Trends in Intergenerational Mobility across Offspring's Earnings Distribution in Norway

Using register data for Norwegian cohorts born in 1950, 1955, and 1960, we found intergenerational earnings mobility to be high, and lower at the lower end of offspring's earnings distribution than at the upper end. The findings also indicate that mobility has increased over time and that the increase is somewhat higher for lower earnings. The increase in earnings mobility over time is larger for women than for men.     

The Impact of Surplus Schooling on Worker Productivity

Human capital theory suggests that education enhances worker productivity and is reflected in higher individual earnings. We use data from the 1969 Survey of Working Conditions and the 1973 and 1977 Quality of Employment Surveys, and a model derived from the industrial psychology literature, to test the proposition that workers' education in excess of what their jobs require can have adverse effects on job satisfaction and other correlates of worker productivity. Our results support earlier studies that have found surplus schooling has a negative effect on job satisfaction. Our findings also indicate that the negative impact of surplus schooling on job satisfaction and turnover is more significant for workers with a higher level of surplus education. Finally, the negative effects of surplus schooling appear to change over time.     

Language Skills and the Earnings Distribution Among Child Immigrants

In this paper, we estimate the language effects on the earnings distribution among child immigrants. Utilizing U.S. Census data, we find: (1) there exists a larger heterogeneity in language premiums across the earnings distribution, and the patterns change over time (2) occupation and education channels explain most of the language effects and the large heterogeneity in them. However, the importance of these two channels has decreased over time.     

Output Pay and Ethnic Wage Differentials: Canadian Evidence

Using the Workplace and Employee Survey, we are the first to examine the association between payment method and ethnic wage differentials in Canada. Following earlier theory, we hypothesize that output pay tying earnings to productivity makes it more difficult for employers to discriminate. The empirical estimations show that non‐Europeans in Canada paid by time rates receive lower earnings than Europeans paid by time rates. Yet, non‐Europeans paid by output pay receive virtually identical earnings to their European counterparts.     

工业机器人应用对制造业劳动生产率的影响研究——基于欧美13个国家数据的经验分析

本文从制造业细分行业的角度实证分析了工业机器人对劳动生产率的影响,并对西方国家整个制造业就业人数的减少做出解释。实证结果显示工业机器人的应用显著提升了制造业的劳动生产率,针对不同细分行业本身的特点,这种影响存在差异,工业机器人应用存在边际促进效应递减的趋势;从地域层面来说,工业机器人应用量大的国家,对制造业劳动生产率的提升作用更加明显,就整体而言,工业机器人的应用减少了制造业从业人员的比例,即制造业所能容纳的工人数量在逐渐减少。     

The Great American Job Creation Machine in Comparative Perspective

Job creation is mainly a product of demographic changes and changes in social structure, particularly an increased supply of young and/or cheap labor. It is unrelated to unemployment rates or other measures of economic performance and their causes; it results in lower earnings growth and slower long-run productivity gains. If job creation is little affected by demand policies, the appropriate response is less boasting about employment gains and more attention to reshaping the supply and quality of labor.     

The Impact of Size and Age on Firm-Level Performance: Some Evidence from India

Using contemporary data for an extensive sample of 1020 Indian firms, this paper investigates the impacts that size and age of firms have on firm-level productivity and profitability. In India older firms are found to be more productive and less profitable, whereas the larger firms are, conversely, found to be more profitable and less productive. These performance differences are explained as arising from the market-restricting industrial policies that have been followed in India over the past three decades.     

Agricultural productivity growth in Brazil: Large and small farms excel

The long-standing debate on the relationship between farm size and productivity has been generally limited by the range of farm sizes evaluated and the definition of productivity. In this paper we use data from three Brazilian agricultural censuses to address these issues. In particular, we introduce a wider distribution of farm sizes than presently available from the literature and we employ total factor productivity (TFP) as our performance measure. In doing so, we test which farm size class had the highest TFP levels in 1985 and 2006, how factor productivity growth varied within and across farm size classes between those years, and which policy or factor had the greatest productivity enhancing effect. When examining TFP growth, we move beyond the common decomposition into technical and efficiency changes by identifying the complete distribution of farm productivity performances. We find that by 2006 a U-shaped distribution of productivity over farm sizes had emerged. Considerable 1985–2006 TFP growth differences are prevalent; positive rates for the majority accompany stagnant or negative rates for some. Public education investments were associated with faster productivity growth regardless of farm size, while technical assistance’s positive effect and credit’s negative effect were associated with larger farm sizes. The role of specialization varied by size.     

产业结构升级对城市化推进的影响、效果与机制

产业结构升级是推进城市化的重要动力之一,本文结合引力模型和现有的文献基础,推导了产业结构升级对城市化影响的非线性关系。具体来说,把产业结构升级划分为产业结构合理化与产业结构高度化两方面,而把城市化划分为人口城市化与生产率城市化两方面。研究发现,产业结构高度化对人口城市化的影响以及产业结构合理化对生产率城市化的影响呈倒“U”型关系,而产业结构高度化对生产率城市化的影响表现为正“U”型关系,产业结构高度化对生产率城市化的影响不显著,并对其原因予以解释。同时,本文加入了市场机制与政府调控对其影响的直接效应与调节效应,发现产业结构高度化与产业结构合理化通过市场机制作用于人口城市化与生产率城市化的作用要强于通过政府调控机制作用于城市化的效果,同时,产业结构高度化比产业机构合理化通过市场机制与政府调控作用于人口城市化与生产率城市化的作用要强,并得出了相应的政策启示。     

Long‐Term Earnings Inequality,Earnings Instability and Temporary Employment in Spain: 1993–2000

This article provides a longitudinal perspective on changes in Spanish male earnings inequality for the period 1993–2000 by decomposing the earnings covariance structure into its permanent and transitory parts. Cross‐sectional earnings inequality of male full‐time employees falls over the second half of the 1990s. Such decline was determined by a decrease in earnings instability and an increase of the permanent earnings component. Given the marked decline in temporary employment over the sample period, we also examine the effect of the type of contract on earnings variance components and find that workers on a fixed‐term contract face, on average, more instability than workers on a permanent contract. This evidence suggests that the decline in temporary employment is responsible for the decreasing earnings instability.     

Industrial product positioning: Progmatic uses

With increased competition and sophistication in the industrial sector, a better understanding of buyer behavior and attitudes is necessary to minimize “marketing myopia” and maximize marketing productivity. Numerous techniques are emerging to facilitate greater understanding of the buyer. A group of these techniques, known as product positioning, are likely to be especially useful in developing effective marketing programs [8]. Product positioning has achieved substantial acceptance by consumer marketing firms but far less use by industrial firms [9]. An approach to product positioning which is useful in both industrial and consumer marketing is developed here.     

The importance of the product life cycle to the industrial marketer

Different types of industrial product life cycles must be anticipated relative to existing use systems, maintaining a leadership position and strategy changes over time.     

Earnings Mobility and Long-Run Inequality: An Analysis Using Matched CPS Data

In this article we use matched cross sections from the Current Population Survey (CPS) to examine patterns of short-term earnings mobility for the period 1967-91, which we then employ to assess the impact of rising annual individual earnings inequality on inequality over a longer span, First, we find that less-educated individuals and blacks have more instability in their earnings than those who are more highly educated and non-black. Second, short-term mobility levels have not undergone major changes over the time span we examine. Third, our results suggest that long-run inequality (calculated over five years) rose in the latter half of the 1980s. Fourth, important differences exist across demographic groups in long-run inequality trends, with long-term inequality increasing most in the 1980s for less-educated males.     

Don't Forget the Gravy! Are Bonuses Just Added on Top of Salaries?

The press often depicts bonuses as extra payments to the already well compensated and calls for reform. Yet, these calls typically ignore the efficiency argument that bonuses are potentially risky performance pay that substitute for salary compensation. This paper uses representative UK data to estimate that bonuses appear not to substitute for salary in cross‐sectional estimates. Yet, when controlling for time‐invariant characteristics in panel data, bonuses emerge as partial substitutes. Each pound of bonus comes at a cost of 40 pence in other earnings. The degree of substitution is far larger at the bottom of the earnings distribution and far smaller at the top of the earnings distribution where, indeed, bonuses look more like gravy.     

Fluidity in Sexual Identity,Unmeasured Heterogeneity,and the Earnings Effects of Sexual Orientation

Using data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study (1) examines the sensitivity of the estimated earnings penalty of sexual minority status to family‐level unobserved heterogeneity, and (2) explores whether the earnings effects of sexual orientation differ by the degree of fluidity in individuals' self‐reported sexual identity over time. Evidence from sibling pairs suggests that unobserved family heterogeneity is not an important source of bias in the estimated relationship between sexual orientation and young adult earnings. I find that gay males and bisexuals earn lower wages than their heterosexual counterparts, while lesbians earn wages that are not significantly different from heterosexual females. Finally, I examine the role of fluidity in sexual orientation over time and find that males who are longer‐term gay identifiers earn wages that are 26.4 percent lower than their consistently heterosexual‐identifying counterparts.     

The Determinants of Employee Productivity and Earnings

This paper uses data on employee wages and characteristics drawn from a nationwide sample of firms to re-examine the determinants of employee productivity and earnings. The results show that previous experience and tenure in the current job have significant, positive effects on wages and productivity. Hours of training are positively related to productivity and wage growth but generally not to levels of either. Lastly, gender effects are evident. Productivity growth and current productivity levels are slightly higher for females while their wages are significantly lower.     

How do industrial robots applications affect the quality upgrade of Chinese export trade?

This study examines the effect of industrial robots applications on the quality upgrade of China's manufacturing export products at the enterprise level. It analyzes import and export data obtained from the China Customs and Chinese Industrial Enterprises databases from 2000 to 2013. The results show that the industrial robots applications significantly promotes the quality upgrade of Chinese manufacturing export products. Moreover, the impact of industrial robots applications on the export product quality is dynamic; it initially increases and then decreases. Heterogeneity test results indicate greater quality improvement effects if robots feature applications in high-tech industries. We also show that importing more robots and for extended periods promotes the effects of industrial robots applications on the export product quality upgrades of Chinese enterprises. Mechanism tests reveal that industrial robots applications can upgrade the quality of export products by improving the labor productivity and human capital level of enterprises. Finally, spillover analyses show that industrial robots applications intensity significantly affects export quality upgrades through spillover effects.     

Decomposing the Sources of Earnings Inequality: Assessing the Role of Reallocation

This study exploits longitudinal employer–employee matched data from the U.S. Census Bureau to investigate the contribution of worker and firm reallocation to changes in earnings inequality within and across industries between 1992 and 2003. We find that factors that cannot be measured using standard cross‐sectional data, including the entry and exit of firms and the sorting of workers across firms, are important sources of changes in earnings distributions over time. Our results also suggest that the dynamics driving changes in earnings inequality are heterogeneous across industries.     

产品内国际分工对中国工业生产率的影响分析

产品内国际分工使国际分工由产品层面深入到工序层面,有利于优化资源配置、节约生产成本、提高生产率。对中国工业参与产品内国际分工的研究验证了这种积极效应。并且,产品内国际分工对生产率的影响程度与行业特性密切相关。在我国工业各行业中,资本密集型行业与出口密集度高的行业表现出更快地参与到产品内国际分工中去的趋势,在这些行业产品内国际分工促进生产率提高的影响也更显著。     

The Pin Factory Revisited: Product Diversification and Productivity Growth

Manufacturing plants have been producing an increasingly homogeneous product mix over recent years. Individual plants have been manufacturing fewer and less dissimilar products. The trend is ubiquitous across industries and is unlikely to be a random event. An index of product diversification is introduced into a fixed-effects model of productivity growth derived formally from a factor-minimal cost function. Specialization at the production site is found to have spurred productivity growth. Over the 1963–87 period, decreasing product heterogeneity has accounted for about 17 percent of productivity growth in U.S. manufacturing, second in importance only to technical change and equaling the contribution of scale economies.