城镇化中的社会保障制度建设：来自拉美国家的教训

拉美国家在历史上出现过经济高速增长和快速城市化的阶段,但是经济增长并没有解决贫困现象和缩小收入差距,出现了“增长性贫困”现象,而收入悬殊限制了经济的进一步增长。社保制度存在缺陷是导致拉美国家增长性贫困的主要原因之一：社保制度严重滞后于城市化进程,住房和就业困难,非正式就业较为普遍;养老保险计划的覆盖面较低,收入再分配难以进行;养老金管理成本居高不下,导致养老保险扩面难;社会保险与社会救助的比重失调,中产阶级成为社会保障制度的最大受益者;社保和教育机会的缺失,造成代际贫困的恶性循环。拉美国家这些教训为我国社保制度的完善提供了很好的借鉴。     

Union effects on performance and employment relations: Evidence from China

This paper empirically studies union effects on the performance of, and employment relations in, China's private enterprises. The study finds a positive and statistically significant union effect on labor productivity, but not on profitability. It further finds that unions lead to better employee benefits and increased contract signing in employment. These findings suggest that, in the era of transition from a centrally planned to a market economy, unions in China's private enterprises do promote workers' interests as unions do in other economies. And they do that without abandoning their traditional role of harmonizing employment relations, as required by the Party.     

Enterprise unions and downsizing in Japan before and after 1997

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether enterprise unions in Japan have changed their attitude toward downsizing before and after 1997. Our empirical analysis reveals that the attitudes of enterprise unions toward downsizing have changed since 1997. Before 1997, firms with strong unions, i.e., those affiliated with the federation, were likely to maintain employment until firms experienced two consecutive years of losses/deficits. However, after 1997, these firms tended to implement downsizing actions before they suffered deficits. These results suggest that the changes in the stances of the unions brought about changes in employment adjustment behaviors. The change in unions’ attitudes after 1997 is interpreted as being caused by the “no-layoff policy,” which was strongly associated with priority on job security over profitability. Moreover, downsizing was implemented with the consent of union members, and the cooperative relationship between unions and the management was maintained.     

跨国公司限制竞争行为的行政法规制

中国在全球经济中的重要性正日益提高——在发达国家依然挣扎于经济泥沼之际,中国经济却依然保持旺盛的增长势头,当世界其他地方的消费者为就业和经济状况担忧时,中国的许多消费者却变得越来越富有。跨国公司作为国际投资的主要载体,在我国现代化进程中扮演着重要的角色。跨国公司在华投资的不断增加有力的带动中国经济融入全球化潮流,但由于国内企业实力较为弱小,难以与大型跨国公司相抗衡,近年来,某些行业外国企业凭借其经济实力在短期内迅速占领我国大部分市场份额,并滥用市场支配力的情况时有发生。     

Impact of employment protection legislation on employment and exporting in select African countries

Labour market flexibility is an important issue in both development and labour economics. More flexibility in the labour market is believed to facilitate job creation, but also makes it easy for employers to terminate employment contracts and may be in conflict with the notion of decent jobs as promoted by the International Labour Organization and workers' unions. It is therefore not surprising that labour market flexibility or inflexibility has received a lot of attention in the extant literature. Using a sample of about 4700 firms from six African countries, we investigate the impact of restrictive labour regulation on a number of economic outcomes and find that more restrictive labour market regulations are detrimental to export propensity, export intensity, investment and employment. Policy-makers must be cautious, however, when implementing employment regulations as too flexible regulations may benefit employers at the expense of employees.     

Monetary unions, external shocks and economic performance: A Latin American perspective

During the last few years there has been a renewed analysis in currency unions as a form of monetary arrangement. This new interest has been largely triggered by the Euro experience. Scholars and policy makers have asked about the optimal number of currencies in the world economy. They have analyzed whether different countries satisfy the traditional “optimal currency area” criteria. These include, among other: (a) the synchronization of the business cycle; (b) the degree of factor mobility; and (c) the extent of trade and financial integration. In this paper I analyze the desirability of a monetary union from a Latin American perspective. First, I review the existing literature on the subject. Second, I use a large data set to analyze the evidence on economic performance in currency union countries. I investigate these countries’ performance on four dimensions: (a) whether countries without a national currency have a lower occurrence of “sudden stop” episodes; (b) whether they have a lower occurrence of “current account reversal” episodes; (c) what is their ability to absorb international terms of trade shocks; and (d) what is their ability to absorb “sudden stops” and “current account reversals” shocks. I find that belonging to a currency union has not lower the probability of facing a sudden stop or a current account reversal. I also find that external shocks have been amplified in currency union countries. The degree of amplification is particularly large when compared to flexible exchange rate countries.     

发展教育事业,促进我国劳务输出

在今后相当长时期内,就业问题是我们面临的一个社会大问题,我国应当通过与发达国家合作办学,在我国培养适合发达国家劳务市场的劳动力,扩大我国自然人流动的劳务出口。     

The labor market effects of trade unions in an open economy: Layard meets Melitz

Trade unions are typically able to convert their industrial power into political power. We show that, depending on the constellation of parameters, stronger trade unions may improve welfare in terms of an increase in aggregate employment and output if they successfully lobby for lower trade barriers set by the government.     

价值链分工与发展中国家就业利益及风险分析

目前鲜有对“价值链分工对发展中国家的就业影响”进行系统性研究,尤其关于就业风险方面.此种研究对发展中国家充分利用价值链分工,获取最大就业利益具有重要理论和实践意义.文章利用历史经验分析,提出价值链分工给发展中参与国带来就业数量的增加、就业结构的改善和就业质量的提升等就业利益;但同时,价值链分工也可能带来就业的挤出、对本土竞争企业的人为资本争夺、低成本就业难以持续及就业的外部冲击等风险.     

Coordinating unions,wages and employment

Summary In this paper we consider a two-sector economy in which individual unions are affiliated into a federation of unions. We analyze the consequences of two different types of wage setting. Firstly, individual unions set wages in their own sector without taking into account the effect of their wages on the employment level in the other sector. There may be positive as well as negative externalities. A positive (negative) externality may exist if a higher (lower) wage in one sector implies a higher level of employment in the other sector. Both cases may occur in our model. Secondly, wages in the two sectors are set by the federation of unions. We show that in this case higher (lower) wages result than in the first case if a positive (negative) externality exists.Preliminary versions of this paper were presented at seminars at the University of Oldenburg and the University of Groningen and the Fourth Annual Congress of the European Economic Association, Augsburg, September 2–4, 1989. The authors would like to thank W.H. Buiter, H. van Ees, J. Hartog, Th. v.d. Klundert, S.K. Kuipers, Chr. Mulder and T. van Veen for their comments on an earlier version of this paper.     

Can integrated infrastructure investment plans contribute to more effective public spending? The case of Mozambique

All countries, especially developing countries with limited financial resources, face difficult decisions in prioritising public funds for investment projects in the face of multiple demands in order to achieve strategic public goals. Effective investment often requires coordination between different institutions and the management of political pressure to divert investment in support of private interests. It also requires the identification of appropriate sources of funds for different purposes. The preparation of an integrated infrastructure investment plan (IIIP) that uses structured approaches to review investment proposals has been suggested, and adopted in some cases, as an instrument to address these challenges and bridge the gap between national planning and sectoral budgeting. This article considers the experience of Mozambique in deploying an IIIP as well as some recent events and concludes that the instrument may be helpful as part of a system of investment planning and allocation but that it has significant limitations.     

Evaluating participation in African monetary unions: A statistical analysis of the CFA Zones

Thirteen African nations are engaged in two monetary unions with France, often referred to as the CFA Zone. Despite the acknowledged benefits of Zone membership — a convertible currency, pooled resources and greater monetary and fiscal “discipline” — several observers have questioned whether particular aspects of the Zone such as the lack of autonomy of the two Central Banks and the surrender of the exchange rate as a policy instrument have impeded its members' growth. This paper addresses that question by testing whether CFA Zone countries had different GNP growth rates from selected “comparator” countries during 1960–1982. Results show that CFA countries grew significantly faster than comparator Sub-Saharan African countries but usually slower, and often significantly so, than the whole sample of developing countries. When the comparison is made by subperiod (before and after 1973), CFA countries' performance vis-à-vis that of their comparators improved during the 1973–1982 period, casting further doubt on the claim that the monetary union is not functioning adequately.     

Social Movements Beyond the Iron Cage: Weak Ties in Territorial Development

The incentives and governance system of organizations are important in explaining how they behave in localized development processes. This article builds on the observation that the literature on territorial development does not generally address the action of social movements. At the same time, research on social movements rarely studies their effects on the territories in which they act. This text is a contribution to fill this gap. It compares two social movement organizations: a trade union federation and a credit cooperative system operating throughout southern Brazil. Both organizations share common origins and social bases, yet their impacts on territories have been quite different. The analysis focuses on the social ties that link trade unions and cooperatives to their territories to show that governance systems may explain the performance of each organization, especially with regard to their capacity for innovation.     

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.     

Equitable,productive employment targets for the international development strategy

Although economic growth in many developing countries has matched and even surpassed the growth targets of the UN's International Development Strategy (IDS), it often has failed to alleviate the problems of employment and income distribution. Nonetheless, preparations for an IDS for the Third Development Decade continue to focus on aggregate and sectoral growth targets.Recognizing the essential linkage between growth, employment and poverty, this paper formulates targets for employment and growth with equity and integrates them with the proposed overall IDS growth objective using a consistent macro framework. This paper examines the dynamic implications of this equitable, productive employment strategy for the sectoral distribution of labour and capital and for the income distribution and compares it with alternative scenarios.The basic results show that an equitable productive employment strategy will not only raise absolute incomes of the poor but improve the income distribution, whether measured by the relative income of the poorest 40% or, perhaps more important, of those who continue to obtain only low-productivity employment. Evidence from some countries in the 1970s indicates that the strategy is feasible, provided appropriate policies are pursued. An important element in the strategy appears to be the maintenance of a demand for goods produced by the poor; in this context the high growth of industry recommended in the IDS for low-income countries is likely to lead to increasing inequality. This paper concludes with some broad policy recommendations for achieving the equitable productive employment target.     

国家级新区管理体制与功能区实态及其战略取向

国家级新区作为国家区域协调发展总体战略的重要组成部分,往往被国家赋予先行先试的特殊权限和一系列优惠政策,其发展不仅关系到某一区域的经济社会发展,更关系到我国经济社会发展的总体战略部署。管理体制直接影响到管理的效率和效能,决定着区域发展方向和发展效益,功能区是实现城市经济社会职能的重要空间载体。管理体制和功能区设置对于国家级新区的发展有着重要的影响。考察四个国家级新区的管理体制和功能区设置,可以发现:管理体制与功能区设置之间交互影响和协同演进决定了国家级新区的发展路径。     

Swedish trade unions and the social democratic party: The formative years

Abstract

The history of labour movements in many countries of the Western world includes a period in which the relationship between the trade-union arm and the political arm undergoes significant change. This formative period is conditioned in an immediate way by the political framework and more generally by the economic and social milieu. In respect of the actors themselves—trade unions and party organisations—latter-day interpreters have frequently regarded developments of union-party relationships as a process in which the unions, to the extent they are successful and true to their character and objectives as trade unions, free themselves from party domination. ¹ The most obvious example is found in the works of the late Professor Selig Perlman, especially his A Theory of the Labor Movement, (New York, 1928). It is recognised here that Perlman did not discuss Swedish developments. The historical fragment which follows is intended to demonstrate that, for the Swedish experience, such an interpretation leaves much to be desired.     

Welfare Implications of RTAs Within the WTO System in the Presence of FDI

We examine the welfare implications of the two major types of regional trade agreements (RTAs)—free trade agreements (FTAs) and customs unions (CUs)—within the WTO system in the presence of FDI. To do so, we analyze multilateral tariff cooperation in the context of two types of WTO regimes: a pure WTO regime without any RTAs and a modified WTO regime in which RTAs coexist with the multilateral framework. Our main finding is that in the presence of significant foreign ownership, RTAs within a multilateral system do not raise the national welfare of its members, thereby weakening the incentives of countries to form RTAs.     

Culture,institutions and long-term development: the Swedish case and implications for China

Most social scientists agree that institutional analyses seem to be a promising tool to analyse long-term development. International comparisons are also necessary to understand what constitutes ‘good’ institutions and to which extent they can be created by conscious decisions. The most important aspect of studies of other countries and their institutional development is not what we learn about them but that we by comparison can develop a better understanding of the history of our own country. This article describes the peculiarities of the Swedish institutional framework in a historical perspective. Special attention has been given to aspects that are often discussed in analyses of the Chinese development. In many aspects, China and Sweden can be seen as representatives of two opposite paths of development for instance in the sequence of institutional building, in the development of checks and balances and in whether the orientation of the culture is family or society oriented. In spite of these differences, it is not difficult to find islands of cultural concordance which can facilitate mutual learning and understanding.     

Skandinaviska Banken i del svenska bankväsendets historia 1914 –1939

Abstract

In analyses of the prerequisites of the industrial revolution in Europe, interest during recent times has centred to a large extent upon proto-industrialisation, or the period of industrial growth in agrarian society prior to the modern industrialisation of the nineteenth century. It has been claimed that the development of industry in agrarian society was significant because it created industrial employment, capitalistic social relationships with wage-paid labour and capital accumulation, and inter-regional markets.¹ In this way proto-industrialisation prepared the ground for the west European industrial revolution, creating conditions crucially different, for example, from the ones prevailing in those underdeveloped countries which sought in vain to achieve industrialisation during the twentieth century.²