The determinants of female labour supply in Hungary

The aim of this paper is to closely examine the effect on a married woman's labour supply decision of non-labour income and of her own wage rate in a transition economy. The paper first shows that labour force participation rates for Hungarian females, though decreasing, were still extremely high and comparable to male economic activity in western countries. It then estimates labour supply parameters using a model that controls for sample selection issues associated with the labour supply of married women. Wage elasticity is estimated to be high and positive (1.81) while the income effect is consistent with leisure being a normal good. No sample selection bias is found.     

Real exchange rate and exchange rate policy in Hungary

Five real exchange rate indicators are computed to assess the international competitiveness of Hungarian industry. These indicators are explained in econometric equations by employment, unemployment, productivity, interest spread and real producer wage. Causality tests reveal that external performance has an impact on real exchange rates, and contributes to explaining real exchange rates. There is very limited scope for policy intervention to constrain the negative effects of capital inflows without incurring other costs.     

Venture capital availability and labour market performance around the world

This article studies the effects of venture capital on the performance of the labour market. Using data from a much larger sample of countries than previous papers, it finds more readily available venture capital to favourably affect both the unemployment and the employment rate. The magnitude of the estimated effects is substantial. We control for both endogeneity of venture capital availability and most major determinants of labour market performance. The results are robust to variations in specification.     

Capital Inflows to Hungary in 1995–96 and the Accompanying Policy Responses

In order to analyze the composition and effects of, and the policy responses to, capital inflows to Hungary during 1995–96, we present an analytical framework that emphasizes the distinction between net capital flows to the private and public sectors (the latter includes the government and the central bank). This distinction is essential in Hungary's case, because figures for overall net inflows conceal the fact that huge net capital inflows to the private sector were accompanied by large repayments of foreign public debt, covered by significant privatization revenues. We present indicators of the domestic monetary impact of net capital inflows in order to analyze the magnitude, costs, and effects of sterilization. We note that extensive sterilization and the use of privatization revenues for public debt repayment largely explain why capital inflows to Hungary did not have significant effects on the real economy or on domestic monetary aggregates in the period reviewed.     

Roma employment in Hungary after the post‐communist transition1

We analyse the magnitude and the causes of the low formal employment rate of the Roma in Hungary between 1993 and 2007. The employment rate of the Roma dropped dramatically around 1990. The ethnic employment gap has been around 40 percentage points for both men and women and has remained remarkably stable. Differences in education are the most important factor behind the gap, the number of children is important for female employment and geographic differences play little role once education is controlled for. Conditional on employment, the gap in log earnings is 0.3, and half of it is explained by educational differences.     

匈牙利科技观察

匈牙利每年投入研发经费10亿欧元左右,约占全国GDP的1％。根据新政府的设想,到2020年,研发投入将提高到GDP的1．5％～1．8％。匈牙利国际科技合作活跃,近年来采取多种办法解决人才流失问题,并吸引海外人才回流。根据国家中期科技和创新战略（2007-2013年）,未来匈牙利要形成知识和创新驱动型经济,以确保匈牙利有能力向国际市场提供有竞争力的产品和服务。匈牙利近年确定了一些高校为研究型大学,加强了对产业集群的引导和支持。但是匈牙利仍面临研究经费不足和人才流失的挑战。     

中国当前失业的成因与对策分析

中国当前的失业问题，主要是由三个因素造成的：一是产业结构的调整；二是体制改革的影响；三是技术进步的结果。造成失业的核心因素是供需双方的知识结构偏离。人力资源政策是解决失业的关键措施。     

就业风险与失业安全

随着从计划向市场的经济与社会全面转型,不同形式的就业风险在不断增大。政府和社会都在为变风险失业为安全失业做出种种努力。如何通过强调政府责任、规范失业保险、加快立法进程等途径以促进就业、缓解就业风险,是我国经济与社会发展过程中迫切需要解决的重大问题。     

A prospective analysis of labour market status and self-rated health in the UK and Russia

Comparing prospective data from the UK and Russia, this paper analyzes whether the association of labour market status, and particularly unemployment, with subsequent health varies by the level of state protection provided to the unemployed. While the UK's unemployment welfare regime is classified as providing minimal protection, the Russian regime is sub-protective. Employing Cox duration analysis upon data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey and the British Household Panel Survey for the period 2000–2007, this study finds that labour market status and economic circumstances independently predicted individual-level declines in self-rated health and, contrary to expectations, the associations of unemployment with health decline were similarly sized in the two countries.     

Corporate Governance in Russia

This paper discusses a local, privately-run and federally-funded program for all individuals able to demonstrate their income is at, or below the poverty line. This free Certified Nursing Assistant training program enables successful participants to obtain appropriate employment in local hospitals. The program is complementary to job guarantee proposals promoted by a number of economists, and provides an example of how local job creation programs can incorporate job training to improve prospects for upward mobility.     

The impact of monetary policy on unemployment hysteresis

This article investigates the hypothesis that the extent to which hysteresis occurs in the aftermath of recessions depends on monetary policy reactions. The degree of hysteresis is explained econometrically by the extent of monetary easing during a recession and by standard variables for labour market institutions in a pooled cross country analysis using quarterly data. The sample includes 40 recessions in 19 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries for which the required data is available. The time period lasts for the period from 1980 to 2007. This article builds on Ball (1999) and extends the sample of countries, the time period under investigation and the set of control variables.     

Employment polarisation and inequality in the UK and Hungary

This paper uses household budget survey microdata to explorethe growth in household income inequality in Hungary in theperiod 1987–1995, and compares it with inequality in theUK in 1995–96. Decomposition of inequality according toboth household characteristics and income sources shows that,while inequality did grow rapidly in Hungary over the earlyTransition period, several factors prevented its growth to higherlevels. One of these factors, the distribution of employmentand earnings between households, is explored in some detail.While there was considerable polarisation between householdswith and without employed members in the UK in 1995–96,this was less of a feature in Hungary, in spite of a massivewithdrawal of men and women from the labour market between 1987and 1995. Rather, a narrowing of the gender pay gap and a continuedhigh level of female participation in employment appears tohave ensured that, even as earnings inequality in Hungary increasedto the extent that it surpassed earnings inequality in the UK,the distribution of household earnings, and the distributionof household incomes, remained more equal in Hungary.     

The Beveridge curve and labour market dynamics in Turkey

This article investigates the dynamics of unemployment and vacancy rates in Turkey during the period 1951 to 2008 by means of a Beveridge Curve (BC). The time-series analysis of unemployment and vacancies as well as two other relevant labour market variables, real wages and real labour productivity, strongly suggests inefficiency in the Turkish labour market. A stable long-run relationship between unemployment rate and vacancy rate is found for Turkey, that is, the existence of a negatively sloped BC is verified. The estimated Turkish BC reflects the structural problems and lack of flexibility in the labour market. The modified BC with real wages and labour productivity reveals that labour productivity has no significant effect on unemployment rate whereas wages have positive and significant effects on the same variable.     

国外就业政策及对我国的启示

就业不仅是一个经济问题,还是一个政治问题、社会问题。尽管各国具体国情不同,但在解决失业问题上各国采取了很多相似的政策。应在对各国政策对比的基础上找出共性。笔者认为,我国解决失业问题时,应采取扩大就业总量、提高劳动者素质、加快劳动力市场建设等多方面措施。     

Beveridge's analysis of unemployment in 1909: the reserve of labour

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide a rational reconstruction of Beveridge's theory of unemployment published in 1909. First and foremost, it shows that his theory of unemployment is coherent – what Beveridge refers to as ‘the reserve of labour’ represents ‘unemployment’ as a whole; unemployment is due to the imperfection of the labour market and associated friction and the organisation of the labour market is necessary. Second, it suggests that as early as 1909, a negative relationship already existed between unemployment and job vacancies and that the segmentation of the labour market and imperfect information are key factors of friction. The first part of the paper provides a reconstruction of Beveridge's theory of the reserve of labour (1909) including causes and factors of unemployment and unemployment policies. The second part shows that certain founding principles of the ‘Beveridge curve’ (Beveridge 1944 Beveridge, W. H. 1944 [1953]. Full Employment in a Free Society, London: George Allen and Unwin.  [Google Scholar] [1953]) were already to be found in his 1909 book and that links can be established between Beveridge (1909 Beveridge, W. H. 1909. Unemployment: A Problem of Industry, London: Longmans, Green and Co.  [Google Scholar]), Phelps (1970 Phelps, E. S. 1970. The new microeconomic in inflation and employment theory. The American Economic Review, 59(2): 147–60. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and Pissarides (2000 Pissarides, C. A. 2000. Equilibrium Unemployment Theory, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.  [Google Scholar]).     

New forms of labour contract and labour flexibility in Russia

This paper assesses the claims that employment in the new Russian private sector relies heavily on informal and unregistered labour agreements and that the violation of existing labour law by new private employers is driven by their need for more flexible working arrangements.
The paper shows that these claims are unsupported on every count. The new private sector does not rely heavily on informal or illegal forms of employment and there is no evidence that it uses labour more flexibly, in any of the usual senses of the term, than the traditional sectors of the economy. The conclusion is that there is no economic justification for the systematic violation of the existing labour legislation. It is suggested, therefore, that enforcement of the existing law is a precondition for its effective reform in those areas in which it might be a barrier to restructuring.     

The impact of public employment on labour market performance: evidence from African countries

Using census data for Ghana, Mali and Mozambique, we study the long-term impact of public sector employment on local labour markets. We find that the public sector crowds out private employment and induces skilled workers to queue for a public job, thus increasing their unemployment rate. In addition, a growing public sector fosters employment in the tradable and nontradable sectors, remarkably for the unskilled, and the reallocation of unskilled workers away from agriculture.     

Output decline and the demise of the CMEA and the USSR: The case of Hungary

The direct effect of market losses in CMEA on Hungarian output was 4%, out of the 18% decline registered in gross output in 1988–1992. Total (direct and indirect) effects amounted to 8%. In the same period Hungary's export expansion in western markets led to direct and total effects equivalent to 2.9% and 5.6% of the 1988 output, respectively. The share of reorientation within this switch from east to west was not negligible, it amounted to 19% of respective trade volumes. The 1991 price explosion of imported inputs inhibited the activity of Hungarian firms only moderately, due to earlier realistic domestic prices. In 1991 Hungary suffered a 26% terms of trade loss, and could have experienced an income terms of trade loss of USD 1400 to 1600 million, had the trade volume of 1990 been repeated. Since adjustments in 1991, much smaller income losses accrued. Due to earlier special tax arrangements, much of the burden of terms of trade losses had to be born by the budget.     

Unemployment durations of job losers in a labour market in transition

Slovakia is one of the Central European countries in transformation from a centralized command system to a decentralized market economy. This paper studies the labour market position of Slovak job losers. Using data from labour force surveys we analyse exit rates out of unemployment. We find that male, young, higher educated job losers in districts with low unemployment rates have substantially shorter unemployment durations than their counterparts. There is evidence that for some job losers it is very hard to find a new job.     

Unemployment and labour force participation in Spain

This article examines the relationship between the unemployment rate and the labour force participation rate in Spain. Cointegration analysis is performed for aggregate, male and female time-series. Results suggest that there is no a long-run relationship between the two variables for the aggregate and male cases. However, the findings support a long-run relationship between the two variables for the female time-series. Thus, the unemployment invariance hypothesis is supported in the two former cases but not in the latter.