Labour hoarding in a disequilibrium model of the Dutch labour market

Summary This paper presents a method to integrate labour hoarding into a disequilibrium model of the labour market. Disequilibrium indicators for the labour market that include labour hoarding are constructed. These indicators, being important determinants of policy multipliers with respect to employment, are found to be less volatile than the corresponding disequilibrium indicators for the goods market which are available from business surveys. The lower volatility reflects the role of labour hoarding as a buffer between actual and efficient employment levels. Our results indicate that labour hoarding in Dutch enterprises ranges from a minimum of 0.5 per cent of employment in early 1985 to a maximum of 7.0 per cent in 1975. Furthermore, the paper pays special attention to the modelling of mismatch unemployment and to the simulation results of an empirical disequilibrium macromodel of the Dutch economy.The authors thank M.M.G. Fase and two anonymous referees for their useful comments.     

A distributed lag analysis of disequilibrium in the International money market

Zusammenfassung Eine Ungleichgewichts-Analyse der internationalen Geld-m?rkte unter Verwendung verteilter Lags. — Die Studie versucht die Ursachen des Ungleichgewichts seit Beginn des kontrollierten Floatings auf dem internationalen Geldmarkt zu untersuchen, und zwar mit Hilfe eines Modells mit verteilten Lags auf Monatsbasis. Dadurch sollen Ergebnisse ermittelt werden, die mit jenen verglichen werden k?nnen, die Aliber für die letzten sieben Jahre des Systems fester Wechselkurse ermittelt (und kürzlich in dieser Zeitschrift ver?ffentlicht) hat. Die Ergebnisse sind insofern entt?uschend, als sie für meine Auswahl von zehn L?ndern kein schlüssiges Muster liefern, das Auskunft darüber geben k?nnte, ob die Ursachen des Ungleichgewichts monet?r (Versagen von ?Fisher Closed? und ?Fisher Open?) oder strukturell waren (Versagen von ?Kaufkraftparit?t? und ?Fisher Open?). Da aber die ?Kaufkraftparit?t? in meinem empirischen Test mehr versagt als ?Fisher Closed?, k?nnen wir unter Verwendung von Alibers Terminologie folgern, daβ das Ungleichgewicht mehr struktureller als monet?rer Art gewesen ist. Wenn wir indessen den Ausdruck ?monet?r? in seinem unmittelbaren und üblichen Sinn (der Wirkung von Geldangebots?nderungen) verwenden, dann k?nnen wir nicht sagen, daβ relative ?nderungen des Geldangebots als Erkl?rung von Wechselkurs?nderungen besser geeignet sind als die ?Kaufkraftparit?t?. Relative ?nderungen des Geldangebots scheinen aber etwas besser als ?Fisher Open? das Zinsagio zu erkl?ren.

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Résumé Une analyse de retardement distribué de diséquilibre sur le marché d’argent international. — L’étude essaye de rechercher les sources du diséquilibre depuis le commencement du flottement managé sur le marché d’argent international par un modèle de retardement distribué estimé avec des données mensuelles pour gagner des résultats contrastants avec ceux obtenus par Aliber (publiés dans ce journal récemment) pour les dernières sept années du système de taux de change fixe. Les résultats sont désappointants de manière qu’ils ne fournissent pas un réseau pour mon sondage de dix pays expliquant si la source du diséquilibre était monétaire (défaut de ?Fisher Fermé? et ?Fisher Ouvert?) ou structurelle (défaut de ?Parité de Pouvoir d’Achat? et ?Fisher Ouvert?). Maintenant, comme la ?Parité de Pouvoir d’Achat? manque dans mes testes empiriques plus complètement que le ?Fisher-Fermé?, nous pouvons conclure que le diséquilibre était de manière plus structurelle que monétaire, en utilisant la terminologie d’Aliber. Mais en appliquant le terme ?monétaire? plus directement et communément pour référer à l’influence des changes en offre d’argent, nousne pouvons dire que les changes relatifs en offres d’argent expliquent les changes de taux des changes avec plus succès que la ?Parité de Pouvoir d’Achat?. Cependant les changes relatifs en offres d’argent semblent expliquer les agios d’intérêt quelque peu avec plus succès que le ?Fisher-Ouvert?.

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Resumen Un análisis de retardos distribuidos del desequilibrio en el mercado internacional del dinero. — El estudio trata de investigar las fuentes del desequilibrio desde el inico de la flotación manejada en el mercado internacional del dinero por medio de un modelo de retardos distribuidos estimados con datos mensuales, de manera de prover un set de resultados que puedan ser contrastados con aquéllos obtenidos por Aliber (publicados recientemente en esta revista) para los últimos siete a?os del sistema de cambioŚ fijos. Los resultados son desilusionantes en el sentido que no permiten distinguir un patrón definitivo para mi muestra de diez países, que indiquen si la fuente del desequilibrio ha sido monetaria (falla de ?Fisher Closed? y ?Fisher Open?) o estructural (falla de ?poder de compra de paridad? y ?Fisher Open?). Ahora, que el ?poder de compra de paridad? presenta mayores fallas que el ?Fisher Closed? en mis tests empíricos, podemos concluir que el desequilibrio ha sido de naturaleza más estructural que monetaria, usando la terminología de Aliber. Pero, utilizando el término ?monetario? en su sentido más directo y común para referirse a la influencia de cambios en la oferta de moneda, no podemos decir que cambios relativos en la oferta monetaria explican variaciones en las tasas de cambio más exitosamente que el ?poder de compra de paridad?. Cambios relativos en la oferta de dinero, sin embargo, resultan explicar en mejor forma los descuentos de interés que el ?Fisher Open?.

     

New Labour and the labour market

The recent run of good macroeconomic news masks mounting evidencethat worklessness is increasingly concentrated on selected individuals,households, and socio-economic groups and in geographical areas.These distributional aspects have been overlooked or ignoredover the last 20 years, but we believe they now form the mostpressing labour-market and social problems facing this administration.We focus on what we view as the government's selected priorities:the concentration of unemployment on certain individuals, groups,and areas; increasing inactivity, especially marked among lesseducated, older men; low pay, persistence of low wages, andits relationship with job loss; and the distribution of workacross households and child poverty. Many of these problemsleave lasting scars on individuals, so that successful interventionmay beneficially change an individual's life-chances. We examinethe evidence on each of these issues and the current state ofpolicy aimed to reduce their scale or intensity.     

A panel data analysis of the formal-informal sector labour market linkages in South Africa

This study explores the labour market linkages between the informal and formal sectors, using the first four waves of the National Income Dynamics Study data. The main focus is on three groups of employed: worked in the formal sector in all waves; worked in the informal sector in all waves; moved between the two sectors across the waves. Only 27% of informal sector workers in wave 1 transitioned to the formal sector in wave 4; 38% remained in the informal sector while 33% had their status changed to either inactive or unemployed. The econometric analysis indicates that older and more educated individuals living in urban areas and coming from households with fewer old-age grant recipients are significantly more likely to work in the formal sector, whereas more educated white males are associated with a significantly greater likelihood of transitioning from informal to formal sector employment.     

Towards an analysis of tax effects on labour market and allocation: A micro/macro approach

Summary Tax effects on labour market and allocation are analysed with a sectoral model which is based on the microeconomic theory of the behaviour of economic agents. The model contains a highly disaggregated household sector, an enterprise sector, equilibrium unemployment on the labour market and a detailed modelling of institutional aspects of the tax and social security system. The model is calibrated for 1985. Simulation results show that temporary increases of world trade and higher value-added tax rates do not affect the equilibrium unemployment rate in the long run. A higher replacement rate of unemployment benefits increases unemployment and a tax reform containing lower marginal and average tax rates reduces unemployment.The authors thank F.J.H. Don, C.J.J. Eijgenraam, F.H. Huizinga and R.M. van Opstal for assistance on the household model, the cumulated production structure approach, the wage model and the model of firm behaviour respectively, and other colleagues of the Central Planning Bureau for useful comments.See Shoven and Whalley (1984) and Borges (1986) for reviews, and Keller (1980) for an application to The Netherlands.See, for instance, Abel (1980), Summers (1981), Bruno and Sachs (1985), Van de Klundert and Peters (1986).Ginsburgh and Mercenier (1988) review AGE modelling and the disequilibrium approach.     

Equilibrium and disequilibrium in the international money market

Zusammenfassung Gleichgewicht und Ungleichgewicht auf dem internationalen Geldmarkt. —In diesem Aufsatz wird versucht, die Ursache des Ungleichgewichts auf dem internationalen Geldmarkt festzustellen. Kurzfristige Kapitalbewegungen erfolgen, weil die Zinsunterschiede auf dem Geldmarkt nicht in vollem Umfang die erwarteten Wechselkurs?nderungen vorwegnehmen. Die Faktoren, die die Unterschiede in den Zinss?tzen bestimmen, sind andere als diejenigen, die den erwarteten Wechselkurs bestimmen. Als Ursachen für ein Ungleichgewicht auf dem internationalen Geldmarkt werden solche struktureller, monet?rer und institutioneller Art ermittelt. Die ersten betreffen Abweichungen von der Kauf-kraft-Parit?t und ?Fisher Open?, die zweiten Abweichungen von ?Fisher Closed? und die dritten beruhen auf der Begrenzung der Schwankungsbreite des Wechselkurses in einem entsprechenden W?hrungssystem. Die Ergebnisse sind, daβ Ungleichgewichte sowohl mit Abweichungen von der Kaufkraftparit?t als auch mit ?Fisher Open? erkl?rt werden konnten. Wechselkurs?nderungen scheinen eher strukturelle als monet?re Faktoren widerzuspiegeln. Die Zinsdifferenz ver?ndert sich nicht in Erwartung von Wechselkurs?nderungen.

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Résumé L’équilibre et le diséquilibre sur le marché international d’argent. —Cet article a essayé d’identifier les sources de diséquilibre sur le marché international d’argent. Les flux de capital à court terme se passent parce que la différence d’intérêt de marché d’argent n’anticipe pas complètement le change attendu dans le taux de change. Les facteurs déterminant la différence de taux d’intérêt se distinguent de ceux qui déterminent le taux de change anticipé. Les sources de diséquilibre sur le marché international d’argent furent identifiées comme structurelles, monétaires et institutionelles. La première comprend des déviations de la Parité de Pouvoir d’Achat et ?Fisher Open?, la deuxième comprend des déviations de ?Fisher Closed?, et la troisième comprend la confiance à un système de taux de change resserré. Les résultats sont que le diséquilibre pourrait être expliqué en manière de déviations de la Parité de Pouvoir d’Achat ou de ?Fisher Open?. Les changes de taux de change semblent refléter plus les facteurs structuraux que les facteurs monétaires. L’agio d’intérêt ne change pas en anticipation des changes de parités.

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Resumen Equilibrio y desequilibrio en el mercado internacional del dinero. —El presente artículo intenta identificar la fuente del desequilibrio en el mercado internacional del dinero. Flujos de capital de corto plazo ocurren debido a que las diferencias en la tasa de interés del mercado del dinero no anticipan completamente el cambio esperado en la tasa de cambio. Los factores que determinan la diferencia en la tasa de interés son distintos de aquéllos que determinan la tasa de interés anticipada. Las fuentes del desequilibrio en el mercado internacional del dinero fueron identificadas como estructurales, monetarias e institucionales. La primera fuente envuelve desviaciones del poder de compra de paridad y del ?Fisher Open?, la segunda envuelve desviaciones del ?Fisher Closed? y la tercera comprende la confiaza en un sistema de cambio estabilizado. Los resultados son que los desequilibrios podrían ser explicados en términos de desviaciones del poder de compra de paridad o del ?Fisher Open?. Cambios en las tasas de cambio resultan reflejar factores estructurales en vez de factores monetarios. La prima de la tasa de interés no cambia en anticipación de cambios en las paridades.

     

Reinterpreting the convict labour market

The convicts transported to NSW between 1817 and 1840 were young, fit, highly literate and brought occupational skills which were broadly representative of the British and Irish working classes. In the colonial labour market where convicts were coerced, more labour was forthcoming and at a lower wage than in a free labour market. The assignment of convict labour in the colony was efficient; skilled urban and construction tradesmen were employed in the same jobs in NSW as they had held in Britain. Domestic servants and unskilled urban workers whose skills were not suited to the needs of the colony experienced job restructuring. The organization of convict workers into teams and gangs in Australia was similar to the way work was organized in free labour Britain, and a mbc of incentives and rewards characterized the extraction of work from convicts. The human capital of the transportees and the labour system within which they worked help to explain the rapid growth of the colonial economy before 1840.     

A model of the Dutch labour market (AMO-K)

Summary So far, the labour market has not received any special attention from macro-econometric model builders. In this article an attempt has been made to describe the labour market in detail, paying attention to such important phenomena as the friction between labour supply and demand, the heterogeneity of labour, the dependence of labour supply on the labour-market situation, the Phillips mechanism and the impact of real wages on labour demand. To make it suitable for policy simulations, the model has been extended to a complete macro-econometric model, taking account of the fact that both labour and capital limit the production possibilities.This paper summarises an extensive Dutch report on the construction of a model for the Netherlands labour market. The title of the original report is AMO-K: Een arbeidsmarktmodel met twee categorieën arbeid; (AMO-K, A labour-market model with two categories of labour) ; it was published by the Netherlands Economic Institute (NEI) in Rotterdam in the so-called Olive Series, 1982-2, pp. 403ff. Some details of the model presented in that report were changed after its publication; see G. den Broeder, AMO-K 81-12, Tussenrapport betreffende de verdere ontwikkeling van het arbeidsmarktmodel (Interim report on the further development of the labourmarket model), Rotterdam, September 1983. Since then, only minor changes have been carried through. The model reproduced in this paper is the modified version. The model was developed within the National Programme of Labour-Market Research (NPAO) (now defunct), the NPAO organisation having granted a commission to the NEI in Rotterdam.     

Institutions and economic performance: evidence from the labour market

We analyse the institutional determinants of economic performance,taking European labour-market institutions as a case in point.European economic growth after the Second World War was basedon Fordist technologies, a setting to which the continent'sinstitutions of solidaristic wage bargaining were ideally suited.They eased distributive conflicts and delivered wage moderation,which in turn supported high investment. The wage compressionthat was a corollary of their operation was of little consequenceso long as the dominant technologies were such that firms couldrely on a relatively homogeneous labour force. But as Fordismgave way to diversified quality production, which relied moreon highly skilled workers, the centralization of bargainingand the compression of wages became impediments rather thanaids to growth. Assuming that growth will rely even more inthe future on rapidly changing, science-based, skilled-labour-intensivetechnologies, countries with centralized labour-market institutionswill have to move still further in the direction of decentralization.Whether Europe in particular can accommodate these demands willhelp to determine whether it is able to re-establish a fullemployment economy in the twenty-first century.     

Education and the labour market in Botswana

Using primary data from a 1993/4 Household Income and Expenditure Survey in Botswana, this article presents empirical results on occupational attainment, its determinants, and the extent of filtering down in Botswana's labour market, given changes in labour market conditions over time. It was found that the Botswana labour market has been characterised by some ‘filtering down’ of educated workers into less skilled jobs as the supply of skilled manpower exceeded demand. Those who entered the labour market earlier, those with more education, those located in the urban areas and male workers are more likely to occupy jobs that are higher up in the hierarchy than to be in an unskilled blue-collar job. Jobs higher up in the hierarchy are also more rewarding financially. The article shows that there is occupational segregation of workers by gender in Botswana's labour market in that female workers are generally confined to a narrow range of occupations. The policy implications are that employment creation has to be pursued vigorously and the issue of gender discrimination investigated further.     

Using census and survey commuting statistics in local labour market analysis

This paper describes the context for an interest in travel-to-work patterns by those concerned with labour market analysis and local economic development. The scope, coverage and content of Census of Population and local survey data on travel-to-work patterns are reviewed, and their strengths and weaknesses compared. Examples of the types of information which can be extracted from various sources are used to illustrate similarities and variations in travel-to-work patterns by population subgroup, and analyses on travel-to-work times and the geographical extent of job search areas derived from local labour force surveys are presented.     

Derksen's study of labour force participation of married women in the netherlands: Some comments and a further analysis

Summary Derksen's study, which was published in 1975, is the first multiple regression analysis of Dutch data on the labour force participation of married women. After commenting on the theoretical model used by Derksen, this article has challenged his estimation procedures. It is shown that in the case under consideration weighted least squares is to be preferred to ordinary least squares and logit analysis seems to be an even more appropriate method.All computations were made on the computer of the Academic Computer Centre Utrecht. The author is indebted to L. Hammiriga and A. Kapteyn for valuable comments.     

Local politics and the local authority labour market

The 1979 election heralded a new approach to public sector finance and employment. For local government, this has involved a new regulatory framework, which attempts to reproduce private sector financial and labour market structures. This article examines the effect of this new regulatory framework on the labour markets of three case study local authorities and the manner in which those effects have been mediated by local politics over the period 1979-1984     

Eastern European trade and the Austrian labour market

Eastern European Trade and the Austrian Labour Market. — Recent years have seen a major break in trade relations between Western and Eastern European countries. Austria experienced a large bilateral trade creation with these countries. In this paper, the authors take a closer look at the impact this trade growth had on the Austrian labour market. To differentiate as far as possible between different segments of the labour market, they concentrate on unemployment experience and wage growth for a panel of individual workers in Austrian industry. The results show rather small employment effects, the impact on wage growth is more pronounced with interesting modifications for mobile and immobile workers.     

Migration and the urban labour market: The case of San Salvador

This article analyzes the employment and incomes of migrants in the city of San Salvador. The study finds that, both rural-urban and urban-urban migrants experience income gains and are increasingly employed in the formal sector. However, the upward mobility of urban-urban migrants is much larger. Compared with urban natives, these migrants have higher income levels and employment rates after five years of urban residence, while rural-urban migrants earn much less and tend to remain in the informal sector more frequently. This evidence is contrary to findings obtained in other studies, for example Brazil, which showed that urban natives and migrants have comparable levels of income and employment. The authors suggest that the experience of rural-urban migrants is a result of the functioning of the urban labour market. Within this market a mechanism exists whereby access to the high-wage sector is limited by discriminating among workers. As a result, rural-urban migrants, often recognizable by their racial characteristics, are denied access to high-wage jobs.     

Union relevance in the Malaysian labour market

The study estimates the effect of union membership on workers' wages using individual‐level data from a survey conducted among employees in various sectors in Malaysia in 2012. Initial results show that union membership has a positive effect on wages. However, after controlling for endogeneity, union membership or the presence of a labour union within a firm is not statistically significant for individual wage levels. Because there is no trade union wage premium, the study suggests that the revival of labour union membership is not going to be an easy task.     

Active labour market policies and job tenure

In this paper, we study the effect of subsidised on-the-jobtraining, training for the unemployed and pure wage subsidieson job tenure. Correcting for selection biases, we find thateach of the labour market policies increases the length of jobtenure. Despite the sensitivity of the estimates to the parametricassumptions with respect to the unobservables, the effect ofsubsidised on-the-job training schemes is always found to besignificantly positive. Training programs for the unemployedand pure wage subsidies always have a positive, but statisticallynon-significant effect Our results provide some support forhuman capital theories as opposed to matching theories.