解读斯密分工理论,构建社会和谐分工

劳动分工不是一个新的论题,我们的前人早已看到了分工的重要性,分工是社会发展的需要。政治经济学之父亚当·斯密在《国富论》中阐述了分工理论,现在读来其思想的闪光点依然为我们所见。本文引入斯密分工理论,结合现实,提出新时代的分工思想,对建立社会劳动和谐分工作一探讨。     

CHILD LABOUR: A REVIEW OF RECENT THEORY AND EVIDENCE WITH POLICY IMPLICATIONS

In recent years, a growing number of authors have turned their attention to the question of why children work. The purpose of this paper is to review some of the more recent theoretical and empirical research into the topic of child labour, and to illustrate the fact that no one factor on its own can account for the phenomenon of child labour. Therefore, policies aimed at eradicating child labour will need to address the broad range of underlying factors that contribute to the incidence of child labour, such as poverty, market imperfections and access to education.     

The New International Division of Labour in Asian Electronics: Work Organization and Human Resources in Japan and Malaysia

This article documents and analyses the organization of work and human resources management in ten manufacturing plants in Malaysia and three plants in Japan. Each of the plants carries out specific tasks within an emergent international division of labour surrounding two Japanese multinational producers of consumer electronics goods. Plant roles reflect their positions in commodity chains driven by the multinationals, varying in relation to product-to-product and component-to-component divisions of labour, and in relation to the location of product and process innovations. How work is organized and how workers are managed are explained by the location of each plant within this division of labour, and by the characteristics and situation of labour, the one commodity which talks back, within the local environment.     

The Division of Labour,Capitalism and Socialism: An Alternative to Sayer

Sayer (1995) has argued that the division of labour has a structure that is distinct from capitalist relations of production, and, following Hayek, that it is determined most strongly by the use of knowledge by enterprises. Conscious coordination or alteration of the division of labour therefore usually result in reduced efficiency and in an authoritarian suppression of difference. In this article we argue that the division of labour in capitalism is strongly determined by conflict within and between classes, and that in the short term socialist policy can and should aim to alter it. A model of socialist economic coordination is presented which is feasible and ameliorates many of the problems of the capitalist division of labour. This model would enable the development rather than suppression of positive differences.     

Entrepreneurship and market size. The case of young college graduates in Italy

We analyse empirically the effects of urbanization on Italian college graduates' work possibilities as entrepreneurs three years after graduation. We find that doubling the province of work's population density reduces the chances of being an entrepreneur by 2–3 percentage points. This result holds after controlling for regional fixed effects and is robust to instrumenting urbanization. Provinces' competition, urban amenities and dis-amenities, cost of labour, earning differentials between employees and self-employed workers, unemployment rates and value added per capita account for more than half of the negative urbanization penalty. Our result cannot be entirely explained by the presence of negative differentials in returns to entrepreneurship between the most and the least densely populated areas. In fact, as long as they succeed in entering the most densely populated markets, young entrepreneurs are able to reap-off the benefits of urbanization externalities: the elasticity of entrepreneurs' net monthly earnings with respect to population density is 0.02–0.03.     

Incomplete information and the time series behaviour of consumption

Pischke ( 1995 ) uses both microeconomic and macroeconomic US data to test the idea that, within an otherwise standard PIH framework, ignorance by agents of aggregate labour income can account for the observed degree of excess smoothness and sensitivity in consumption. His tests involve only the second moments of aggregate consumption and labour income. In this paper our main aim is to identify and test the restrictions his model implies for aggregate consumption dynamics, using US quarterly data over the period 1959–1996, but our framework allows us also to test an earlier, related model of Goodfriend ( 1992 ). We find that both models can be formally rejected: ignorance of aggregate labour income cannot by itself account for aggregate consumption dynamics; some other relaxation of the assumptions of the standard PIH is required. We give an example of one possible such relaxation and present evidence indicating that Pischke's version of imperfect information may, within that framework, have a significant role to play. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

NOMINAL AND REAL WAGE RIGIDITIES IN NEW KEYNESIAN MODELS: A CRITICAL SURVEY

Abstract The labour market is receiving increasing attention in the New Keynesian literature. In this paper, I critically survey this literature in order to highlight the role played by wage rigidities in the explanation of fluctuations caused by technology shocks. To this aim, I present a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with sticky prices, nominal wage rigidities and hiring costs. The comparison between this model and that of Blanchard and Gali highlights the non‐trivial differences which exist in the way nominal wage and real wage rigidities drive the economy's dynamics. My conclusion is that models incorporating nominal wage rigidities and some degree of price stickiness provide a better account of macroeconomic dynamics than models with real wage rigidities.     

The price of labour and understanding the causes of poverty

This paper provides a review of how questions in labour economics link to the central concerns of development economics in understanding the mechanisms that both create, and perpetuate, poverty in some countries and not others and in some areas within countries. The paper frames this link by asking what determines first the price of labour, then the nature of employment open to labour and finally discusses the links from the price of labour to incomes through the assets owned by the poor. The advent of micro data in developing countries has transformed our knowledge of what needs to be explained. While the price of labour clearly depends on education the links between incomes and education are much weaker than is frequently supposed. The finding from micro data that conditioning on a wide range of observable characteristics of human capital still leaves most of the variation in earnings to be explained suggests the importance of understanding what these other factors might be and how they may interact with human capital. One possibility is that markets are segmented so that individuals with the same skills earn different amounts depending on the sector in which they work. Another possible explanation is that the unobserved characteristics of workers are more important than the observed and that processes of matching and search lead to the outcomes we observe in labour markets. It is argued that these explanations are not mutually exclusive and that different processes may operate across labour markets both within and across countries. The review concludes by outlining outstanding research issues in labour economics where new models and data may well provide insights into explaining the extraordinarily diverse range of outcomes we observe for the price of labour in poor countries.     

Transferring Organizational Practices and the Dynamics of Hybridization: Japanese Retail Multinationals in China

Detailed case study research conducted at Japanese multinational retail firms in both their home country and their subsidiaries in China is undertaken to assess a range of prominent theoretical perspectives that have been used to account for the transfer of organizational practices. Approaches based upon culturalist, national business systems, industry sector, international division of labour, and agency perspectives are shown to be inadequate, individually, to account for the complex patterns of transfer, local adoption, and adaptation in these multinational companies. These findings highlight the value of conceptual bricolage and multi‐level analysis for developing explanations that can encompass and explicate complex patterns of hybridization. The paper also identifies important factors in the dynamics of hybridization that have been neglected or downplayed in much of the existing literature. These include the significance of context specific, firm level perceptions of sources of competitive advantage as a key motive encouraging transfer of parent company practices. Crucial factors constraining transfer are the practices and norms prevalent in local labour markets. Additionally, transfer by multinational companies to transitional economies with high levels of deinstitutionalization illustrates problematic dimensions for various theoretical perspectives, including influential neo‐institutionalist models.     

Travail domestique et espace-temps des femmes

The subject of this article is the division of labour between the sexes which is specific to capitalism, and the characteristics of the space-time of women. On the basis of works written by historians, we are trying to show that the present division of labour which sentences women primarily to domestic work and men to productive work, is linked to the specifically capitalist separation between production and reproduction. The whole sphere of reproduction where specialized institutions such as school or medicine are closely linked to the family, contributes, through the transformations of domestic work, to the establishment of new social relationships: the children are permanent objects of care and education, the women are defined in terms of mother-wives. Those transformations can be seen in those of the space and time of urban structures and housing. Now the space-time of women seems mainly structured by domestic work. Concrete elements underline it: for example the space-time imposed upon women is delimited by a series of prohibitions bearing upon those places and times that do not belong to domestic work. The constitution of this space-time is based upon the negation of women's work within production. Reformulated in terms of mobility, the space-time of women differs according to social classes but its main features stem from the division of labour between the sexes and the status of the mother-wife.     

Commitment to company and labour union: empirical evidence from South Korea

Commitment is an important part of business and a vocal part of the lexicon of many commentators and actors in the employment relations arena, including management, trade unions and policy makers. This is partly in the context of the interest in many countries in human resource management, in which commitment is seen as a key part, and the more recent ideas of ‘employee engagement’. Commitment, and the related topic of dual commitment, has also generated academic interest. However, much of the work has come from the US. This paper applies such ideas via a set of hypotheses in a different context – South Korea – with commonly viewed widespread high commitment, both to (and from) companies (e.g., strong internal labour markets) and unions (e.g., militancy). Is there a paradox in this duality, or can workers be committed to both companies and unions? What are the antecedents of this? This paper finds that workers can have dual commitment and that different factors affect the commitment to company and labour union, although labour–management relations climate, job satisfaction, as well as company tenure, are common predictors     

Two Views on Social Stability: An Unsettled Question

A bstract Emil Durkheim published The Division of Labour in Society as part of his strategy to create a place for sociology as a science independent from economics. The book describes how social cohesion and cooperation evolve spontaneously in the course of the process of the division of labour. Friedrich Hayek developed a theory of markets and competition which was later extended into a theory of society, in which spontaneous evolution is a central element. The main force behind this process is competition and the evolution of coordination. Both authors address the problem of social stability. Hayek rejects Durkheim's analysis as constructivistic, but his criticism is unjustified. Further analysis reveals many similarities between the two authors theories of societal evolution. A striking point of convergence is that Hayek's theory of markets is a network theory, and that sociological network theory is directly inspired by Durkheim's work. The main differences are Hayek's emphasis on the division of knowledge and on coordination as the fundamental stabilising forces as opposed to Durkheim's stress on the division of labour and cooperation. The network approach, together with an elaboration of Hayek's psychology, offer perspectives for integrating coordination and cooperation into a unified theory of social stability.     

一种改进的产业结构相似程度测度方法

本文发展了一种改进的产业结构相似程度测度方法——产业结构相似指数;这一指标具有一般性,改进克鲁格曼指数是其在2地区模型的一个特例。本文发现,在用于多地区模型时,研究者容易掉入产业结构相似系数、改进克鲁格曼指数等指标的“用法陷阱”;对这些指标予以两种方式的灵活应用,则可避免掉入“用法陷阱”。本文还发现,在讨论区域分工问题时,地区的相对规模因素具有重要的影响;如果忽略城市的相对规模因素,则会高估长江三角洲地区工业分工水平。     

On-the-job human capital investment and intertemporal substitution: New evidence on intertemporal substitution elasticity

This paper argues that estimates of intertemporal elasticity of substitution (IES) obtained from standard life-cycle models are subject to a downward bias because they neglect the life-cycle and demographic patterns of on-the-job human capital investment. Taking into account the fact that part of a worker's time at work goes to acquiring human capital in addition to his main task of producing goods, we extend the standard life-cycle model to include time spent on investing in on-the-job human capital and propose a new framework for identifying the IES. We obtain statistically significant evidence that conventional estimates of IES for total hours at work are biased downward about 20% at the intensive margin. The corresponding IES estimates for production hours are biased downward even more, which provides an explanation for why output fluctuation is greater than hours/employment fluctuation over the business cycle.     

Family Formation and the Divisions of Labour in Belgian Couple Households

In this chapter the authors describe how a quantitative analysis resulted in a proposal for a qualitative research. The aim of the quantitative research was to analyse the impact of family formation on the division of labour in couple households, based on data from the Panel Study on Belgian Households.In a first step a typology was made based upon data of 1224 Belgian couple households (1995). The second step consisted of a longitudinal analysis for the period between 1992 and 1995. The analysis of the impact of birth on the division of labour gave evidence of the revocability of equal patterns of division of labour.Based on these findings the authors concluded that the classic concept of emancipation does not allow us to understand the empirical phenomena. Hence, the authors proposed a new (qualitative) investigation aimed at clarification and empirical validation of different contents of the concept of emancipation.     

PART II Criticisms and Reconstructions Searle's Foole

In The Construction of Social Reality, John Searle promises a causal account of how social facts are constructed by human acts of intention, but specifically disavows a special theoretical space in that account for human motivation. This paper argues that such a story as Searle tells cannot serve as a causal account of society. A causal account must illuminate motivations, because doing so illuminates the aims and interests lacking which we cannot explain why these social practices come to be and not potential others. Thus Searle's would‐be account of society has a problem analogous to that of Hobbes, which Hobbes's own Foole poses, and that Hobbes never answers to anyone's satisfaction.     

Intergenerational justice when future worlds are uncertain

Let there be a positive (exogenous) probability that, at each date, the human species will disappear. We postulate an Ethical Observer (EO) who maximizes intertemporal welfare under this uncertainty, with expected-utility preferences. Various social welfare criteria entail alternative von Neumann Morgenstern utility functions for the EO: utilitarian, Rawlsian, and an extension of the latter that corrects for the size of population. Our analysis covers, first, a cake-eating economy (without production), where the utilitarian and Rawlsian recommend the same allocation. Second, a productive economy with education and capital, where it turns out that the recommendations of the two EOs are in general different. But when the utilitarian program diverges, then we prove it is optimal for the extended Rawlsian to ignore the uncertainty concerning the possible disappearance of the human species in the future. We conclude by discussing the implications for intergenerational welfare maximization in the presence of global warming.     

The free movement of workers and social Europe: maintaining the European ideal

The big EU enlargement of 2004 has fuelled the debate about whether labour migration from the east to the west is causing social dumping in the European economy, with the effect of upsetting established national systems of labour market regulation. This article reviews the effects of migration on EU labour markets. It also examines three recent industrial relations disputes which were about job displacement. It argues that there is little evidence of greater labour mobility causing new social dumping pressures on a widespread basis. However, it goes on to suggest that the situation may change if the EU adopts neoliberal policies such as the initial draft Services Directive at the same time as promoting greater labour market openness between the Member States. The article concludes by arguing for a better policy mix which would on the one hand involve the EU maintaining its commitment to the free movement of workers and on the other hand strengthen labour standard‐setting mechanisms at both the EU and national levels.     

The role of employee participation in generating and commercialising innovations: insights from Chinese high-tech firms

To date, employee participation finds very little recognition in China in research as well as in management practice. It seems to fundamentally contradict traditional values in Chinese culture. The effect of employee participation on innovation is completely unknown, not only for China, but also for many other emerging economies. In contrast, employee participation finds a lot of recognition in the western world for quite some while. Research suggests that employee participation is particularly relevant for innovations in skilled labour contexts, which are becoming increasingly important also for China. Based on a survey of 620 medium-sized and large companies we are investigating the effect of employee participation on innovation generation and commercialisation in China. In the formulation of our hypotheses we take the moderating effects of incentives into account. The contribution of this article is to give evidence on the explanation power of the western concept of employee participation outside the western world. This allows for a better understanding of the robustness of the concept towards cultural context factors.     

Signifying Williamson's Contribution to the Transaction Cost Approach: An Agent‐Based Simulation of Coasean Transaction Costs and Specialization

This article simulates Ronald Coase's transaction cost approach to firm organizing using agent‐based modelling, and contextualizes and contrasts it with a division‐of‐labour/specialization view of the firm that Coase challenged and sought to replace. The simulation tests the firm formation process based on the different implications of transaction costs and specialization as drivers of integration, focusing especially on Coase's rejection of specialization as an explanation for integration in the firm. The results show little support for, and suggest an important shortcoming to, Coase's transaction cost theory. My findings thereby indicate a potential relationship between the specialization theory and Williamson's Transaction Cost Economics, especially the latter's emphasis on co‐specialization through relationship‐specific investments, which helps shed light on TCE's significant influence in the theory of the firm literature.