Towards a theory of the labor market with a public sector

The object is to specify and analyze equilibrium in a labor market with frictions when there is a significant public sector. In the vast majority of equilibrium studies on labor markets, a public sector has been ruled out by assumption. This seems a strange oversight as about 17% of workers in the US are public sector workers, whereas in western Europe, approximately 22% of workers work in the public sector. The goal in this study is to provide answers to such questions as: what happens to private sector wages if the public sector is increased? If the Government increases the number of public sector jobs, does this crowd out private sector jobs? When will private sector wages be greater (less) than the public sector wage? Reasonably complete answers to these questions (and others) are provided within the context of the model developed.     

科技服务业新分类及发展形势分析

文章从当前我国社会发展需求角度,提出科技服务业新的分类思路,即将科技服务业分为服务于创新的研发服务业、服务于生产的工业设计创意服务业、服务于创业的创业服务业、服务于社会的信息咨询服务业四类,并分析了在新的分类体系下,当前科技服务业的发展形势。     

The Central Government-Private Sector Wage Differential

Since Ehrenberg and Schwarz (1986) there has been a plethora of articles investigating the relationship between public and private sector wages. This article examines part of this post 1986 literature by reviewing articles that examine central government-private sector wage differentials. In sum, most articles find that there is a premium paid to central government workers, although the premium has declined in recent years. In developing countries, however, the differential is usually negative. Women and minorities tend to do better in the public sector relative to their private sector counterparts. The evidence on union premiums between sectors is mixed, although the premium tends to be higher in the private sector. However public sector union workers do not do much better than private sector union members. The magnitude of all of the wage differentials discussed are sensitive to the estimation technique and data source used. The most common explanation for the public sector wage premium is economic rent accruing to government workers, although the public sector wage determination literature suggests that the differential is due to returns to political and 'vote producing' activities not relevant in the private sector.     

中国经济增长与贫困减少——基于产业构成视角的分析

本文从经济增长的产业构成视角切入,就经济增长与贫困减少论题进行了实证研究。研究发现,虽然三大产业的增长都是经济增长的重要源泉,但在减少贫困方面,第一产业和第三产业增长的减贫效应非常显著,而第二产业增长的减贫效应微弱。将总体样本分为沿海地区与内陆地区的拓展回归分析表明,只有第一产业增长对沿海地区贫困减少产生显著的影响;相比之下,第一产业和第三产业增长均有助于内陆地区贫困减少。进一步研究显示,产业劳动力密集度和不同行业对劳动力技能需求的异质性是导致上述产业减贫效应差异的重要原因。     

The supply multiplier with a self-employed private sector

Conclusion By modelling the private sector on the basis of self-employment, rather than the wage employment assumed by Hare (1987), we are able to proceed without making strong restrictions on functional forms. Our main conclusion is that the supply multiplier equationis affected by the inclusion of the private sector. The immediate effect of an increase in state sector goods purchases by the government is that there is an equal reduction in the amount of state sector goods available for the household sector. This is assumed to affect household demand for private sector output and household supply of labour to the private sector (as well as affecting household labour to the state sector, as in the Barro-Grossman model). The change in labour supply to the private sector affects the supply of goods by the private sector. The net result is that an excess demand (or supply) is created for private sector output and so the price of this output rises (or falls). In general, a change in private sector price leads to a change in state sector labour supply and output, a result, which, by definition, does not occur if the private sector is not included in the model. Thus, the supply multiplier in general takes a different value from that found by Barro and Grossman.Given that the rate of change of labour supply to the state sector with respect to the price of the private sector good is negative we obtain the following conclusion. (a) If a marginal decrease in the availability of state output results in an excess supply of private sector output (before price changes), the supply multiplier is not as negative as in the Barro-Grossman model and may even be zero or positive. (b) If, however, an excess demand for private sector output is created, the supply multiplier is actually more negative than in the Barro-Grossman model. Should, instead, the rate of change of labour supply to the state sector with respect to the price of the private sector good be positive these conclusions are reversed, in the sense that the terms excess supply in (a) and excess demand in (b) are interchanged.(The views expressed in this paper should not necessarily be attributed to the Department of Trade and Industry.) We would like to thank an anonymous reference for helpful comments, particularly in pointing out an inconsistency in our treatment of the individual and the aggregate behaviour of households in an earlier version of the paper.     

科技服务业新分类及发展形势分析

文章从当前我国社会发展需求角度，提出科技服务业新的分类思路，即将科技服务业分为服务于创新的研发服务业、服务于生产的工业设计创意服务业、服务于创业的创业服务业、服务于社会的信息咨询服务业四类，并分析了在新的分类体系下，当前科技服务业的发展形势。     

PRODUCTIVITY IN PUBLIC SERVICES

Abstract.  This paper discusses issues arising in the measurement of productivity in public services. Compared to measuring productivity in the private sector difficulties arise because the output of public services is often unpriced and because some public services are consumed collectively. A key problem is measuring the full range of outputs and quality improvements delivered by public sector organizations that are valued by society. Without comprehensive measures of output, productivity statistics may be misleading. I outline methods used in the measurement of both private and public sector productivity and discuss the measurement of public sector productivity in practice. Finally I discuss studies that examine factors underlying productivity differences and productivity growth in public and private sector organizations. Public sector reforms and the use of pilot schemes in public sector organizations present opportunities for research to identify causal effects on productivity.     

Supply multipliers in a centrally planned economy with a private sector

A simple model of a centrally planned economy is developed with a state sector and private sector, and with a supply constraint affecting state sector output. In such a model, a supply multiplier can be derived under the same conditions which would make an increase in state sector prices an effective means of reducing shortage. Moreover, a one-sector constrained equilibrium model of the state sector does not yield misleading results by ignoring the private sector; and the private sector price level is a reliable indicator of shortage in the economy.This paper was written while I was a visitor at the European University Institute, Badia Fiesolana, Florence. I am grateful to Mario Nuti for participating in the discussions which stimulated the paper and to the Institute itself for the facilities provided.Comments from Geoff Wyatt enabled me to make some useful improvement to the paper.     

Financial sector strategies and financial sector outcomes: Do the strategies perform?

Financial sector strategies enable financial policymakers and stakeholders to take a holistic view at the financial development needs in their country and to formulate balanced financial policies. They help policymakers consider the systemic risk that different development policies involve and choose an informed way forward. We construct a new dataset of historical financial sector strategies covering 150 countries over the period 1985–2014, and assess the strategies using the rating criteria proposed by Maimbo and Melecky (2014). We then investigate how the quality of the strategies can affect financial sector outcomes such as financial depth, inclusion, efficiency and stability. We find that the use of financial sector strategies helped increase financial sector deepening, inclusion and stability, and that this impact could be greater for higher quality strategies. One way how financial sector strategies can improve financial sector outcomes is by improving the regulatory framework for finance. A significant relationship between the use of strategies and the efficiency of banks is not confirmed.     

Competing with the Public Sector in Broadcasting

There are two public sector broadcasters in the UK: the BBC and Channel 4. In their different ways, their behaviour attracts criticism from the private sector. However, this critique is unfocused and potentially counter-productive. A more efficient – or privatised – public sector would create greater, not lesser, problems for the private sector. The allegations of abuse of privilege and unfair competition may be justified, but the private sector needs a coherent alternative rationale for public funding of broadcasting before it can expect to win a public and political debate.     

公共部门人力资源管理中的问题及对策

以政府为核心的公共部门,不仅可以为大众提供优质公共产品和公共服务,还对社会稳定和经济进步起到至关重要的作用。为了更好地推动国内经济社会的积极发展,必须使公共部门人员的自身价值得到最大程度的发挥。这就需要做好公共部门的人员资源管理,提高他们工作效率和服务质量。为了更好地促进国内社会公共部门人力资源管理发展,论文分析了公共部门人力资源管理中存在的问题,对如何改善提高公共部门人力资源管理提出相应解决方案。     

Public sector purchasing of health services: A comparison with private sector purchasing

Recent research has highlighted the existence of important differences between public and private sector procurement practices. Drawing on established transactional and relational conceptual frameworks, this paper examines whether the differing environments confronting public and private sector organisations affects procurement practices. By focusing solely on occupational health services as an example of a complex business service, the research allows the influence of environmental factors, notably policy drivers, to be considered across both public and private sector settings while service specific factors remain largely constant. Utilising a combination of questionnaires and in-depth interviews the research suggests that policy drivers had a major bearing on procurement practices adopted in the public sector, resulting in a very different pattern of engagement with service providers from that prevailing in the private sector. Specifically whereas private sector organisations utilised a range of approaches, which can broadly be classified as relational in nature, public sector organisations almost exclusively relied on transactional-based approaches. The nature of these services suggests that relational based procurement constitutes the optimal approach to the acquisition of such services. However, for public sector organisations the perceived restrictions imposed by public policy on procurement practices resulted in the adoption of an approach which can be viewed as resulting in sub-optimal outcomes.     

Reporting public sector financial results

Part of the process of recent public sector reform has involved replacing traditional cashbased accounts with accrual-based financial statements, similar to those found in the private sector. This article examines the use of accrual-based accounting in the public sector and provides examples from the UK National Health Service of situations where the accruals system may be deemed inappropriate. It shows that one possible response is to withdraw from the accruals mode and revert to cash measures, deeming the accruals adjustments to be ‘merely technical’. An alternative response is to change the mode of operating so that the cash impact of a transaction matches its accruals reporting impact. The conclusion is that there are modifications to public sector accounting practices away from those of the private sector that undermine the metaphor of running the public sector ‘like a business’.     

A model for dual health care market with congestion differentiation

The French market for specialist physician care has a dual legal structure: physicians must exclusively work in sector 1 and charge regulated fees or in sector 2, where they can freely set their fees. Patient out-of-pocket payments in sector 2 are partially covered by private insurance. The primary differentiating factor between both sectors is the number of patients per specialist, which in turn directly affects the overall quality of the service provided. We built an equilibrium model to analyze both specialists' decisions about which sector to work in, and patients' choice of physician and therefore sector. More specifically, the model allowed us to study the effect of changes in prices and economy-wide patient-to-specialist ratios on profits and patients' utility associated with the services provided in each sector.     

北京市服务业FDI的经济效应：基于协整检验的实证研究

服务业是当今世界国际直接投资（FDI）的主要流入产业。本文在分析北京市服务业利用外资现状的基础上,使用1997—2007年的年度数据,运用协整分析方法,对北京市服务业FDI的经济效应进行了实证分析。研究结果表明：北京市服务业FDI与服务业增长、产业结构升级之间存在着长期均衡关系。     

Estimating the effects of the minimum wage in a developing country: A density discontinuity design approach

This paper proposes a framework to identify the effects of the minimum wage on the joint distribution of sector and wage in a developing country. I show how the discontinuity of the wage distribution around the minimum wage identifies the extent of noncompliance with the minimum wage policy, and how the conditional probability of sector given wage recovers the relationship between latent sector and wages. I apply the method in the “PNAD,” a nationwide representative Brazilian cross‐sectional dataset for the years 2001–2009. The results indicate that the size of the informal sector is increased by around 39% compared to what would prevail in the absence of the minimum wage, an effect attributable to (i) unemployment effects of the minimum wage on the formal sector and (ii) movements of workers from the formal to the informal sector as a response to the policy.     

Spillovers among CDS indexes in the US financial sector

By employing the robust cross-correlation function approach proposed by Hong (2001), and conducting pre-tests for structural breaks in the variances as well as removing the causality-in-mean effects in the causality-in-variance tests, we investigate volatility and mean transmissions between the credit default swaps (CDS) indexes of three US financial sectors. We use daily series on five-year banking, insurance, and financial services sector CDS indexes at the sector level from January 2004 to December 2011. We find evidence of significant causality-in-mean effects running from the banking sector to the insurance and financial services sector CDS indexes and from the financial services to the insurance sector CDS indexes, suggesting the leading role of the banking and financial services sectors in terms of price discovery. Moreover, we find significant causality-in-variance effects from the financial services sector CDS index to that of the banking sector, implying the existence of information transmission and contagion from the former, the least regulated of the three. The implications of these findings on traders and policymakers are also provided.     

Regional unemployment disparities in China

China has larger regional unemployment disparities than any other economy of comparable size. The persistence of the unemployment disparity in China has prevented the aggregate unemployment rate from decreasing even when the country’s GDP was growing at 10 percent per year. Unemployment rates rose and unemployment disparities widened in other transition economies too, but what made China’s disparities wider than those in other transition economies is the existence of a large subsistence sector, where unemployment exists only in a disguised form. This study explains the wide unemployment disparity in China with the geographically uneven distribution of the three sectors: the state sector, which suffers from a steep rise of unemployment during transition; the capitalist sector, which absorbs labor from the subsistence sector and grows rapidly; and the subsistence sector, which supplies its redundant labor to the capitalist sector. The study also presents a case study of Fuxin City, which has experienced an extremely high unemployment rate due to the reform of its main industry. Fuxin’s case is presented as a microcosm of the problems that give rise to unemployment disparities, such as massive layoffs in the state sector, lack of labor mobility in the unemployment-stricken regions, and inadequate development of the capitalist sector.     

The contribution of research and innovation to productivity

This paper examines the impact of investment in research and innovation on Australian market sector productivity. While previous studies have largely focused on a narrow class of private sector intangible assets as a source of productivity gains, this paper shows that there is a broad range of other business sector intangible assets that can significantly affect productivity. Moreover, the paper pays special attention to the role played by public funding for research and innovation. The empirical results suggest that there are significant spillovers to productivity from public sector R&D spending on research agencies and higher education. No evidence is found for productivity spillovers from indirect public funding for the business enterprise sector, civil sector or defence R&D. These findings have implications for government innovation policy as they provide insights into possible productivity gains from government funding reallocations.     

Connectedness and risk spillovers in China’s stock market: A sectoral analysis

This paper shows how sectors in the Chinese stock market are connected and investigates risk spillovers across these sectors. Using graph theory and a recently developed time series technique, we are able to identify the systemically important sector in the market and the patterns of risk spillovers across sectors over time. Unlike standard econometric modeling, graph theory enables us to approach this question in a more reader-friendly way. The empirical results show that Industrial sector plays a central role and should thus be considered the systemically most important sector in the Chinese stock market. The spillover structure is found to be time-varying. While Industrial sector dominates the system for most of the time, other sectors such as Consumer Discretionary sector also occasionally appear as the central sector. Our empirical results also indicate that the simple correlation-based approach can produce equally useful information as more advanced econometric models.