High-quality bias in vertically differentiated oligopolies—a note on skills, trade, and welfare

In a vertically differentiated Cournot oligopoly where the high-quality variant of the good requires the use of high-quality labor, firms may either all supply the same quality or differentiate their product. In differentiated configurations the number of firms choosing to supply the high-quality variant is generally above the optimum. The opening of trade between symmetric countries entails a pro-competitive effect that raises welfare through a reduction in average quality. This result contrasts with previous findings concerning the opening of trade in vertically differentiated oligopolistic industries (Gabszewicz, Shaked, Sutton, and Thisse,International Economic Review 22 [1981]; Shaked and Sutton, in Kierzkowski, ed.,Monopolistic Competition and International Trade, Oxford 1984).     

Concentration and Wage Earnings in an Open Economy: A Case Study of Korea

The object of this paper is to increase our understanding of the effect of output market power (the degree of concentration in an industry) on wage earnings in Korea. We conduct a series of econometric investigations based on the traditional human capital theory and find that workers in a more concentrated industry are paid higher. This wage premium is not explained in terms of the differences in the quality of labor and/or compensating factors. It suggests to us that the conventional estimates of the misallocation of resources due to the output market power are underestimated since this source of higher unit costs is disregarded. [820]     

Spillover effects of a minimum wage increase – evidence from Slovenia

This article Analysis the effects of a large increase in Slovenia’s minimum wage in March 2010 on the wage distribution using an administrative matched employer–employee panel database. We find that the minimum wage hike increased the concentration of low-paid workers, creating a much more pronounced spike at the minimum, particularly in market services, and for the young, the least educated and those with the least work experience. Our analysis also shows that the March 2010 minimum wage increase also produced sizeable spillover effects. The spillover effects were higher among young and older workers, especially for wage levels near the new minimum wage. The results are based on a difference-in-differences approach comparing changes in wages during the control and treatment periods as experienced by workers in the wage group immediately above the level of the new minimum wage and workers in wage groups higher up in the wage distribution.     

关于中国实行最低工资保障制度的思考

最低工资制度是否有效一直是学术界一个备受争议的问题。我国现阶段实行最低工资制度在微观层面缓解了劳资双方矛盾,保护了劳动者权益,对宏观经济层面也有正效应。针对当前的制度因素,应从立法、加强监管、加大财政支出等方面完善最低工资保障制度,以实现社会和谐发展。     

中国服务贸易在世界地位的实证研究

近年来我国的服务贸易总量已经位居世界前列,那么是否服务贸易的竞争力也是名列前茅呢?为了对我国服务贸易的国际竞争力进行比较全面的分析和评价,笔者对我国服务贸易的进行了多角度的比较分析.首先,从其自身发展的过程来看,自2000-2010年我国服务贸易一直是不断处于增长,且其增速水平超过了世界服务贸易的平均增长水平,但是仍然处于逆差地位,贸易结构也是以传统的服务贸易为主,说明我国服务贸易一方面是由于我国经济的飞速发展对服务贸易进口的需求不断提高,另一方面也说明我国的服务贸易竞争力处于相对弱势地位,竞争力有待提高.同时,本文对2000-2010年期间服务贸易和货物贸易的发展作了比较,相对于货物贸易来说,我国服务贸易的发展还是相对落后,处于弱势地位.第二部分,本文运用了贸易竞争力指数、显性比较优势指数和显示性比较优势指数等指标对我国的服务贸易竞争优势进行定量分析,指标数据显示我国服务贸易的竞争力在世界处于弱势地位,其提升道路任重而道远.     

Would a North-South Free Trade Agreement Hurt Unskilled Labor in the North?

I present a simple model to examine the impact of international outsourcing on the welfare of skilled and unskilled labor. In this model, specialized business services are to facilitate manufacturing production, creating additional welfare gains in the presence of positive production externalities. Policies that favor the business service sector contribute to the development of a larger bundle of specialized business services, generating more welfare gains to not only skilled but also unskilled labor. Thus, a country’s unskilled labor is not necessarily worse off with open trade if the country is prosperous in business service provisions.     

To each according to their ability? Academic ranking and salary inequality across public colleges and universities

This article compares the salary structure of tenured and tenure-track faculty across schools within the university systems of North Carolina and New York. Specifically, we establish a positive relationship between school prestige and salary inequality, both overall and within specific academic ranks. This result suggests that the value to teaching is less discipline-specific than the value to research output. Marked differences in the aforementioned statistical linkage across academic ranks also confirm prior speculation that junior faculty salaries are more closely tied to academic value than senior faculty salaries.     

The Return to Caring Skills: Gender,Class, and Occupational Wages in the US

Feminist economics has contributed to the understanding of the economic importance of care work. Most studies find a wage penalty associated with caring occupations. This study extends the feminist research on care work beyond caring occupations by identifying specific caring skills and activities derived from the 2014 O*NET job-evaluation data. Four caring skills – (1) Assisting and Caring for Others, (2) Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships, (3) Service Orientation, and (4) Social Perceptiveness – were used in ordinary least-squares and quantile wage regressions for 623 occupations in the United States. Findings indicate that the return to caring and assisting skills results in a wage penalty for low-wage workers but a wage premium for workers in high-wage and male occupations. By identifying the impact of gender and class on the economic return to particular caring skills, the study broadens the understanding of care work, especially in relation to US wage inequality.     

Economic Globalisation and Youth Unemployment – Evidence from African countries

The present study seeks to examine the impact of economic globalisation on youth unemployment for 50 African countries between the period 1994 and 2013. In addition to the economic globalisation measurements, the present study controlled the variables that represent the fluctuations in economic activates; demographic changes, a country’s economic size; the quality of governmental institutions; and labour market regulation. The results of the Arellano-Bond (A-B) GMM technique showed that greater openness to global markets would reflect in a lower youth unemployment rate. Furthermore, the results revealed that rigidity in labour market regulations seemed to reduce the youth unemployment rate. In addition, urbanisation seemed to raise the youth unemployment rate. The findings supported contemporary calls to participate in international trade to facilitate the job creation process.     

Skill premium in Portuguese manufacturing industries

The debate between the skill-biased technological change (SBTC) approach and the international trade (IT) explanation to obtain the best explanation for the wage gap between skilled and unskilled workers continues. In this article, we divide the Portuguese manufacturing industries into high-tech and low-tech and study the approach that best justifies the wage gap, for the period between 2007 and 2014. The results point out that the SBTC approach is the main explanation to the formation the wage gap between the labour force with tertiary education (skilled) and with secondary and primary education (unskilled).