Matching processes in the labour market an econometric study

This paper presents empirical results on matching in the labour market in Marseilles (France). Using a sample of meetings between employers and workers organized by a local employment office, we infer from estimation results that selection among applicants is on the basis of their level of education. The strength of this selection bias is substantially caused by the poor quality of the screening performed by the employment office. Employers appear also to discriminate against the youngest applicants, the long-term unemployed and applicants of North-African extraction. These effects are alleviated when employers face a labour supply constraint in the labour market.     

Hierarchies in organisations and labour market competition

This paper studies the endogenous determination of hierarchies in firms. Firms can design a hierarchy with a continuum of ranks, one for each ability level. Nevertheless, in the market equilibrium, they choose to have only a finite number of ranks, so that in each rank there are workers of different abilities, who produce different output, and receive the same wage. It is also shown that an increase in the extent of labour market competition reduces the number of ranks in the hierarchy.     

Social exclusion and labour market transitions: a multi-state multi-spell analysis using the BHPS

In this empirical paper, we assess how social exclusion arises in the context of labour market transition behaviour. We estimate a multi-state multi-spell competing risks model and identify five states: high skilled employment, intermediate skilled employment, low skilled employment, unemployment and out-of-the-labour market. Using data from the first seven waves of the British Household Panel Survey, we show that a substantial number of workers were trapped in a vicious circle of low-skilled employment, unemployment and inactivity in the 1990s. Workers who are part of the so-called flexible workforce are more likely to suffer social exclusion.     

Immigration and occupational status: A study of Bangladeshi and Turkish fathers and sons in the London labour market

This paper examines the labour market experience of 300 fathers and 300 of their sons in the Bangladeshi and Turkish immigrant communities in various London boroughs in 1988. Probit estimates are made in relation to employment and unemployment, self-employment and employment, and upward mobility or lack of it. Human capital regressions are also run for each of the four groups and for the combined sample. The evidence is consistent with distinctive labour market experience among the various groups.     

Participation in continuous,on-the-job training and the impact on job satisfaction: longitudinal evidence from the German labour market

A number of studies in the human resources literature acknowledge the importance of workplace training for inducing organizational commitment on the part of workers. However, small sample sizes and the absence of relevant panel data have raised concerns about the general validity of results and highlighted the need for further research to explicitly include on-the-job training as an important facet of job satisfaction. A similar empirical gap exists in the economics and industrial organization literature, where, despite the importance of both on-the-job training and job satisfaction to influence labour productivity, the relationship between the two has received surprisingly little attention. The aim of this paper is to bridge this gap in our knowledge and assess the impact of further training on job satisfaction in the western regions of Germany. We use data derived from the German Socio-economic Panel, which covers the period 1984 to 2002. Concentrating on full-time employed individuals, we focus in particular on the 1989, 1993 and 2000 interview waves, which include a number of questions on work-related training and offer detailed information on the type and duration of training received, and whether employers sponsored such training. The empirical results of the study provide information about the decision to participate in further training and the latter's impact on job satisfaction. Gender inequality issues in Germany's segmented labour market are explained by reference to discrepancy theory, equity theory, social exchange theory and the perception of a breach in the psychological contract between firms and female trainees.     

Employment relations and labour market indicators in ten industrialized market economies: Comparative statistics

The acceleration of the internationalisation of business and the division of labour has been led by improvements in technologies and communications, decreased barriers to trade, increased competition and the growth of multinational enterprises (MNEs). Employers, government organizations and unions, practitioners and academics are increasingly concerned with locating comparable statistics. This article reviews employment relations and labour market data for ten major industrialized market economies (IMEs) and discusses some of the challenges in the measurement and interpretation of such data. For a fuller discussion of such data, and of the ten IME, see Greg J. Bamber and Russell D. Lansbury (eds) International and Comparative Employment Relations 3rd edn, to be published by Sage, London, and Allen & Unwin, Sydney, in mid-1998.     

A new approach to the existence and regularity of linear equilibrium in a noisy rational expectations economy

This paper gives a new approach to show the existence and regularity of linear equilibrium established by Lou ⓡ al. (2019) for a noisy rational expectations economy. Different from the existing method which essentially requires to find a fixed point of a system of nonlinear algebraic equations, the new approach is operated directly on an alternative form of market-clearing conditions. One main advantage of the new approach is that besides homogeneous-valuation economies, it can also handle the existence of equilibrium in economies with heterogeneous valuations where the existing method for dealing with homogeneous-valuation economies fails to work.     

Deregulation and labour earnings: Three motor carrier industries in Japan

We empirically examine the effect of product market deregulation on wages. The difference-in-difference approach is used with wage data from three motor carrier industries (the taxi, bus and trucking industries) in Japan to obtain the following findings. First, deregulations in the 1990s and 2000s caused the relative wages of taxi and bus drivers to decline, but this was not the case for truck drivers. Second, the large decline in the relative wages of taxi drivers can be explained by the deterioration of economic conditions; their wages are more sensitive to labour market conditions than those of drivers in other industries.     

General equilibrium in markets for lemons

This paper studies exchange economies in which agents have differential information about the goods that the other agents bring to the market. To study such a setting, it is useful to distinguish goods not only by their physical characteristics, but also by the agent that brings them to the market. Equilibrium is shown to exist, with agents receiving the cheapest bundle among those that they cannot distinguish from the truthful delivery. An example is presented as an illustration.     

Labour flexibility and job market segmentation in Spain: a perspective from the labour demand side

The aim of this research is to conduct a quantitative analysis of the factors leading Spanish companies to adopt certain forms of organization that are typical of flexible businesses and high performance organizations. Despite the supposed inflexibility of the Spanish labour market, the results both point towards the high capacity of Spanish companies to select the form of work organization that best suits them and show the key role that competitive strategy plays when it comes to differentiating or segmenting types of work or workers, over and above the rigid working regulations that, purportedly, standardize labour relations in Spain.     

Vocational training and the labour market in liberal and coordinated economies

In recent decades, the differences between the education and training systems in the liberal and coordinated market economies have increased. It is not possible to understand such different developments by focusing exclusively on the internal dynamics of vocational and general education systems. Vocational education and training (VET), and particularly apprenticeship systems rather than school‐based VET, are deeply embedded in the different national production, labour market, industrial relations and status systems. In order to contribute to a better understanding of the dynamics of VET, we examine recent developments in general and vocational training and its links to the labour and product market in five contrasting countries, namely, Denmark, Canada, Germany, Korea and the USA. In particular, differences in industrial relations, welfare states, income distribution and product markets are the main reason for the persistent high level of diversity in vocational training systems. The difference can perhaps be summarized as follows: in the coordinated market economies, the modernisation of vocational training is seen as a contribution to innovation in the economy, while in liberal market economies, it is seen as a siding into which weaker pupils can conveniently be shunted.     

Price stickiness and markup variations in market games

In this paper, we show that the Shapley–Shubik market game model with production naturally generates an equilibration mechanism that can accommodate price stickiness arising from strategic interactions of firms. Unlike New Keynesian models that show similar price stickiness results, the market game model does not require enforcing menu costs or other additional restraints on price adjustment mechanisms in order to generate price stickiness. As such, we suggest that the market game model can provide a good micro-foundation for macroeconomic analysis. We then explicitly show the relationship between a typical firm’s markup of price over marginal cost and its market share.     

The role of the market in transforming training and knowledge to superior performance: evidence from the Australian manufacturing sector

Training and development of employees increases the value and breadth of employee capabilities and knowledge, although this improvement, we suggest, cannot drive improved competitive performance in the absence of effective commercialisation of these capabilities. We propose and test a model of training and organisational performance, mediated by effective market engagement and transformation by firms. We find, as we anticipate, no direct link between training and performance, although there is a significant and positive path between training and performance when mediated through effective and contemporaneous market engagement.     

A labour market perspective on management training and development in Europe

This paper uses recent survey data to undertake a comparative analysis of management development across six Western European countries. Unlike most studies that compare management development practices, we rely on an institutional labour market perspective to compare managerial skills development and training. We suggest that, while there are few differences in terms of the priority firms from different countries give to developing managers, the methods that are used and skill profiles can differ considerably. Furthermore, institutional change may also challenge some conventional views of how managers are being developed. We conclude by distinguishing four country systems that reflect a series of common characteristic strengths and weaknesses of national managerial training systems.     

城镇专业市场形成的供需机制分析

在分析本地专业市场的地理意义及其对供需的空间聚集能力的基础上,由生产带动和消费带动两种模式入手对本地专业市场的供需互动形成机制进行探讨.通过分析行业平均价格指导下的供需曲线变化,寻求对本地专业市场形成机制的解答,并以国内相关城镇的专业市场实例进行印证,得出在不同模式下本地专业市场的形成条件.结论显示,城镇专业市场是在本地与外地的供给与需求互动过程中有条件地形成的.     

Transformations in- and outside the internal labour market: institutional change and continuity in Japanese employment practices

The weak performance of the Japanese economy since the 1990s has renewed the debate on the efficiency of its employment practices. Although actual changes have long trailed expectations, two major developments have taken place in recent years: a rise in non-regular employment and the introduction of performance-related pay (seikashugi). Both affect the internal labour market that has been crucial to human resource management in Japan. The first development diminishes its relevance and the second directly impacts its functioning. This paper discusses these changes and the factors that determine their character. Moreover, it argues that the changes are not just aligned with but also made possible by an important continuity in the support for the core practice of lifetime employment. What results is a story of institutional change and continuity which argues that the specific character of Japanese employment practices remains in spite of an apparent convergence.     

From London to Los Angeles: a comparison of local labour market processes in the US and UK film industries

Addressing the issue of the embeddedness of labour markets, this paper compares the processes of finding employment in the film industry within two local labour markets. Drawing on studies of freelance film crews in London (UK) and Los Angeles (US), the paper concludes that the importance of social networks in job mobility in both contexts is a consequence of common production structures. However, common labour market practice varies in each geographical space as industry processes and structures are mediated by local institutional contexts.     

Reshaping internal labour markets in the National Health Service: new prospects for pay and training for lower skilled service workers?

This article considers how two new strategies for improving pay and skills development have been used in the UK National Health Service (NHS) to develop labour capacity and capability by stimulating the development of relatively coherent internal labour markets for workers at the lower end of the occupational hierarchy. Drawing on data from 13 NHS trusts, we scrutinise the implications of the new national pay system, Agenda for Change, for healthcare assistants and cleaners and find substantial one‐off improvements in pay for these groups as a direct result of the new national pay framework. However, the detailed case‐study data reveal there is considerable uncertainty regarding the extent, depth and durability of pay improvements. In particular, opportunities for pay progression in reward for acquisition of new skills and qualifications were more variable as a result of the stronger role of management choice and strategy at the organisational level in implementing the new national strategy for skills development, the Skills Escalator. Moreover, management strategy shaped the demand for, and distribution of, intermediate‐level skills (through new job design, for example), which was critical to the effectiveness of trusts in pulling lower grade employees up through an internal career trajectory.     

Tracing the connections: short-termism,training and recession

It is frequently claimed that some employers act to maximise short-term gains at the expense of long-term rewards, hence reducing the level of employee training. In addition, during a recession such employers are expected to be the keenest to make further cutbacks. This paper examines the empirical validity of these two claims by examining the links between three proxies for short-termism and the incidence and volume of training activity as well as recession-induced changes to training expenditure and the proportion of the workforce trained. The results are based on establishment-level data taken from 67,599 private sector employers in England in 2009 and enriched with data from other sources (with sample sizes falling accordingly). The results suggest that short-termism plays a role in explaining both the level of training activity supported by employers and its sensitivity to the economic cycle. However, the results are rather ambiguous with one of the proxies suggesting that, contrary to theoretical reasoning, training incidence and volume is higher, not lower, in establishments which belong to stock market listed rather than unlisted enterprises. To make further analytical headway, then, direct measures of short-termism are needed rather than indirect, albeit improved, measures of the type used here.     

Risk aversion and the elasticity of substitution in general dynamic portfolio theory: Consistent planning by forward looking, expected utility maximizing investors

Using the measure of risk aversion suggested by Kihlstrom and Mirman [Kihlstrom, R., Mirman, L., 1974. Risk aversion with many commodities. Journal of Economic Theory 8, 361–388; Kihlstrom, R., Mirman, L., 1981. Constant, increasing and decreasing risk aversion with many commodities. Review of Economic Studies 48, 271–280], we propose a dynamic consumption-savings–portfolio choice model in which the consumer-investor maximizes the expected value of a non-additively separable utility function of current and future consumption. Preferences for consumption streams are CES and the elasticity of substitution can be chosen independently of the risk aversion measure. The additively separable case is a special case. Because choices are not dynamically consistent, we follow the “consistent planning” approach of Strotz [Strotz, R., 1956. Myopia and inconsistency in dynamic utility maximization. Review of Economic Studies 23, 165–180] and also interpret our analysis from the game theoretic perspective taken by Peleg and Yaari [Peleg, B., Yaari, M., 1973. On the existence of a consistent course of action when tastes are changing. Review of Economic Studies 40, 391–401]. The equilibrium of the Lucas asset pricing model with i.i.d. consumption growth is obtained and the equity premium is shown to depend on the elasticity of substitution as well as the risk aversion measure. The nature of the dependence is examined. Our results are contrasted with those of the non-expected utility recursive approach of Epstein–Zin and Weil.