Short Notice,Big Difference? The Effect of Temporary Employment on Firm Competitiveness across Sectors

This article is one of the first to examine how the use of fixed‐term employment contracts (FTCs) affects firm competitiveness (i.e. productivity, wages and profits) while controlling for key econometric issues such as time‐invariant unobserved workplace characteristics, endogeneity and state dependence. We apply dynamic panel data estimation techniques to detailed Belgian linked employer–employee data covering all years from 1999 to 2010. Results show that the effects of FTCs on firm competitiveness vary across sectors: while temporary employment is found (at the 10 per cent significance level) to enhance productivity and profits in (labour‐intensive) services, this is not the case in manufacturing and construction.     

Where Do Unions Add Value? Predominant Organizing Principle,Union Strength and Manufacturing Productivity Growth in the OECD

This article deploys comparative historical data on 14 OECD countries to examine the significance of predominant union structure for the impact of union strength on the (medium‐term) growth in hourly labour productivity in manufacturing. The analysis shows that where craft and general unionism predominates, union strength has a deleterious impact on productivity growth. Where enterprise unionism predominates, union strength is irrelevant. However, where industrial unionism predominates, union strength promotes productivity growth. These effects exist independently of established economic influences on aggregate productivity growth. The findings are interpreted as displaying the importance of the character of the governance that unions provide for their productivity impact.     

The Union Makes Us Strong? A Study of the Dynamics of Workplace Union Leadership at Two UK Manufacturing Plants

This paper draws on qualitative case study evidence to investigate the way in which union leaders involved in two workplace organizations deal with the process of managing their role within the employment relationship. In particular, the influence of their leadership style on the commitment and participation of rank-and-file members is considered. The paper highlights the dialectical relationship between local leaders and members in terms of trade union democracy and local leadership style.     

Not for the Profit,But for the Training? Gender Differences in Training in the For-Profit and Non-Profit Sectors

In this article, we use Canadian-linked employer–employee data to examine gender differences in receiving firm-sponsored training. We find that women in the for-profit sector are less likely to receive classroom training and receive fewer classroom training courses. However, we find the opposite in the non-profit sector, where women are more likely to receive both classroom and on-the-job training, and also receive more classroom training courses. We show that women's worse training opportunities in the for-profit sector mainly operate within workplaces. We find no evidence that gender gaps in training in the for-profit sector are driven by lower probabilities of accepting training offers, child or family commitments, weaker labour market attachment or worker self-selection. We also find that gender differences in expected changes in wages and training opportunities between the two sectors can explain a large portion of women's higher probability of employment in the non-profit sector. Finally, decomposition results suggest that part of the gender wage gap in the for-profit sector, which is twice as large as in the non-profit sector, can be explained by gender differences in training.     

Development Targets of China''''s Textile Machinery Manufacturing in the next 5 Years

During the 10th Five-Year, the development of textile machinery will be focused on the general targets of our domestic textile industry-industrial restructuring, technical progress, products upgrading, quality improvement of apparel fabric, replace imported fabric with domestic fabric, and expansion of export. For the benefits of apparel quality, great efforts will be made to improve the technologies in the production process of fiber manufacturing, yarn spinning, fabric weaving, dyeing-printing and finishing, and to encourage the manufacturers to compete both in domestic market and in international market.     

Does the Need for High Levels of Performance Curtail the Development of Creativity in Design and Technology Project Work?

This article seeks to examine the relationship that exists between the development of high order thinking such as creative and problem solving skills and the need for pupils to achieve high levels of performance in their design and technology public examinations during the final year of compulsory education in the UK.The data under discussion were collected during the final year of a four year research project when a sample of fifty 15–16 year old pupils was chosen from eight schools in the north-east of England.For the purpose of this article a further sub-sample of twenty-seven pupils [twelve pupils who achieved high marks for their project work (sixty-five percent and above) and the fifteen pupils who achieved low marks in their project work (forty percent and below) was selected.In discussing the findings, the relationship between levels of creativity, performance, personal goal characteristics, motivation and design procedures used by the pupils will be highlighted. Conclusions will then be drawn concerning the part played by GCSE Design and Technology examination project work in enhancing the development of creative, innovative thinking and problem solving skills.     

Does Deregulation Work? Reassessing the Unemployment Effects of Employment Protection

Using new data, this article examines the effect of employment protection legislation (EPL) on aggregate and youth unemployment in advanced economies and Central and Eastern Europe during 1980–2009. The results offer no clear support for the argument that EPL is a cause of unemployment. Although EPL reaches statistical significance at conventional levels in some models, the results are sensitive to small changes in the sample or the use of alternative estimators. While the analysis suggests some scope for complementary reforms of EPL and the tax wedge in tackling youth unemployment, the findings on the whole indicate that government efforts to tackle unemployment by deregulating EPL alone may well be futile.     

Service Delivery Networks and Employment Relations at German Airports: Jeopardizing Industrial Peace on the Ground?

In this article, we ask how organizational restructuring towards a network form of service delivery challenges an established form of employment relations in Germany, that is labour–management collaboration. Building on a theoretical discussion of the marketization hypothesis, we develop a structuration perspective on the relationship between network restructuring and labour–management collaboration, which highlights the political economy of inter-firm networks. Empirically, we focus on two major airport authorities in Germany. Our findings show how these authorities at the core of service delivery networks face a strategic trade-off between short-term labour cost reductions and more adversarial employment relations. Apart from coinciding with a deterioration in working conditions for service workers, the handling of this trade-off depends on managers’ and worker representatives’ commitment to collaboration across the network. While unions and works councils initially continued with social partnership-type practices, the more adversarial management practices for enacting the network restructuring cause a fragmentation on the workers’ side and increase the conflict potential. We conclude that the agency of management and worker representatives in the enactment of inter-firm networks oscillates between more partnership-like and more conflictive practices, which turn the network restructuring into a political process with divergent outcomes for employment relations.     

Made in the World? Global Value Chains in the Midst of Rising Protectionism

Review of Industrial Organization - In the last decade, the concept of ‘global value chain’ (GVC) has become popular to describe the way firms fragment production into different stages...     

Are consumers at the base of the pyramid willing to pay for nutritious foods?

Base of the Pyramid (BoP) consumers living in the urban informal settlements of developing countries spend over 60% of their income on food, yet malnutrition and micronutrient deficiency remain widespread among these populations, pointing to the inadequacy of the foods they consume in terms of quality and quantity. In this paper we examine BoP consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for nutritious multi-composite porridge flour (improved flour) in the informal settlements of East Africa. The analysis is based on experimental data collected from 600 households in the informal settlements of Kampala, Uganda and Nairobi, Kenya (300 in each country) in 2016. We use Tobit regression models to analyse determinants of WTP for the improved porridge flour. Results show that both Kenyan and Ugandan BoP consumers are willing to pay a premium for the improved porridge flour. In addition, providing nutrition information about the flour, characteristics of household head, economic status of the household, and presence of young children between six and 59 months in the household, influence WTP for the safe and nutritious porridge flour. The paper concludes by providing recommendations for enhancing nutrition among poor consumers in the informal settlements of developing countries.     

When Might a Distressed Firm Share Work? Evidence from the Short-Time Compensation Programme in France

This paper analyses the participation patterns of publicly funded short-time compensation benefits (STC) in France. The regression equation directly models the choice of work units facing slack demand to adjust their labour force by declaring redundancies or by implementing an STC agreement. The likelihood of adopting the work-sharing mode is related to certain firm and labour force attributes, labour market institutions and policy parameters. The results suggest that employment protection laws increase the incidence of STC usage and hence decrease employers' recourse to layoffs. Work-forces receiving relatively high levels of pay and exhibiting relatively low levels of labour force attachment are less likely to participate in the STC programme, ceteris paribus . Although the programme is designed to prevent cyclical layoffs, there is preliminary evidence that chronic usage in instances of permanent layoffs is fairly widespread.     

How Can New Players Establish Themselves in Highly Institutionalized Labour Markets? A Belgian Case Study in the Area of Project‐Based Work

How can new players seeking to serve nonstandard worker categories (such as project‐based workers) establish themselves into labour markets that are highly institutionalized? This paper explores the case of SMart, a Belgian community‐based labour market intermediary that successfully developed solutions to better represent the interests of project‐based workers and secure their discontinuous careers. Using an organizational legitimacy approach, we find that labour market entry and growth involve different types of boundary‐crossing when addressing the needs of workers that do not fit into established categories. However, to justify boundary‐crossing, the new player must complement its pragmatic work on delivering new services and tools with conceptual (cognitive) and structural (moral) legitimation work.     

Were Money Wages Always Rigid? A Look at the Reliability of Survey Evidence on Changes in Wage Rates

In recent years, the once conventional view that nominal wage rates were much more flexible before the Great Depression than after has been challenged. This challenge has been reinforced by several recent studies that are based on monthly wage data gathered by state labor bureaus. The surveys used by the state labor bureaus in gathering the data appear to have been biased toward the finding that wages have not changed. Hence inferences drawn from the data collected in these surveys are not reliable.     

Crossing the Tracks? Trends in the Training of Male and Female Workers in Great Britain

A small number of recent empirical studies report the intriguing finding that the ‘advantage’ in training incidence previously enjoyed by men has been reversed. The present article explores the sources of this gender differential using Labour Force Survey data, updating previous British studies and providing further insights into the above phenomenon. The results suggest that the greater part of the gender ‘gap’ derives from differences in characteristics, among the most important being occupation, industry and sector. However, the increased training incidence among females over time is not explained by changes in characteristics and suggests preferences for training may have changed.     

The Introduction of Works Councils in German Establishments — Rent Seeking or Rent Protection?

Some recent empirical studies seem to suggest that German works councils engage in rent-seeking activities rather than in the creation of joint establishment surplus. However, those cross-sectional studies do not address the issue of causation. We address this issue by investigating the factors that influence the employees' decision to introduce a works council in their establishment. Councils are more likely to be adopted in establishments with a very poor sales situation and poor employment growth. They are also more likely to be adopted in establishments where management does not pursue an expansive market strategy. Altogether, our results support the hypothesis that employees introduce works councils to protect the quasi-rents they have created by their efforts and human capital investments.     

Is the share of agricultural maintenance research rising in the United States?

Public research is a major contributor to agricultural productivity growth, but if research investments are not maintained, agricultural productivity can decline over time. Maintenance research replaces deteriorated research knowledge to forestall a productivity decline. Knowledge of the magnitude of maintenance research can facilitate a more complete assessment of the value of agricultural research programs. Trends in maintenance research and sources of change in those trends are investigated. Results indicate that overall, about 40% of US agricultural research is devoted to maintenance, up from about a third 25 years ago. A model is developed and estimated to explain maintenance research expenditures. Research funding, climatic conditions, insect and pathogen control, and agricultural production choices influence maintenance research expenditures. Increased reliance on out-of-state funding sources may skew agricultural research away from maintenance research, while climate change may increase the need for such research.     

Is there a pilot in the chain? Identifying the key drivers of change in the fresh pineapple sector

High-value export-oriented agriculture is today considered as a means of integrating smallholders into the world economy. This paper examines the geographic and organisational changes that have taken place in the fresh pineapple sector over the past 50 years. We begin with a historical analysis of the changes in leadership among producer countries, namely the dethroning of Côte d’Ivoire by Costa Rica. We show that this geographical shift has been accompanied by massive organisational changes: the pineapple sector is increasingly driven by large downstream actors who derive their power from the ability to impose their definition of quality to the whole chain, and from economies of scale and scope. Although varietal innovation plays a key role throughout the period, commercial and logistical innovation are of increasing strategic importance. However, because of the constraints imposed by the concerned supply chains, small farmers risk being excluded or marginalized.