Productivity, employment and labor demand in Polish industry in the 1980s: Some preliminary results from enterprise-level data

The paper uses annual data from a panel of 334 Polish industrial enterprises over the period 1983–1988 to test empirically a simple neoclassical approach to the socialist labor market. First, an enterprise production function is estimated. The paper finds that for most enterprises, the resulting estimated marginal product of labor exceeds the wage paid by the enterprise by a considerable margin, suggesting general excess demand for labor. The paper then looks at how the difference between the MPL and the wage is related to the rate of change of employment, and finds that firms where the MPL is higher than the wage — firms which in a neoclassical model would have a large excess demand for labor — do not shed labor any more slowly than other firms.     

Polish Economic Transformation: From Recession to Recovery and the Challenges Ahead

The Polish path from planning to markets was dramatic and risky but the benefits are already beginning to show. The Solidarity-led government introduced simultaneous macroeconomic stabilization and microeconomic liberalization programmes in January 1990. Inflation was successfully brought under control and free markets were rapidly established, but at the same time the country went into a deep recession. However the economy has been experiencing a strong recovery for more than a year, and Poland will probably be the fastest growing economy in Europe in 1993. There has also been major progress in restructuring and, to a lesser extent, privatization. Overall, Poland has made substantial progress towards a West European-type economy.     

Private information, trading volume, and stock-return variances

New evidence is provided on the determinants of stock-returnvariances. First, when the Tokyo Stock Exchange is open on Saturday,the weekend variance increases; weekly variance is unaffected,however, despite an increase in weekly volume. Second, the listingof U.S. stocks in Tokyo substantially increases the number oftrading hours, but Tokyo volume is negligible for these U.S.stocks and their 24-hour variance is unaffected. The overallresults are consistent with the predictions of private-information-basedrational trading models, but inconsistent with both the irrationaltrading noise and public-information hypotheses.     

On technical analysis

Technical analysis, or the use of past prices to infer privateinformation, has value in a model in which prices are not fullyrevealing and traders have rational conjectures about the relationbetween prices and signals. A two-period dynamic model of equilibriumis used to demonstrate that rational investors use historicalprices in forming their demands and to illustrate the sensitivityof the value of technical analysis to changes in the valuesof the exogenous parameters.     

Time Flexibility,Women’s Wages,and the Gender Wage Gap

Atlantic Economic Journal - Paid jobs providing more time flexibility may appeal to workers who have primary responsibility as a caregiver for young children or for sick, handicapped, or elderly...     

Successful change programs begin with results

Most corporate improvement programs have a negligible impact on operational and financial performance because management focuses on the activities, not the results. By initiating activities-centered programs, such as seven-step problem solving, statistical process control, and total quality management training, managers falsely assume that one day results will materialize. But because there is no explicit connection between action and outcome, improvements seldom do materialize. The authors argue for an alternative approach: results-driven improvement programs that focus on achieving specific, measurable operational improvements within a few months. While both activity-centered and results-driven programs aim to strengthen fundamental corporate competitiveness, the approaches differ dramatically. Activity-centered programs rely on broad-based policies and are more concerned with time-consuming preparations than with measurable gains. Results-driven programs, on the other hand, rely on an incremental approach to change, building on what works and discarding what doesn't. As a result, successes come quickly, and managers build their skills and gain the support of their employees for future changes. Because results-driven improvements require minimal investment, there is no excuse for postponing action. Indeed, there is always an abundance of underexploited capability and dissipated resources within the organization that management can tap into to get the program off the ground. The authors give a few pointers for how to get started: translate the long-term vision into doable but ambitious short-term goals; periodically review strategy, learning from both successes and failures; and institutionalize the changes that work and get rid of the rest.     

Women's and Men's Contributions to Satisfying Consumers' Needs: A Combined Time Use and Input–Output Analysis

The traditional input–output table (IOT) identifies the intermediate flows between industries, the branches' contributions to satisfy final demand and the primary inputs needed for production. While industries play a key role in the field of input–output analysis, the structure of employees remains more or less unconsidered. The present study aims to combine particular information regarding employees' working time with traditional instruments of input–output analysis. In so doing, employees (and the corresponding paid working hours) are separated by industries, educational achievements and gender. This, in turn, allows for the identification of women's and men's contributions to satisfying different categories of final demand. In total, men's paid working hours significantly exceed women's labour input. However, societies rely likewise on paid and unpaid work. Therefore, the study finally accounts for the field of unpaid work, which – in Germany – is still dominated by women.     

Relational Demography in Supervisor‐Subordinate Dyads: An Examination of Discrimination and Exclusionary Treatment

This study examines the link between supervisor‐subordinate dissimilarity and associated perceptions of discrimination and exclusionary treatment. Using a sample of 1,059 employees from a large Southeastern insurance company, we examined age, race, and gender dissimilarity as predictors of perceived discrimination, supervisory support, and leader‐member exchange. In addition, we examined supervisor liking/attraction and status of affiliation with supervisor as intervening variables. Race dissimilarity related positively to perceptions of discrimination and exclusionary treatment, mediated by both supervisor liking and status. Effects for age and gender dissimilarity were nonsignificant. We discuss the importance of these findings for understanding and managing dyadic relationships at work. Copyright © 2013 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.