Inequality and Determinants of Earnings in Malaysia, 1984–1997*

Using three large nationally‐representative Malaysian Household Income Surveys from 1984, 1989 and 1997, the present paper examines inequality and determinants of earnings. During the period 1984–1997, Malaysia's real per capita GDP increased by approximately 70percent, the participation rates for both men and women went up among all age groups, and the average number of years of schooling increased by 1.2years. There was a significant relative wage improvement among the bottom deciles. The rate of return to an additional year of schooling remained high (at 10percent), despite the huge increase in the supply of the highly educated. The stable overall rate, however, masks an increased rate of return on women's education, and a decreased rate for men. Wage discrimination against women amounts to 16–20percent, and the bias has increased in 1997. The pro‐Chinese earning ethnic bias is estimated at 31percent.     

流动人员就业稳定性与专用性人力资本投资研究--基于不完全契约理论的一个解释

文章基于不完全契约理论,在“敲竹杠”模型中引入员工就业不稳定性,分析了员工就业稳定性与专业用性人力资本投资的关系,认为员工稳定性的就业预期对于企业进行专用性人力资本投资是一种激励;而企业在培训后提高薪酬福利待遇对于员工专用性人力资本投资也是一种激励。文章还通过东莞调研数据运用有序logit模型对这些结论进行验证。同时,提出了提高流动人口就业稳定性和专用性人力资本投资的建议,主要包括：改进户籍制度、提供公共服务等政府制度供给。     

Remittances and Competitiveness: The Case of the Philippines

The paper looks at the impact of migration and workers’ remittances on the competitiveness of the home economy. It extends existing research that concentrated on the exchange rate effects of remittances, the so-called Dutch disease effect, by adding labor market effects. The results show that the labor market effects of emigration and remittances have a significant impact on competitiveness that goes beyond the traditional exchange rate effect.     

Education and Earnings in Transition: The Case of Lao*

This paper is a study on the returns to education in Lao, a country that has been largely neglected by the published literature. The authors found that the private rates of returns to education have risen significantly with economic transition. In particular, returns for young workers are considerably higher than for older workers. Although large earnings premiums are generally received by workers with high levels of education, the most profitable investment in education for a large number of paid employees is still the primary level. Moreover, there are the significant public–private sector wage differentials. The research findings have important implications for public sector salaries and the financing of education in Lao.     

Endogenous,Intra‐household Decision‐making and its Impact on the Labor Supply of Couples in Rural India*

Using data for rural India, this paper analyzes households' labor supply decision‐making, taking into consideration non‐participation, endogenous intrahousehold bargaining and nutritional status. Analyses of unitary and collective models suggest that bargaining between household members forms the basis of households' decisions, and these decisions alter households' internal power balance. Analysis of households' internal bargaining process suggests that women's bargaining power increases when their wages are higher and they are better educated. The results indicate that it is crucial to account for the mechanics of decision‐making within households when studying the effects of changing labor market conditions or designing development policies to improve individual well‐being or to empower women.     

Employment adjustment in two countries with poor reputations: Analysis of aggregate, firm, and flow data for Portugal and Germany

This paper supplements aggregate time-series analysis of the speed of employment adjustment with evidence from firm panel and flow data for two countries – Portugal and Germany – sharing unenviable labor market reputations. The Portuguese labor market is often portrayed as terminally inert, while that of Germany as badly ailing. We report broad consistency in the results across data sets in favor of Portugal. In benchmarking Portugal against Germany, the adverse reputation of the former – if not necessarily that of the latter country – may have been exaggerated in contemporary policy debate.We thank, without implicating, two anonymous reviewers of this journal for their helpful remarks on an earlier version of the paper.     

Trade Liberalization,Economic Restructuring and Urban Poverty: The Case of China*

Increased trade openness and rapid market-oriented transformation have largely altered the patterns of wealth accumulation and wealth distribution in post-reform China. In the present paper, with the help of Chinese provincial level data over the period of 1986 to 2000, simultaneous equations estimation and generalized method of moment techniques are applied to investigate the relationship between trade and poverty in urban China. Empirical results suggest that China's trade liberalization helps to reduce urban poverty both directly and indirectly through its favorable impacts on economic growth.     

Cherry Picking,Disclosure Quality,and Comprehensive Income Reporting Choices: The Case of Property‐Liability Insurers*

Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 130: Reporting Comprehensive Income encourages enterprises to report comprehensive income on a performance statement rather than on a statement of equity. We investigate the reporting decisions of 82 publicly traded property‐liability insurers that are fairly evenly split in their choice. Our results demonstrate that insurers with a tendency to manage earnings through realized securities' gains and losses (that is, cherry pickers), as well as insurers with a reputation for poor disclosure quality, are more likely to report comprehensive income in a statement of equity. Apparently, these insurers face the highest cost of transparency. We do not find a relation between the reporting decision and the volatility of comprehensive income relative to the volatility of net income. Our findings that insurers' comprehensive income reporting choices are a reflection of their proclivity toward cherry picking as well as their level of disclosure quality should be of interest to standard‐setters because of the controversy over standard‐setters' preference for mandating all firms to report comprehensive income in a performance statement.