UK Unionism and Innovative Activity: Some Cautionary Remarks on the Basis of a Simple Cross-country Test

Abstract : This paper offers a preliminary investigation of union impact on investment in intangible capital. We first report evidence on the raw correlation between union membership density and R&D intensity. This suggests that higher union density is associated with increased innovative activity among an important subset of British industry. Attention then shifts to a consideration of whether the 'stylized facts' are indicative of a causal relation or are instead an artefact produced by the concentration of unions in those sectors evincing greater scope for R&D. We offer a simple cross-country test in which German R&D outlays serve as the benchmark or comparator. No support is adduced for the notion that unions cause higher R&D.     

Lutz Erbring 65 Jahre

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

More evidence on the puzzle of interindustry wage differentials: The case of West Germany

Zusammenfassung Mehr Evidenz zur interindustriellen Lohnstruktur in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. — Die Verfasser zeigen, da? in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland für Arbeitskr?fte mit ?hnlichen Qualifikationsmerkmalen branchenspezifische Lohnunterschiede existieren und da? die interindustrielle Lohnstruktur in der Bundesrepublik der interindustriellen Lohnstruktur in den Vereinigten Staaten gleicht. So sind der Stra?enfahrzeugbau und die Mineral?lverarbeitung in beiden L?ndern typische Hochlohnbranchen, das Bekleidungsgewerbe und das Ledergewerbe dagegen typische Niedriglohnbranchen. Diese ?hnlichkeit der interindustriellen Lohnstrukturen mu? überraschen, da sich die institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen des Arbeitsmarktes in beiden L?ndern sehr stark unterscheiden. Darüber hinaus zeigt sich, da? im Branchenquerschnitt die Verdienste von Besch?ftigten mit unterschiedlicher Qualifikation eng miteinander korreliert sind. Diese Ergebnisse sind nicht ohne weiteres mit den herk?mmlichen neoklassischen Arbeitsmarktmodellen zu vereinbaren.

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Résumé Plus d’évidence des différences inter-industrielles de salaire: Le cas de la RFA. — Cette étude représente l’évidence empirique de l’existence des différences inter-industrielles de salaire pour les ouvriers avec des qualifications similaires en RFA. La structure de salaire inter-industriel en RFA semble à celle aux Etats Unis. Dans tous les deux pays ce sont l’industrie d’automobiles et les raffineries de pétrol qui ont un typiquement haut niveau de salaire, tandis que les industries des textiles et de cuir ont un niveau bas. La similarité des structures inter-industrielles de salaire est un puzzle parce que ces deux pays ont des institutions complètement différentes en ce qui concerne le marché du travail. De plus, on a trouvé des corrélations fortes de salaire entre aucun de deux groupes d’ouvriers qualifiés sur toutes les branches en RFA. Ces résultats sont un défi pour les théories néoclassiques du marché du travail.

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Resumen Más evidencia empírica sobre el rompecabezas de las diferencias salariales interindustriales en Alemania Occidental. — En este trabajo se presenta evidencia empirica sobre la existencia de diferencias interindustriales en el nivel de salarios para trabajadores con calificación similar en Alemania Occidental. La estructura interindustrial de salarios de Alemania Occidental presenta el mismo perfil que la de los EE UU. En ambos países las ramas de salarios altos comúnmente son las de vehículos y refinación de petróleo, mientras que las ramas de salarios más bajos incluyen las de la vestimenta y cuero. La similitud de las estructuras interindustriales de ingresos indica la existencia de un rompecabezas, debido a que estos paises exhiben un marco institutional para el mercado laboral totalmente diferente. Además, se encuentra una correlación alta entre los salarios de dos grupos cualesquiera de trabajadores calificados pertenecientes a una misma industria. Estos resultados constituyen un reto a las teorías neoclásicas tradicionales del mercado laboral.

     

The Netherlands: An employment policy role model?

Conclusion While in recent years the level of social security benefits in the Netherlands has been reduced somewhat —whereby to some extent this involved the employers shouldering additional costs (e.g. for disability pensions) —the benefits for unemployment and other social bene-fits remain high in international comparative terms. Despite a slight decline in social benefits as a share of GDP, public sector spending as a whole is, at around 50%, slightly higher than in Germany, although the Netherlands has not had to cope with extraordinary burdens such as have resulted from German unification. The successes achieved by the Netherlands on the labour market have been exaggerated. Firstly, the real level of unemployment is likely to be actually rather high in international terms, at least once one dispenses with a narrow definition and takes account, in particular, of the large number of occupationally disabled. Secondly, the fall in the unemployment rate is far from spectacular. Although the increase in the number of wage and salary earners has been substantially higher in the Netherlands than in west Germany, this in no way represents a comparable increase in the volume of employment—measured in working hours—as the incidence of part-time employment has increased far faster there than in west Germany. The Netherlands has achieved-slightly-higher growth than west Germany. This success is largely due to a very moderate growth of wages and salaries, amounting to a real depreciation of the guilder against the D-Mark, an economic policy strategy that can be successful in a small country, but one which, if applied by a large country such as Germany, would merely initiate a beggar-thy-neighbour race to lower real exchange rates.     

Crisis management in exchange rate policy

The behaviour of the dollar exchange rate last year and the concerted action by central banks in the autumn of 1985 have given renewed Impetus to the demand for internationally co-ordinated exchange rate management. How should such attempts at co-operation in the economic and monetary fields be viewed?     

The Timing of Daily Demand for Goods and Services—Microsimulation Policy Results of an Aging Society,Increasing Labour Market Flexibility,and Extended Public Childcare in Germany

Knowledge about the timing of consumption opens new insights into consumption behaviour for consumer, economic, social, as well as for communal and societal policies. It not only allows sound information for a better match of timely supply and demand but also about everyday living arrangements. This study contributes to the timing aspect of daily consumption by posing the question: How is the timing of daily demand for goods and services affected by major changes in German society? We concentrate on important and currently discussed developments and policies: the huge shift in Germany’s demographic structure with an aging society (with a population forecast for 2020 by the German Federal Statistical Office), the deregulation and the further expansion in flexibility of the labour market, and the current policy of extending public childcare support. For each aspect and policy, we first describe the actual timing of daily demand for goods and services. With the microsimulation approach and different scenarios, we then quantify the respective societal and policy impacts based on more than 37?000 time-use diaries of the current German Time Budget Survey of 2001/2002.     

Relativ gute Aussichten für deutsche Wirtschaft

Ohne Zusammenfassung Joachim Scheide ist Leiter des Prognosezentrums am Institut für Weltwirtschaft an der Universit?t Kiel     

ESTIMATION OF CES PRODUCTION FUNCTIONS WITH NEUTRAL TECHNICAL CHANGE FOR INDUSTRIAL SECTORS IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY 1958–1968

This paper discusses the estimation of the CES Production Function with Hicks-neutral technical change, and gives the results of an empirical study based on time series data (quarterly values) for sixteen industrial sectors in the Federal Republic of Germany (including West-Berlin), 1958–1968. The validity of the basic assumptions of the production model used in this investigation—neutrality of technical change and perfect competition—is tested by estimation of alternative specifications of the equations of this model. For this purpose two different methods of estimation were used.