Contracting Out Solutions: Political Economy of Contract Farming in the Indian Punjab

This paper examines the rationale, practice, and problems of contract farming in vegetable crops in the agriculturally developed Indian Punjab which has faced the problem of sustainability of growth since the early 1980s. It is found that agribusiness firms deal with relatively large producers and their contracts, which are biased against the farmer, perpetuate the existing problems of the farm sector such as high chemical input intensity, and social differentiation. Contracting has however, led to higher farm incomes and more employment for labor. There seems to be an inherent contradiction in the objectives of the contracting parties and those of the local economy.     

Contract Farming,Smallholders, and Rural Development in Latin America: The Organization of Agroprocessing Firms and the Scale of Outgrower Production

This paper demonstrates how contract farming functions as an economic institution and explores the causes of the observed variation in the scale of outgrower production in Latin America. We outline how market imperfections and transaction costs influence the decision of agroprocessing firms to contract-out, vertically integrate, or use spot markets to obtain raw product. The paper demonstrates how market conditions are likely to be associated with particular outgrower characteristics under contract farming. An analysis of the Mexican frozen vegetable industry illustrates determinants of successful and unsuccessful small-scale contracting and suggests alternative policies to promote contract farming with smallholders.     

Linking agribusiness and small-scale farmers in developing countries: Is there a new role for contract farming?

This article examines a new role for contract farming in developing countries in the light of the industrialisation of agriculture and the globalisation of world markets. A theoretical rationale for contracting in developing countries is developed on the basis of adopting new institutional economic theory for the purpose of matching governance forms to market failure problems and transaction characteristics. The history of contract farming is reviewed, together with the advantages and disadvantages to the various players, for the purpose of developing a list of key success factors, problems and some possible solutions.     

Contract Farming in Mozambique: Implications for Gender Inequalities Within and Across Rural Households

This paper analyses the implications of contract farming for gender inequalities in rural Mozambique. Contract farming is often considered one of the major tools of agribusiness development. It broadly includes those arrangements under which producers commit to providing cash crop to a buyer firm. This paper exploits a panel dataset (2002–2005) collected by the Mozambican Ministry of Agriculture among a nationally representative sample of rural households to explore contracts’ implications for gender equality both across and within households. We look at both the participation of female‐headed households in contracts and the impact of establishing a contract on a set of intra‐household women empowerment indicators. Concerning the first, our results confirm a (small though significant) effect of selection out of contracts of households where a woman is the household’s head. With regard to the second, we expect contrasting effects to be at work: on the one hand, increased income may relax budget constraints improving women’s living conditions, and on the other, we may expect a shift in favour of men of the control over the household’s assets. We find different results according to the indicator used; after controlling for selection bias, we find no effect on control over land but a negative effect on women’s access to extension services.     

Introduction to Special Issue on: ‘Inequalities in the Least Developed Countries – Some Lessons from Africa’

This special issue comprises six papers analysing different dimensions of inequalities in African countries. Three papers deal with the trend in inequality in consumption in Mozambique, with multidimensional poverty in four sub‐Saharan countries, and with the relationship between living conditions and subjective well‐being in African countries. The other three are focused on gender issues and are focused on Mozambique, dealing with gender inequalities in the access to contract farming arrangements as well as to employment out of subsistence agriculture, or with the effect of women’s empowerment on children’s health. This introduction provides a short overview of how they contribute to a better understanding of inequalities in low‐income countries.     

隐性合约理论视角下企业员工体面劳动研究

体面劳动问题已成为全球关注的焦点,探索企业员工体面劳动对构建和谐劳动关系具有十分重要的意义.文章从隐性合约理论视角探寻隐性合约与体面劳动的内在关系,分析企业员工体面劳动的内部影响因素和外部影响因素,以社会、政府、企业与员工为主体指出企业员工体面劳动的实现路径.     

《劳动合同法》的制度创新与企业和谐劳动关系的构建

《劳动合同法》扩大了劳动者的保护范围;制约了劳动合同的短期化,鼓励企业与劳动者签订无固定期限劳动合同;对试用期、违约金和竞业限制的规定更加细化和明确;规范了劳务派遣用工制度。《劳动合同法》施行后,企业和谐劳动关系的构建需要广义劳动关系主体各方在守法前提下的共同努力。     

Gender issues in contemporary Cuban tobacco farming

Developments in tobacco farming run against the grain of mainstream Cuban agriculture: tobacco is 75% private whereas agriculture generally is 15% private. This article looks at what made it so, starting with the transition from capitalist forms of plantation, tenant and subtenant farming and sharecropping to the new post-1959 farming systems in both the state and private sectors. The article examines changing relations of production and the family unit, the gender division of remunerated and unremunerated work, particularly necessary family work in social and domestic production and the challenge to established gender patterns, with special reference to the new farming cooperatives.     

论我国劳动立法的思想与实践

劳动法以对劳动者权益的倾斜保护为主要目的,是国家干预劳动关系的主要手段。作为劳动者当家做主的社会主义国家,我国劳动立法在历经革命年代的洗礼和新中国成立后的初创、恢复与发展后,建立了劳动基准制度、劳动合同制度,并逐步探索出了一条具有中国特色的面向未来的能够有效衡平各方利益的发展道路,实现了对劳动者诚实劳动的保护,并为建立和谐劳动关系奠定了坚实基础。     

Does contracting institution affect the patterns of industrial specialization in China?

This study evaluates the importance of contracting institutions as a source of comparative advantage across Chinese provinces. We find that industries differ in their reliance on relationship-specific investments. Provinces with better contracting institutions specialize in industries with more intensive relationship-specific investments. We implement two proxies to measure contracting institutions, including efficiency of the legal system and service of contract enforcement. The empirical results of this study indicate that contracting institutions play a role in shaping the patterns of industrial specialization. Specifically, the service of contract enforcement has the first-order effect on the patterns of industrial specialization in China; by contrast, legal jurisdiction plays a modest role.     

现阶段珠三角民营企业劳动关系状况研究

本文基于2010年对珠三角民营企业在劳动合同、薪酬福利、社会保险、劳动保护、权益受损等方面状况的实地调查,分析了其现状,指出珠三角民营企业劳动关系面临着产业转型缓慢与成本快速增加的成本、员工结构变化显著与管理水平滞后、工人权利意识增强与利益诉求协调机制不完善的三大矛盾,并提出了相应的对策建议。     

Why is the gender earnings gap greater in Korea than in the United States?

It has long been recognized that the gender earnings gap varies across countries. This paper examines the relatively higher gender earnings gap found in the Korean labor market compared to the US labor market. Using the data set representative of the population for both countries, I found that the significant part of the differences in the gender earnings gap simply arise from the differences in the observed characteristics of women among two countries. In particular, relatively lower labor market experience, current job tenure, and educational attainment by Korean female workers play dominant roles in explaining the observed higher earnings gap. In addition, wage structure and labor market discrimination seem to be against Korean female workers compared to US female workers. J. Japanese Int. Economies 21 (4) (2007) 455–469.     

Empirical relevance of efficient contract theory: inter-firm contracts

Although there has been enormous development of the theory ofefficient contracts in the last 20 years, empirical tests wereslow to come. However, over the last 10 years, a considerablebody of evidence has accumulated, particularly in relation tocontracts between firms. This paper develops a simple, integratedtheoretical framework to illustrate 11 testable hypotheses.The contract theories covered include risk sharing, principal-agentincentive models, transaction cost and incomplete contract modelswith specific investment, and the theory of relational contracting.The problems associated with empirical work on contracts arediscussed before setting the hypotheses against a wide rangeof econometric and other empirical evidence (including workon franchising, sharecropping, subcontracting, contract duration,private institutions, experimental evidence, and a wide rangeof case studies).     

The impact of changes in local labor market conditions on estimates of occupational segregation

Recent work by labor economists has suggested that differential labor market treatment of minorities (e.g., occupational segregation) may vary across local labor markets. This study assesses whether changing economic conditions in a local labor market affects the degree of occupational segregation by race and gender in the United States. Our empirical analysis finds evidence that the relative occupational structures of white women and black males are systematically related to changes in certain local labor market conditions.     

我国农民工劳动合约签订率低的原因分析——基于劳动力市场分割和产业分割的分析框架

劳动合约签订是劳动保护的重要形式,但我国农民工劳动合约签订率却只是在2008年《劳动合同法》实施后有暂时较大幅度的上扬,此后随时间推移却几近停滞。文章以劳动力市场分割和产业分割框架为基础,构建了不同劳动力市场特征和产业组织特征组合的四象限分析框架,探讨了不同象限中劳动合约的运行机制,并结合我国边缘产业和农民工现状,就劳动合约签订问题建立了一个简单的博弈模型。分析得出,在边缘产业与次级劳动力市场的组合下,农民工劳动合约签订存在着"组织失灵"、"市场失灵"和"政府失灵"三重困境,这是我国农民工劳动合同签约率停滞不前的主要原因。文章最后提出了相应的结论和政策建议。     

论我国无固定期限劳动合同的实施现状及其改善建议

《中华人民共和国劳动合同法》中的无固定期限劳动合同条款,是社会各界争议的焦点。虽然已有着3年多的制度实施,无固定期限劳动合同的签订率仍然非常低下,这对于建立一个和谐稳定的劳动关系影响非常之大。文章通过介绍本文通过介绍《中华人民共和国劳动合同法》出台后无固定期限劳动合同的实施情况及其存在问题,结合国外的实践基础上,就完善我国无固定期限劳动合同制度提出若干思路,以期通过无固定期限劳动合同的实施构建我国和谐劳资关系,促进企业与员工的共同发展。     

Impact of Contract Farming on Income: Linking Small Farmers, Packers, and Supermarkets in China

This study compares contract and non-contract growers of apples and green onions in Shandong Province, China in order to explore the constraints on participation and the impact of contract farming on income. We find little evidence that firms prefer to work with larger farms, though all farms in the area are quite small. Using a Heckman selection–correction model, we find that contract farming raises income even after controlling for observable and unobservable household characteristics. These results suggest that contract farming can help raise small-farm income, though questions remain regarding the number of farmers that can be brought into such schemes.     

Directional trends in selected aspects of rural poverty in the Eastern Cape Province: changes during the first ten years of South African democracy

This study analysed changes in demographic, gender, basic service access and agricultural production patterns in the rural black Eastern Cape Province between 1993 and 2002 in order to offer advice for future poverty alleviation strategies. It used secondary data from national surveys and the 2001 census and stratified the Eastern Cape districts into former Transkei, former Ciskei and commercial farming district sub-regions, in accordance with the pre-1994 developmental scenarios. The results showed that the demographic and basic service access changes were positive, but that pre-existing sub-regional differences had been reinforced, indicating that the populous former Transkei was being marginalised. There has been little development for rural women, agricultural production is almost negligible and employment in commercial farming has declined. Geographically targeted interventions seem to be warranted for the demographic, gender development and basic service accessibility aspects of Eastern Cape rural poverty, but improving rural production appears to be the major challenge.     

Occupational Segregation and Gender Wage Differentials: Evidence from Malaysia

In Malaysia, the participation of women in the labor market has increased over time. However, occupational segregation and wage differentials continue to be prevalent between men and women in the labor market. The present paper investigates gender‐related occupational segregation and wage differentials based on data collected from 7135 working households in Peninsular Malaysia in 2011. The wage decomposition model introduced by Brown et al. (1980) is used to examine the determinants of gender‐related wage differentials. The results suggest that differences within occupations account for the largest portion of the wage gap between men and women. The results also indicate that wage discrimination within occupations plays an important role in the gender wage gap, while sample selection bias plays an important role in the examination of gender wage gaps.     

劳动合同法实施对民营企业劳动关系的影响

规范劳动合同,是合理配置劳动力资源,稳定劳动关系,促进社会生产力永续健康发展的重要手段。《劳动合同法》颁布前,由于劳动法及相关的法律规章规定得过于原则,劳动合同制度落实得并不理想,尤其是民营企业存在不少问题。即将生效实施的《劳动合同法》,强化了书面劳动合同形式,扩大了无固定期限劳动合同及经济补偿金的适用,增加了许多法律责任的规定,必将对民营企业劳动关系发挥重大影响,促进稳定规范和谐劳动关系的建立,有力推动和谐社会的建设。