New firms and labor market entrants: Is there a wage penalty for employment in new firms?

In this paper, we explore the role of new firms as an entry point to the labor market. Because the vast majority of new firms are short-lived, it is a risky decision to accept employment in a new venture. It can be argued that individuals with little (or no) labor market experience are more willing to accept the high risks associated with employment in new firms. Hence, new firms may work as an entry point to the labor market. Nevertheless, some research concludes that one disadvantage of employment in a new firm is that new firms pay less (Shane in Small Bus Econ 33:141–149, 2009). However, this empirical conclusion is primarily based on literature on the wage penalty of small firms. In this paper, we study whether the wage penalty of employment in a new firm persists if we focus solely on labor market entrants. In the empirical analysis, we employ an employer-employee matched dataset that covers the Swedish population during the period from 1998 to 2008. We use the propensity score matching method to study the wage differences between labor market entrants employed in new and incumbent firms. We find an average wage penalty of 2.9 % for labor market entrants employed in new firms over the studied period.     

IS LABOUR MARKET FLEXIBILITY DESIRABLE OR HARMFUL? A FURTHER DYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE

A common belief of mainstream economics as well as underpinning government policy is that the more flexible real wage is, the lower is unemployment. In this paper we study the dynamics of a standard neoclassical labour market under the simplest Walrasian adjustment rule. We show that when consumption and leisure are sufficiently low substitutes, an increase in real wage flexibility may destabilize the unique Walrasian equilibrium of the economy, triggering fluctuations in wages and employment. Minimal departures from strict (Walrasian) neoclassical equilibrium modelling are required to obtain instability results for wage flexibility.     

我国劳动力市场买方垄断条件下最低工资就业效应分析

文章探讨了劳动力市场买方垄断条件下最低工资对就业的影响。研究表明:无歧视买方垄断下,实行最低工资能促进就业;完全歧视买方垄断下,实行最低工资对就业没有影响。此外,关于上海市最低工资与农民工就业的实证分析结果表明,提高最低工资对农民工就业有正作用。由此导出了一个重要的政策含义,即提高最低工资标准,促进农民工就业。     

WAGE POLICY IN AN OPEN‐ECONOMY KALECKI–KALDOR MODEL: A SIMULATION STUDY

This paper discusses a Post‐Keynesian model of income, production and trade. The one‐country, one‐sector model features Kaleckian investment demand, Kaldorian productivity and a labor market module based on a wage–price spiral. The model is first presented for a closed economy with exogenous real wages; second, for a closed economy with endogenous real wages; third, for an economy open to trade with endogenous real wages. Simulations with different calibrations show key characteristics of the model. Monte Carlo simulations over reasonable parameter ranges shed some light on the effectiveness of wage policies in open economies.     

DUAL LABOR MARKETS AND THE IMPACT OF MINIMUM WAGES ON ATYPICAL EMPLOYMENT

We present a growth model that contains minimum wages as one important element of a flexicurity economy where we allow for heterogeneous labor and for real wage rigidities. We show that the wage‐setting process, in its reference to the reservation wage of the first labor market, is crucial as regards stability of the economy and persistent or explosive oscillations may occur, in particular when the influence of the reservation wage on wage formation in the first labor market becomes too strong. Further, minimum wages can alleviate the negative consequences of economic downturns and help stabilize the economy.     

西方国家劳动力市场灵活化改革的理论分析

灵活化目前已成为西方国家劳动力市场改革的主要发展趋势。西方国家希望通过放弃凯恩斯主义的劳动就业宏观需求管理政策、减少政府和工会对劳动力市场的管制与干预,以及实行激活性劳动就业政策等措施来降低劳动力市场的刚性,提高就业率。从理论上来讲,劳动力市场灵活化改革的根源在于:凯恩斯主义就业政策的失灵、刚性劳动力市场的低效率和全球化时代生产方式与就业模式的根本性变革。同时,劳动力市场的灵活化也被认为是降低失业率的一条有效途径,也是政府、资本和工会之间新的力量平衡下的一种选择。     

转型期资本投资、产业结构、市场化对中国就业效应的实证研究

本文通过对投资、技术进步、市场化程度、产业结构变动、实际工资等因素对我国就业量的影响进行的实证分析和检验结果显示,自20世纪90年代以来,资本投资增加、产业结构变动及实际工资上涨是拉动就业增加的主要因素,市场化程度提高则抑制了就业量的增加.但随着时间的推移,资本投资、产业结构变动对就业的贡献度逐渐下降,工资增长对就业的拉动作用逐渐增强,市场化对就业的抑制作用逐渐减弱.     

Economic and social correlates of female employment and fertility

This study tested a theoretical model that views female employment and fertility decisions as jointly determined by biologic, sociologic, economic, and demographic factors that determine the circumstances of individual women, families, and the labor market. The data were drawn from a multistage stratified sample of 1926 married women of childbearing age in southern Philippines. The independent variables analyzed included the exogenous wage rates of both the wife and husband, the age of the wife, the number of children ever born per year of marriage, and residence (urban or rural). Also analyzed were the social variables of time conflict, normative conflict, work commitment, and wife's relative dominance in household decision making. An exogenous change in female wage rates increased the percent of time spent in paid employment but had an insignificant effect on fertility. In contrast, a change in the male wage rate reduce female employment and current fertility. Women in municipal poblacions had lower current fertility and significantly higher labor force participation than women in rural or urban settings. Women who perceived that children interfere with work were more likely to bear a child in the study period and less likely to participate in the labor force. The husband's attitude toward female employment reduced labor force participation, but did not increase current fertility. Finally, women who play a major role in household decision making had both increased labor force participation and increased fertility. There was some variation in these trends by age cohort. A positive coefficient of the female wage on fertility was observed among women 20-29 and 40-49 years, while a negative coefficient existed for women 30-39 years. It is concluded that a common set of economic and social factors jointly determine current female employment and fertility decisions.     

The NAIRU,Aggregate Demand and Investment

The nature of the non‐accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) is analysed. The focus of our analysis is the role of aggregate demand and capacity in the context of the NAIRU. Two aspects of the relationship between the level of aggregate demand and the NAIRU are of particular significance. First, it is argued that the real wage–employment relationship based on enterprise decisions cannot be fully articulated without reference to the level of aggregate demand. Second, a model which allows for variable returns to labour and the notion of full capacity is used to explore the effects of shifts in the capital stock on the real wage–employment relationship. The model is specifically used to explore whether a sufficiently expansionary environment can generate sufficient investment to shift that relationship until the NAIRU is compatible with full employment. A number of limitations on the conclusions reached are considered, and the policy implications are briefly considered.     

Public pollution abatement and wage inequality

This paper constructs three-sector general equilibrium models to investigate how public pollution abatement affects the skilled–unskilled wage inequality. In the basic model with full employment, we find that a higher degree of public pollution abatement will decrease the wage inequality if the intensity of skilled labor in the urban skilled sector is sufficiently large and expand or narrow down the wage gap if this intensity is sufficiently small. In the extended models, we consider other four cases, and obtain the results similar or dissimilar to that of the basic model.     

The impacts of trade liberalization on informal labor markets: A theoretical and empirical evaluation of the Brazilian case

Following trade liberalization, several developing countries experienced a sharp increase in the share of informal manufacturing employment. In this paper, I examine the impacts of trade liberalization on the labor markets of a small open economy, in an environment in which tariffs affect firms' payroll tax compliance decisions. I demonstrate that a reduction in domestic import tariffs reduces the average formal wage and show that the direction of the effect on the share of informal employment depends on the initial labor market conditions. A cut in trading partner import tariffs decreases the share of domestic informal employment and increases the average formal wage. I confirm the model's principal findings empirically, using data from the 1989–2001 Brazilian trade liberalization episode. I find the results robust to endogeneity and self-selection concerns, which are addressed, respectively, using instrumental variable and switching regression approaches.     

城市正规就业与非正规就业收入差距及影响因素贡献——基于收入不平等的分解

本文使用CHNS 1997-2006的调查数据实证研究了城镇正规就业与非正规就业之间的收入差距及影响因素。收入不平等分解结果表明,正规就业与非正规就业之间存在显著的工资收入差距,但随着经济发展和劳动力市场供求的转变,两类就业者由于就业类别差异导致的"收入差异"呈缩减的趋势;受教育水平和工作经验等人力资本特征是两类就业者决定工资的主要影响因素,也是他们之间工资收入差距变化的主要贡献因素。     

农民工与城市职工的工资差异及其分解――人力资本与歧视的贡献

文章关注城市职工和农民工两个群体工资差异的大小和来源。利用CGSS2013数据和均值分解法,文章考察了人力资本和歧视的贡献。研究发现：在实现就业以后,两个群体的工资差异主要来自于特征差异,歧视并不是一个十分严重的问题;对农民工群体的歧视主要存在于就业实现的过程中,就业歧视解释了两个群体大约一半的工资差异;教育从特征差异、回报率差异、就业概率差异三个方面为工资差异做出了贡献;工作经验在工资决定中具有逆歧视作用。我们的研究意味着,要缩小两个群体的工资差异必须从缩小前市场差别开始,并通过促进市场竞争、明确歧视的实践标准、简化反歧视的诉讼程序等措施来减少就业歧视的贡献。     

Good jobs, bad jobs, and trade liberalization

How do labor markets adjust to trade liberalization? Leading models of intraindustry trade (Krugman (1981), Melitz (2003)) assume homogeneous workers and full employment, and thus predict that all workers win from trade liberalization, a conclusion at odds with the public debate. Our paper develops a new model that merges Melitz (2003) with Shapiro and Stiglitz (1984), so also links product market churning to labor market churning. Workers care about their jobs because the model features aggregate unemployment and jobs that pay different wages to identical workers. Simulations show that, for reasonable parameter values, as many as one-fourth of existing “good jobs” (those with above average wage) may be destroyed in a liberalization. This is true even as the model shows minimal impact on aggregate unemployment and quite substantial aggregate gains from trade.     

Profit Sharing, Risk Sharing, and Firm Size: Implications of Efficiency Wages

By taking account of output fluctuations, this paper constructs a synthesis of profit-sharing and efficiency-wage models to highlight the role of the risk attitudes of the firm and its employees. We show, contrary to the traditional efficiency wage theory, that in a profit-sharing economy unemployment is no longer a necessary device to induce work effort and, consequently, the labor market equilibrium may be characterized by full employment. Such a result is more likely to be true when the economy is characterized by small-sized firms. In addition, we also provide a preliminary sketch of the situations in which the firm chooses a profit-sharing program or a fixed-wage one, and discuss how a firm determines its pay parameters and employment in response to output fluctuations.     

Rethinking the area approach: Immigrants and the labor market in California

A framework that uses a Constant Elasticity of Substitution (CES) production function with skill differentiation and integrated national labor markets has predictions for the employment effect of immigrants at the local level. The employment (rather than wage) response to immigration by skill in a state reveals the production substitutability-complementarity between native and immigrant labor. This, in turn, reveals the degree to which immigrants stimulate or depress the demand for native labor. To estimate this elasticity, I use a novel instrument based on demographic characteristics of total Central American migrants or of the Mexican Population to predict immigration by skill level within California. Looking at immigration to California between 1960 and 2005 these estimates support the assumption of a nationally integrated labor market by skill and they support the hypothesis that natives and immigrants in the same education-experience group are not perfectly substitutable. This explains the counter-intuitive fact that there is a zero correlation between immigration and wage and employment outcomes of natives in the state.     

人才引进政策如何影响了劳动力市场？

人才引进政策被各地政府长期而广泛采用，但是此类干预政策对各地劳动力市场产生了怎样的影响，还鲜有研究。文章利用285个地级及以上城市政策文本的大数据分析，量化了人才引进政策的干预强度，从劳动力市场就业规模效应和人力资本积累效应两个方面，定量研究了人才引进政策对劳动力市场的影响。研究表明：第一，人才引进政策对城市劳动力市场规模有正向作用，政策干预强度增加1%，城市整体就业规模上涨0.352%，高技能就业规模上涨1.652%。第二，人才引进政策对城市人力资本积累也有正向影响，政策干预强度增加1%，城市人力资本水平上涨1.798%。第三，降低生活成本和提升工资待遇是人才引进政策的主要中介作用机制，房价的中介效应大小为0.094482，工资的中介效应大小为0.13129。     

Das Mindestlohngesetz — Hoffnungen und Befürchtungen

The German government plans to introduce a minimum wage from 2015. This must be understood as a response to the decline in collective bargaining coverage and the marked increase in employment in the low-wage sector. The authors discuss how many workers are affected by this new regulation and whether the minimum wage is too high in relation to the average wage of workers (Kaitz index). They assume that the introduction of a minimum wage in Germany can have a number of effects. It is not possible to forecast all the reactions and behaviour of market participants to handle higher wages and goods prices. Some authors warn that these measures are significant labour market interventions that could have adverse employment effects. They recommend allowing more exemptions from the minimum wage law than intended by the government, especially for young employees and student apprentices. Other authors hope that minimum wages would help to strengthen collective bargaining and stabilise wages. Some authors emphasise that there should be a careful evaluation of the economic effects by scientists.     

Some disequilibrium dynamics of exchange-rate changes

The aim of this paper is to suggest a formal dynamic model of the adjustment path of an economy during the time interval between an exchange-rate change and the attainment of a new equilibrium. It is a ‘first-pass’ model insofar as its structure and dynamics are very simple (a labor market and a commodity market are specified, with wage, price, and employment adjustment as functions of excess demand). The two principal conclusions are: exchange-rate changes may produce short-run effects qualitatively opposite to their long-run effects, not only in the current account, but also in employment and output; and knowledge of disequilibrium adjustment speeds for each sector of the economy taken in isolation appears to yield a misleadingly optimistic forecast of the disequilibrium adjustment speeds when all sectors adjust simultaneously to an exchange-rate change.     

Does globalization weaken labor unions in developing countries?

For a developing economy with a given urban wage rate, globalization in capital markets strengthens labor unions. This result hinges on the fixed urban wage rate, which leads to a constant capital–labor ratio in the urban sector. Globalization via capital inflows not only enhances the employment effect of unionization but also reduces the rent-shifting related loss in production inefficiency to domestic capital, lending a support to labor unions for developing economies. This result is contrary to the common belief that labor unions tend to be weakened during the globalization process observed after 1980s in many developed economies.