this seems to result almost entirely from rising estimated returns to education with age.     

Family,Place and the Intergenerational Transmission of Union Membership

This article examines the importance of family, gender and place to the intergenerational transmission of trade union membership. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey, we show that union membership among parents influences the union joining behaviour of young workers. These effects are particularly apparent among daughters and where both parents are members of unions. The effects of parental membership are also stronger among those born in areas characterized by relatively high levels of union density. Parental effects are therefore important to our understanding of the persistence of regional variations in levels of trade union membership.     

Enterprise Unions in the United States

Through a case study of a large industrial company ( TRW ) , this paper examines the history and functioning of independent local unions ( ILUs ). TRW's ILU plant wages were about the same as those at affiliated union plants and higher than those at nonunion plants. The premium explains why TRW and other companies discarded ILUs in favor of a "new" nonunion model. Yet ILUs can remedy some of the defects in that model and thus belong on the policy and research agenda     

Privatizing Highways in the United States

We review the experience of both private toll-roads built in the United States during the 1990s, and argue that the problems they encountered could have been avoided if the length of the franchise contract would adapt to demand realizations. We also argue in favor of adjudicating private toll-roads via BOT-type contracts in competitive (Demsetz) auctions. The lessons of this paper are relevant since growing congestion and troubled government finances have made private toll-roads increasingly attractive in the United States.     

Has the United States Overinvested in Housing?

Several economists have concluded that housing investment has been excessive relative to industrial investment in the U.S. Most blame provisions of the federal income tax that favor owner-occupied housing.
This paper poses the question within a two-sector neoclassical growth model which permits the social return to housing to differ from that to non-housing. The model is estimated using national income accounts and capital stock data from 1929 to 1983. The conclusion is that the return to housing capital is about half that to non-housing capital and that the housing stock should be about 75% of its 1983 volume.     

EFT in the United States — a report summary

Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) is described by the US National Commission on EFT as a sophisticated electronic technology used to conduct many of the daily financial transactions in our society presently being provided for by cash and checks. Recent trends in electronic banking provide the consumer with such new choices as having access to his/her checking (current) account or savings (deposit) account 24 hours a day, paying bills by phone and having paycheques deposited by the employer directly into a bank account. The Commission states that ‘EFT systems and services represent an alternative that will operate side-by-side with the traditional cash and check payment systems.’ A summary of the findings of the US National Commission on EFT is presented below.     

美国燃油消费税政策及启示

美国政府长期监控汽油和柴油消费税税率变化,税费在汽油和柴油零售价中所占比例一直处于较低水平.美国各州征收的汽油和柴油税费水平存在较大差异,东部和西部沿海各州征收的汽油和柴油消费税税率普遍较高,中南部和油气生产州的汽油税费相对较低.联邦政府和各州政府的征收环节也各不相同.中美两国国情不同,中国成品油消费税制度改革,可借鉴与参考美国燃油消费税征管做法:1)将成品油消费税调整为中央和地方共享税;2)将成品油消费税征收调整至零售环节;3)建立成品油消费税税率调整机制;4)加强中央和地方两级政府税收征收管理体系建设.     

对美国天然气法律与政策的思索

美国天然气工业历经了百余年的历史,政府在天然气的不同发展时期制定了不同的法律与政策。1938年颁布了《天然气法》,主要是加强政府对自然垄断的管道运输行业的监管;1954年制定的菲利普斯决议和1978年出台的《天然气政策法》虽然在天然气定价方面显得背道而驰,但都是为了解决当时的问题;1985年颁布的FERC456号法令与l992年颁布的FERC656号法令为天然气行业引入竞争、规范行业行为做出了重要贡献。美国天然气法律与政策的演进对中国的天然气行业具有借鉴意义和参考价值。目前,中国天然气行业的发展还处于初级阶段,应结合我国的具体情况,借鉴美国的成功经验和失败教训,逐步建立和完善我国的天然气立法与政策,促进天然气行业健康有序的发展。     

加拿大与美国的能源监管及其对我国的启示

加拿大与美国经过长期不断的调整和改革,形成了一整套完整、科学的能源管理体制框架。两国政府都分别设立了能源主管部门和能源监管机构,实行分级监管相互协调的监管方式,并建立了完整的监管法律体系。能源主管部门负责能源大政方针及相关的政策研究;监管机构负责监管政策的制定和执行,独立于政府并具有司法审判功能,有效地保证政府的能源政策的落实;按现代监管模式制定的法律法规大大减少了行政管理的不确定性、管理人员实话监管的随意性以及处于自然垄断领域的企业滥用市场优势地位的可能性,增加了投资者、经营者和消费者三方的信心。我国亟待加强能源管理,为此建议：恢复国家能源委员会;在国家能源委员会下设国家能源监管委员会,并通过立法法规定其具有在国家能源领域独立监管的权力;尽快启动监管法律法规的制定和完善工作;从天然气行业下游领域先行启动监管;在过渡期成立天然气下游领域的临时监管机构负责过渡期的监管工作。     

美国加油站发展的成功经验

美国加油站布局设计以方便车辆加油为原则,加油站外观突出视觉冲击力;自助式加油机应用普遍,付款方式以信用卡支付为主;加油站大多数环节通过电子设备监控或自动完成,用技术手段确保健康、安全与环保。由于竞争激烈,美国加油站积权开展非油品销售,便利店已成为加油站利润的主要来源。我国加油站与美国等发达国家大石油公司相比,差距是很大的。除了表象方面外,更重要的差距是体现在宏观管理体制和市场组织等深层面上。“师夷长技以制夷”,中国国有石油公司应该充分利用后发优势和东道国优势,不仅确保在整个系统(产业链)中的竞争优势,而且力求在主要环节上确立竞争优势。     

Exports to the United States Head toward Growth

Exports head toward growth In the Jan.-Jul. 2010 period, China's textile and garment exports to the United States amounted to $18.979 billion, up 29.66 percent y/y, slightly increasing by 1.17 percentage points from the growth rate of the Jan.     

Comment on “Merger Policy in the United States”

This paper comments briefly on a merger policy article by Dennis Mueller. It concurs with Mueller's judgment that X-efficiency consequences are of crucial relevance in developing a sound antitrust policy toward mergers. It agrees also that firms proposing mergers overstepping structural guidelines should be permitted an efficiencies defense, but it stresses the difficulties of making ex ante efficiency predictions.     

Youth Apprenticeship in Britain: Lessons for the United States

Britain's effort to introduce youth apprenticeships over the past decade offers important general lessons about the role of employers in school-to-work initiatives. In particular, the incentives facing employers work against efforts to provide skills training. Alternative arrangements for such programs are suggested that create incentives for employers to improve the skills of youth apprentices.     

Unionism in the United States and Other Advanced OECD Countries

In this paper we compare the changing pattern of unionization in OECD countries, reviewing existing evidence and presenting new information on union-nonunion differentials in labor market outcomes in these countries. Our principal source of information are the micro data files of the International Social Survey Programme cross-country surveys of 1985–87. Our analysis shows that U.S. unions have a larger effect on wages than on other outcomes than unions in other OECD countries, and we argue that the high union premium in the United States has contributed to the decline in union density and divergence of the US. industrial relations system     

Comparing Merger Policies in the European Union and the United States

We collect a sample of EU and US merger investigations, estimate models of the regulatory decisions, and use the models to compare merger policies. Our approach allows us to decompose observed differences into policy effects and case-mix effects. Focusing on dominance mergers, we find that the EU is tougher than the US on average, in particular for mergers resulting in moderate market shares. However, the US appears to be more aggressive for coordinated interaction and non-dominance unilateral effects cases. Overall, our analysis detects substantial differences in policies, but it does not classify one regime as being more aggressive than the other.