Labour effects of foreign and domestic remittances – evidence from Pakistan

Remittances are playing an increasingly important role in the economies of developing countries. In this paper, we study the effects of these flows on Pakistan’s labour market. We employ the 2007–2008 Household Integrated Economic Survey and Probit as well as Propensity Score Matching techniques to examine the impact on labour participation, quantity of work and activities of working as well as non-active members of remittance-receiving households. We find that both foreign and domestic remittances tend to lower labour supply of the recipient households. This impact is higher among women and among the young. The impact is more pronounced in the rural areas. In addition, foreign remittances increase the likelihood of household members attending middle school. We also examine the quantity of labour supplied by the remittance-recipient households. Results show little difference in the number of months and days worked between the households receiving and not receiving remittances. Furthermore, we find that the likelihood of being self-employed and cultivating one’s own land is higher among remittance recipients. In sum, our analysis highlights a higher role of foreign remittances in the labour market as compared to internal remittances.     

Land use rights,market transitions,and labour policy change in China (1980–84)

This paper provides a systematic analysis of the way shifts in property utilization rights in China induced another sequence of institutional changes that led to the rise of rural–urban labour migration from 1980 to 1984, a critical period in the country’s market transition. The paper shows that the 1980s’ Household Responsibility System (HRS), which brought family farming back from the communal system, endowed rural households not only with land use rights, but also with de facto labour allocation rights. These shifts in property relations promoted a growth in agricultural market size as well as the emergence of intraprovincial non‐hukou rural–urban migration, which may have made labour retention policies such as the small township strategy ineffective, and may have given the government an incentive to deregulate its subsequent labour market policy.     

Does the unemployment invariance hypothesis hold for Romania?

This article questions whether the unemployment invariance hypothesis of Layard et al. (2005), which states that movements in labour force do not significantly affect unemployment rates, holds true for Romania. Using quarterly labour force data for the 1996–2012 period, we explore the time-series properties of the two variables. We find that unemployment rates and participation rates have unit roots, and that they are not cointegrated, meaning that no significant long-term relationship exists between them. The analysis carried out on the first differences of unemployment rates and participation rates shows discouraged and added worker effects for Romania’s female labour force. This conclusion diverges from findings that point out to a stable, long-term relationship between unemployment and participation in several developed countries (Japan, Sweden, USA) and shows that Romanian labour market is highly adaptive, where changes in labour force participation do not lead to increases in unemployment. This finding can help model the influence of adverse developments such as ageing and emigration, and show their true impact beyond demographic doom scenarios. It also points out the role played by labour demand in shaping the evolution of the Romanian labour market.     

The effects of local labour market conditions on welfare programme participation

A fractional imputation method is applied to Iowa administrative data to deal with a problem of missing data. The effects of local labour market conditions and mobility of household heads on Family Investment Program (FIP) participation are evaluated. Results show that mobility increases the opportunity for employment and decreases the FIP participation rate for low-income families. An increase in predicted unemployment rates decreases labour force participation and increases programme participation; an increase in unpredicted unemployment rates increases labour force participation and decreases programme participation. Overall, the effects are relatively larger in rural areas than in nonrural areas in Iowa.     

消除劳动力歧视,推进农村剩余劳动力资源顺利转移

劳动力合理流动是劳动力资源充分利用、市场经济正常运转、农村剩余劳动力顺利转移的重要条件。当前 ,由于各种因素的影响 ,全国统一、开放、竞争、有序的劳动力市场还没有形成 ,劳动力歧视妨碍了农村剩余劳动力的转移和劳动力资源的合理利用。消除劳动力歧视 ,有利于促进劳动力合理流动和市场经济正常运行及二元经济结构转换     

Labour Markets in China: A Study of the Structure and Evolution of Wages

This paper examines the development of labour markets and the evolution of a structure of wages in China, using household surveys for 1988, 1995, 2002 and 2007. It finds evidence of both provincial and sectoral segmentation in labour markets, with eastern regions and the state-controlled sector enjoying high wage premiums in the early reform period. During the reform, China has progressed slowly towards an integrated labour market with convergence in incomes between the rural non-agriculture sector and the urban market-based sector by 1995, when industry flourished in the rural areas. The wage gap between the rural non-agriculture sector and other sectors increased and the urban state-controlled sector remained segmented with respect to all other sectors up to 2002. However, the data from 2007 show there has been increasing sectoral and spatial integration.     

Effects of health insurance on labour supply: evidence from the health care fund for the poor in Vietnam

The expansion of health insurance in emerging countries raises concerns about the unintended negative effects of health insurance on labour supply. This article examines the labour supply effects of the Health Care Fund for the Poor (HCFP) in Vietnam in terms of the number of work hours per month and labour force participation (the probability of employment). Employing various matching methods combined with a Difference-in-Differences approach on the Vietnam Household Living Standard Surveys 2002–2006, we show that the HCFP, which aims to provide poor people and disadvantaged minority groups with free health insurance, has a negative effect on labour supply. This is manifested in both the average number of hours worked per month and the probability of employment, suggesting the income effect of the HCFP. Interestingly, the effects are mainly driven by the non-poor recipients living in rural areas, raising the question of the targeting strategy of the programme.     

Asymmetric labour force participation decisions

This article finds compelling evidence of asymmetric labour force participation decisions across demographic groups in response to changes in labour market conditions. This behaviour is consistent with predictions from the standard labour-leisure choice model and suggests that asymmetry in individual behaviour plays some role in the observed asymmetry of the aggregate unemployment rate. It is estimated that the weighted average difference in response to a one percentage point change in unemployment rates is sizeable when compared to the average monthly change in the aggregate labour force.     

Price and quantity adjustments in the Austrian labour market

Austria is among the very few countries in the European Union which have managed to maintain comparatively low unemployment rates and high employment rates. This study looks at the price and quantity adjustment mechanisms in the Austrian labour market which may have contributed to this favourable outcome. After reviewing briefly the basic theoretical reasoning an empirical investigation is began into gross flow dynamics in the labour market and the cyclical volatility of employment and unemployment in Austria. In international comparison Austrian unemployment is very stable over the business cycle. This is due mainly to the high sensitivity of the labour force on cyclical conditions and, partly, also on the relatively weak responsiveness of employment to cyclical fluctuations in output, the latter being possibly attributable to the high degree of real wage flexibility in Austria. The study proceeds to show that the long-run elasticity of wages with respect to unemployment is indeed quite high in Austria. However, evidence was also found for outsider effects in the Austrian wage setting process. Relative wage structures, on the other hand, appear to be rather rigid.     

基于劳动力市场分割的劳动力流动模型的构建

国内外学者对于劳动力流动进行了大量深入的研究,成果颇丰.然而,由于历史的原因,我国在劳动力流动方面呈现出与其他国家不同的特性,目前,我国的劳动力市场尚未发展成熟,劳动力流动存在很严重的不合理现象.因此,结合我国的现实情况对其进行研究意义更加重大.本文试图结合以往学者的研究成果,构建基于劳动力市场分割的劳动力流动模型,对其进行深入的探讨,为实现劳动力的合理流动提供帮助.     

促进河北农村富余劳动力就业的对策研究

农村大量富余劳动力的存在是“三农”问题中的棘手问题,发展特色产业集群是解决问题的最可行的途径。为了促进农村富余劳动力就业,河北应发展劳动密集型产业集群、发展低成本型特色产业集群、发展民营集群企业。应加强农村富余劳动力就业培训,依靠拉长产业链条增加就业机会。     

The effect of shocks to labour market flows on unemployment and participation rates

This article presents an analysis of labour market dynamics, in particular of flows in the labour market and how they interact and affect the evolution of unemployment rates and participation rates, the two main indicators of labour market performance. Our analysis has two special features. First, apart from the two labour market states – employment and unemployment – we consider a third state – out of the labour force. Second, we study net rather than gross flows, where net refers to the balance of flows between any two labour market states. Distinguishing a third state is important because the labour market flows to and from that state are quantitatively important. Focusing on net flows simplifies the complexity of interactions between the flows and allows us to perform a dynamic analysis in a structural vector-autoregression framework. We find that a shock to the net flow from unemployment to employment drives the unemployment rate and the participation rate in opposite directions while a shock to the net flow from not in the labour force to unemployment drives the rates in the same direction.     

中国民工荒产生的原因及其应对策略

一向被认为廉价劳动力接近于"无限供给"的中国,却在今年出人意料地大范围出现了民工短缺。民工工资收入低且增长缓慢与物价上涨形成强烈反差;以及农民收入增加,部分民工转向农业;企业用工迅速扩张;经济增长模式面临变革等多种原因造成局部地区民工短缺。为此,我们应该在尊重市场规律的情况下,借助政府的力量,加快经济改革的步伐,提高民工的待遇,保障民工的利益,提高民工的素质,培养高技能的员工,从根本上解决民工荒难题。     

Religious service attendance and labour force status: evidence from survey data using count data methods

I undertake count data estimation with data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort and the Health and Retirement Study to evaluate the relationship between time spent out of the labour force and the frequency of religious service attendance for individuals of working age. I also examine whether being out of the labour force is correlated with the frequency of religious service attendance.

?Results using Poisson fixed-effect and negative binomial estimation suggest that men under age 50 appear to attend religious services less frequently when out of the labour force. I ascribe this finding to younger men’s religious service attendance being related to having work or the pursuit of work. Men between ages 50 and 65 attend religious services less frequently when out of the labour force, which I attribute to serious health problems in later age forcing labour market exiting and reduced frequency of religious service attendance. Women between ages 50 and 65 attend religious services more frequently when out of the labour force, which I ascribe to having more time to pursue religious activity in addition to women’s established proclivity to religious commitment.     

我国县域农户家庭劳动力利用的实证分析——以山东省梁山县为例

本文对我国县域农户家庭劳动力利用的情况进行了分析,并对劳动力利用的影响因素进行了模型估计。研究结果表明:当前我国农村还存在20%～30%的富余劳动力需要转移;农户在进行家庭内部分工时基于家庭效益最大化考虑;农户家庭收入来源和镇域经济发展对县域农户家庭劳动力利用有显著影响,不同的家庭劳动力特征对农户家庭就业决策的影响存在一定差异,政策性补贴对农户家庭就业决策的影响不大。在此基础上,本文提出若干政策建议。     

中国农村劳动力流动对产业梯度转移的影响探析

中国农村低成本劳动力大规模流入城市,使得城市低梯度产业能够继续留在城市发展,阻碍了产业梯度顺利自发转移,从而进一步加剧了城乡收入差距。对我国城市化与农业就业结构滞后现状的分析表明,产业梯度转移困难是我国典型城乡制度分层的结果。     

Remittances and labour allocation decisions at communities of origin: the case of rural Mexico

From a theoretical perspective, the effect that remittances have on the labour decisions of those that receive them is ambiguous; the empirical evidence reported in the literature is mixed and shows, unsurprisingly, that the net effect of remittances on labour supply is context-dependent. We contribute to this literature by using a detailed data set for rural Mexico that allows us to understand how remittances reshape rural livelihoods by modifying labour allocation decisions. Following previous evidence, we analyse female and male responses separately. Our results show that the income effect of remittances dominates male labour allocation decisions: the probability of participating in the labour market and the total number of hours worked decrease with remittances. We find no effect for female labour allocation decisions. The effects are not uniform across the different productive activities and remittances seem to be contributing to a trend in which Mexican rural inhabitants increasingly move away from agriculture- or nature-based activities. This reinforces the direct effect that emigration has in terms of a reduction in total supply of local labour.     

Trade Liberalization in Agriculture in Developed Nations and Incidence of Child Labour in a Developing Economy

This paper is an attempt to analyse the consequence of trade liberalization in agriculture in the developed countries on the incidence of child labour in a developing economy in terms of a three‐sector general equilibrium model with informal sectors. Adult labour and child labour are substitutes for each other in the two informal sectors of the economy and are used together apart from capital in producing two exportable commodities. The interesting result that appears from the analysis is that agricultural trade liberalization in the developed countries may be effective in bringing down the incidence of child labour in the system. The paper substantiates the desirability of trade liberalization in agriculture in the developed nations from the perspective of the developing economies for reasons other than welfare improvement.     

Labour market transitions and unemployment duration: Evidence from Bulgarian and Polish micro-data1

The segmentation of the labour market is one of the most striking characteristics of the transition process in Central and Eastern European countries. Not only do the young, unskilled workers and women face a high risk of unemployment, but joblessness also varies significantly geographically. This paper sheds some light on labour market segmentation in transition countries by analysing individual records of individuals registered at the labour offices of two Polish regions (Warsaw and Ciechanov and two Bulgarian regions (Sofia and Botevgrad) over the initial three to four years of the transition to a market economy. The empirical results confirm the existence of highly selective firing and hiring processes in the Polish and Bulgarian labour markets. Overall, unskilled or poorly educated workers have the highest probability of becoming unemployed and remaining without a job for a long period of time. We also analysed the determinants of unemployment duration across regions and over time using a piece-wise constant hazard model with multiple destinations, i.e. employment and exit from the labour force. The results suggest that the unemployed with a high education and previous experience in the private sector have a higher probability of getting a new job, especially in the more dynamic labour markets, while those without previous work experience tend to stay unemployed for a longer period of time and often leave the labour market. The econometric results also suggest that the reforms of the unemployment benefit systems have produced important effects on unemployment flows.     

Displacement Effects of Active Labour Market Policy: The Youth Labour Market in Finland

In 1994 the number of workers participating in active labour market programmes in Finland was 299,000. On average there where 125,000 workers in these programmes at any one time, the average length of participation in a programme being about 5 months. In relation to the 2.5 million-strong Finnish labour force, these figures are proportionally large. In 1994 the total expenditure on unemployment amounted to 6.7 per cent of GNP of which the share spent on active labour market programmes was about 25 per cent. The study investigates the displacement effects of active labour market programmes in the youth labour market in Finland. The two age groups analysed are 15-19-year-olds and 20-24-year-olds. The results, based on a VAR analysis of quarterly data from the period 1981.1-1995.2, suggest that the displacement effects of job-creation programmes may be substantial. The study cannot, however, provide any robust estimates of the likely size of such displacement effects on youth employment in Finland. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.