Government intervention in the capital allocation process: Excess employment as an IPO selection rule in China

We study the role of excessive employment as a selection criterion for initial public offerings (IPOs) in China. Using a large dataset of firms that are eligible for a public offering, we find that firms' that have more excess employment – that is, firms that hire too many people – are more likely to be selected for an IPO. This correlation is stronger for the private sector than for the state sector, suggesting that stock market capital is used to direct capital flows to private firms that comply with politicians' preferred labor practices. A third set of results corroborates the inefficiency of this selection rule by showing that firms with more excess labor underperform after the IPO. We conclude that a political system known for its interventionistic government policies uses its influence over the stock market to signal preferred employment practices.     

Trends,Countertrends, and Gaps in Women's Employment

The factors driving global integration, namely, trade expansion, technological change, and the internationalization of production have altered production patterns and changed the composition of output in both developed and developing countries. As global patterns and modes of production have changed there has been a general shift away from agriculture toward industry and services. Along with these output changes have come significant changes in regional and national employment. In developing and developed countries, these changes span divergent trends. On the one hand, there is the increased availability of more and better quality employment as workers shift out of agriculture and subsistence production and into waged employment in the expanding manufacturing and service sectors. On the other hand, there have been sectors where the trend has been away from formalization toward the informalization and semi-formalization of production activities and employment practices. Women have generally benefited from improvements in the world economy. This article demonstrates, however, that patterns of employment and income generation among women often diverge, however, from global trends in important ways that suggest that the forces shaping global integration effect women differently. The article frames a policy discussion that the International Center for Research on Women led to debate the implications of recent trends in women's employment in the developing and developed world. The six articles in this section represent this discussion. They span a range of empirical and theoretical inquiry, exploring global employment trends and highlighting changes in women's participation in formal and informal economic activities.     

Elected Versus Appointed County Commission Executives: Race, Political Favors and Support Facilities

In this paper we explore how blacks influence expenditure and employment decisions of county commission executives. We also explore whether or not this influence varies when county commission executives are elected verses appointed to their positions. The desire to earn votes could mean that elected officials treat voting populations, including blacks, in a manner that is distinctly different from their appointed counterparts. We find that in areas where there is more discretion, elected officials tend to have higher per capita expenditures. However, there does not appear to be any difference in employment practices. We find that having a larger black population is positively related with discretionary spending and employment.     

The agricultural revolution and the conditions of the rural poor,southern Sweden, 1750–1860

The social consequences of agrarian change have been widely debated. The traditional view of the lower classes becoming increasingly vulnerable due to the loss of access to resources has been met with the revisionist view that this change was counteracted by an increase in the volume and regularity of employment due to investments and new farming practices. This article address this issue by studying the agricultural revolution in southern Sweden using aggregate data at the parish level. New micro‐level data on actual harvest outcomes, supplemented by price data, make it possible to differentiate between the development of the local economy and exogenous price shocks. Our results indicate a clear mortality response to harvest fluctuations in general and to harvest failures in particular. The response differed greatly between farming regions, being strongest in the areas most dependent on grain production. The response also diminished during the agricultural revolution, indicating the increasing efficiency of the local economy. This indicates employment effects in line with the revisionist view. At the same time, vulnerability to fluctuations in prices of basic foodstuffs remained high until the second half of the nineteenth century and was also quite similar across farming regions.     

‘Doing-good’ and ‘doing-well’ in Chinese publicly listed firms

Recently, the presumed benefits of corporate social responsibility have become an important issue, especially for China where institutional settings are quite different from other parts of the world. Using an internationally accepted benchmark (OECD's Principles of Corporate Governance, OECD, 2004), this study constructs a corporate social responsibility (CSR) index to measure the quality of the corporate social responsibility practices of the 100 major Chinese listed firms during 2004–2007. This enables us to evaluate the progress of the corporate social responsibility practices of Chinese firms. The results show that Chinese companies have been making progress in their corporate social responsibility practices. The findings also show that market rewards Chinese firms for improving their corporate governance practices which implies ‘doing-good’ leads to ‘doing-well’ in the equity market in China. We also find that overseas-listed and more profitable Chinese firms have better improvement in CSR practice. This study has policy implications in pushing for further CSR initiatives in other emerging markets.     

Industrial property letting: Lessons from the GLC's policies and experience

The GLC, and the Greater London Enterprise Board, has been developing innovatory policies for letting industrial properties. The aim has been to support priority industrial sectors and to require “good employer” practices by tenants

Although the full value of this work has been cut short by the abolition of the GLC, the experience acquired raises important issues for other local authorities who wish to use their industrial property instrumentally to support other employment development policies.     

Assessing black progress: employment,occupation, earnings,income, poverty

Farley discusses changes in employment, occupation, earnings, income, and poverty among US blacks. Among black men, there has been a persistent rise in unemployment since 1960. By the early 1980s, 1 black man out of 8 had dropped out of the labor force, compared to 1 in 20 white men. Some contend that many black men lack the skills to be employed or have personal habits and criminal records which make them unacceptable to employers. Others believe that the expansion of federal welfare programs offers attractive alternatives to men who have limited earnings potential. Still others stress that blacks are concentrated within cities, while the growth of employment is occurring in suburbs. Among those blacks over age 54, labor force participation has declined because of improved Social Security benefits, better private pensions, and the greater availability of Supplemental Security Income. The employment of young blacks compared to whites has deteriorated since 1960. For both races, there has been a steady rise in the employment of women. The recent increases, however, have been great for whites. By the early 1980s, white women caught up with black women in terms of employment. Unlike the indicators of employment itself, there is unambiguous evidence that the occupational distribution of employed blacks has been upgraded and is gradually becoming similar to that of whites. Findings from many studies show that blacks once earned much less than similar whites, but this racial difference has declined among men and has nearly disappeared among women. The proportion of blacks impoverished fell sharply in the 1960s, reaching a minimum of 30% in the early 1970s. Since the early 1970s, blacks have made few gains. The proportion impoverished actually increased and the ratio of black-to-white family income declined. The fact that the earnings of black males are no longer rising faster than those of whites and that there is no longer a migration from southern farms to cities plays a role, but changes in family structure are also important. At all dates, poverty rates have been high and income levels low in families headed by women. In 1984, for example, 52% of the black families with a woman as head of household were below the poverty line, compared to 15% of the black married-couple families. While similar trends are occurring in white families, there has been a sharper increase in the proportion of blacks living in these female-maintained families which have high poverty rates.     

Farmer characteristics,innovativeness and cotton production at Makhatini Irrigation Scheme,KwaZulu

An understanding of the various practices was the most important of the various human factors affecting adoption of cotton practices as recommended. Availability of financial resources as well as entrepreneurial ability in turn affected innovativeness and yield per hectare. Less than half of the farmers who adopted practices were implementing them according to recommendations and many did not have a clear concept that practices were inter‐related. There is a need to select farmers on the basis of farming knowledge, resources and managerial ability. There is also a need to upgrade extension services aimed at improving farming knowledge and skills and to create opportunities for greater farmer participation, as well as to improve the integration of research, technology development, support services, extension and farmers if cotton production is to offer an alternative to wage employment.     

Off-farm employment and agricultural specialization in China

While it is well known that China's off farm labor market is emerging rapidly, less is known about the effect of movement off the farm on the farming practices of those that have continued to farm. The overall goal of this paper is to analyze the effects of changes in China's off farm employment on one aspect of the performance of China's agricultural sector: the emergence of specialization in farming. To achieve this goal, we have three specific objectives. First, we document the changes in the flow of labor out of China's villages. Second, we examine how specialization in farming has changed over time. Third, we examine the association between off farm labor flows and specialization. Using panel data from a national representative data collected by the authors between 1999 and 2008, the analysis finds that off farm employment is indeed rising rapidly. At the same time, specialization is occurring off and on the farm. There is a strong and robust correlation between off farm employment and on farm specialization. The results imply that China's agriculture has responded dynamically to the modernization happening elsewhere in the economy.     

关于就业协议适用劳动合同法的几点思考

自《劳动合同法》实施以来,由于就业协议与劳动合同的冲突使得毕业生的劳动权益受到很大的损害,其根本原因在于就业协议与劳动合同性质不同、内容有别,导致适用法律的不同。因此,改革就业协议就成了摆在我们面前一个必须解决的问题,但如何改革却并没有形成共识。笔者认为改革就业协议,最好的办法就是创造条件使就业协议适用劳动合同法。本文在全面分析就业协议存在的必要性及面临的主要问题、就业协议适用劳动合同法的必要性和可行性的基础上,提出了改革就业协议的具体建议。     

"神器"的黯然:日本终身雇佣制改革

20世纪90年代以来,日本经济曾陷入长期低迷,广受赞誉的日本企业雇佣管理制度——终身雇佣制也开始受到广泛质疑。面对激变的经营环境,日本企业开始纷纷推出改革举措,其主要特征是:引进绩效主义、彻底改革有日本经营"神器"之称的终身雇佣体制。经营环境决定企业的经营方式,日本企业的此次雇佣体制的制度创新尚处于初始阶段,终身雇佣制的"外壳"仍将继续存在一段时间。     

中国隐含能出口的就业效应分析

进出口贸易伴随着物质和能量的流动。随着中国出口规模的不断上升,隐含能出口给中国带来的能源环境影响日益受到重视。大量能源的隐性出口是否为我国带来了合理的利益是评价隐含能出口是否值得的关键。本文利用投入产出技术分析了1997年、2002年以及2007年中国隐含能出口的就业效应,结果发现中国隐含能出口的就业效应随时间下降,从而揭示了在现有的发展模式下,我国出口贸易对就业增加的贡献在不断弱化,而加剧我国能源环境压力的作用却越来越明显。     

Is There Job Lock? Evidence from the Pre-HIPAA Era

We estimate discrete time hazard models of employment duration and standard logarithmic wage equations using the 1987 and 1990 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to examine the phenomenon of job lock. We lest for job lock using differences-in-differences approaches among those with and without employer-provided health insurance and family members with and without health problems. We find no statistically significant evidence of job lock on employment duration or wages using this approach. We do find some evidence of shorter employment spells for those with employer-provided health insurance and spouse-provided health insurance, and longer employment spells for those with employer-provided health insurance and large families. Others have interpreted these findings as evidence of job lock. However, the wage equation results using these measures are not consistent with job lock. Although anecdotal evidence makes it clear that some workers have been locked into less-than-optimal jobs because of the combination of health problems and employer-provided health insurance, our results do not suggest that this phenomenon is pervasive in the U.S. economy.     

管理效率与全要素生产率——基于“中国企业-劳动力匹配调查”(CEES)的新证据

基于"中国企业-劳动力匹配调查"（CEES）数据,文章创新性地选择了管理效率这一微观视角,就其对企业全要素生产率的影响效应进行了稳健地实证检验。通过回归发现,对于现阶段的中国企业而言,管理效率基于当前的均值每提升10%,全要素生产率将提高1.72%~2.92%,管理效率对企业全要素生产率的增长具有显著的促进作用。在此基础上,文章进一步就管理效率对全要素生产率的影响机制展开了进一步验证,分析发现：管理效率可以通过企业自动化、信息化和开放性程度的提升显著促进全要素生产率的增长。因此,文章建议企业在加强管理的同时,也应配合对相应的机器设备和交流环境进行优化,以实现企业的高效和持续发展。     

Lifetime employment as a coordination failure

This paper examines welfare implications of lifetime employment—a type of employment protection which arises endogenously. Lifetime employment is viewed as a commitment to assuring job security for a worker who makes effort, regardless of his actual productivity. Two effects arise from this commitment to lifetime employment: (i) it lowers the cost of inducing effort; (ii) it also has an external effect on the average quality of unemployed workers, which significantly affects the prospect of reemployment. The interaction of these two effects generates a type of strategic complementarity which results in multiple equilibria under certain conditions. We argue that the equilibrium in which all firms are committed to lifetime employment tends to be less efficient since inefficient matches are bound to perpetuate in this type of equilibrium.     

North American economic integration and industry location

Does regional economic integration affect the location of economicactivity inside countries? Discussed in this paper is recentacademic literature on whether the movement towards free tradein North America has influenced the spatial organization ofproduction in Canada, Mexico, or the United States. In Mexico,closer economic ties with the United States appear to have contributedto a contraction of employment in the Mexico City manufacturingbelt, a rapid expansion of manufacturing employment in northernMexico, and an increase in the wage premiums paid to skilledworkers. The effects of economic integration on industry locationin Canada and the United States seem to have been much weaker.One exception to this finding is US cities on the Mexican border,whose employment growth is strongly positively correlated withexport production in neighbouring Mexican regions. The implicationof a possible hemispheric free-trade agreement are also discussed.     

FORMAL–INFORMAL ECONOMY LINKAGES AND UNEMPLOYMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa's high unemployment and small informal economy has been attributed to barriers to entry in informal labour markets. We develop a general equilibrium model based on a typology of informal activities that captures formal/informal linkages in product and labour markets. Simulations reveal that trade liberalisation increases formal employment, hurts informal producers, and favours informal traders and may explain the dominance of traders instead of producers. Wage subsidies also raise employment but further heighten competition for informal producers. Cash transfers favour informal employment, albeit with a fiscal burden. Results confirm the role of formal/informal linkages and product markets in explaining policy outcomes.     

The Effect of a Program‐Based Housing Move on Employment: HOPE VI in Atlanta

We combine records of Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) clients, Georgia Department of Labor (DOL) employment records, and neighborhood characteristics to analyze the causal effect of an exogenous move out of public housing on the employment of public housing residents. The exogenous move was caused by a HOPE VI or HOPE VI‐like project in Atlanta. We find that such an exogenous move has a positive and statistically significant effect on the probability of employment for those residents who moved relative to other public housing tenants. We also compare the change in employment of those whose exogenous move was to another public housing unit to those who took a housing voucher. We also compare the change in the probability of employment associated with an exogenous move and a voluntary move and find that both types of moves are associated with a greater probability of employment as compared to those who did not move.     

欧美国家的工作福利制度改革研究

20世纪末,很多发达国家都对原有的社会救助政策进行了改革,改革的共同趋势就是实行工作福利制度。该制度的推行在一定程度上减少了社会福利的依赖人数,扩大了就业。虽然还存在一些争议,但是工作福利制度已经受到了广泛关注,探讨欧美国家的工作福利制度改革对完善我国低保制度具有很强的借鉴意义。     

Flexibility versus Commitment in Personnel Management

This paper compares human resources (HR) policies embedded in the Japanese and U.S. management systems. We adapt a model from the literature on irreversible investment and use it to examine the trade-off between flexibility to adjust the labor force and higher productivity stemming from the greater commitment of the firm to its employees. In the model, two types of contracts with otherwise identical workers can coexist. One possibility is for firms to commit to a permanent employment contract that precludes dismissal at will. The alternative is a temporary employment contract that allows flexibility to adjust the firm's labor force during demand downturns, but involves higher labor cost per unit of output. Using an example, we illustrate the possible magnitude of the value of flexibility and suggest that adopting long-term contracts in the wrong environment can significantly reduce firm value. The model yields predictions for the optimal labor force composition and its relation to the characteristics of the firm's market. We also consider practices that develop to complement permanent employment. The predictions are then examined in light of evidence on the HR practices in Japan and the United States in the past 50 years and are found to be consistent with the stylized facts in the literature. J. Japan. Int. Econ., December 2001, 15(4), pp. 515–556. Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois. © 2001 Elsevier Science (USA).Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: J31, J33, J41, J64.