Grime and Punishment: Job Insecurity and Wage Arrears in the Russian Federation

Using information from two complementary household survey data sets, we show that the dominant form of labor market adjustment in the Russian transition process has been the delayed receipt of wages. More than half the work force is experiencing some form of disruption of their pay. Wage arrears are found across the private, state, and budgetary sectors. Workers in the metropolitan center are less affected by delayed and incomplete wage payments than are workers in the provinces. There is less evidence that individual characteristics contribute much toward the incidence of wage arrears, but the persistence of arrears is concentrated on a subset of the working population. We show that workers can only exercise the exit option of a job quit from a firm not paying wages in full or on time if the outside labor market is sufficiently dynamic. J. Comp. Econom., December 1999, 27(4), pp. 595–617. Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, United Kingdom, IZA, Bonn, Germany, and WDI, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics, London WC2AE 2AE, England, and Royal Holloway College, University of London, Egham, TW20 1TQ, England; School of Information Management and Systems, University of California, 102 South Hall, Berkeley, California 94720-4600.     

Outsourcing and skill-specific employment in a small economy: Austria after the fall of the Iron Curtain

We set up a model, in which firms in a small industrializedcountry outsource part of their production to a foreign economy,which is rich in low-skilled labour. We analyse, how a declinein trade costs affects outsourcing activities and the productionstructure in the small economy. A stimulation of cross-borderoutsourcing raises wage dispersion and, if labour markets areunionized, also the employment of high-skilled relative to low-skilledlabour. Using a panel of Austrian industries, we find, first,that decreasing trade barriers—as observed after the fallof the Iron Curtain—indeed stimulate outsourcing to Centraland Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and, second,that outsourcing to these countries significantly shifts relativeemployment in favour of high-skilled labour.     

Ehrgeizige Pläne der Ampelkoalition zur beruflichen Weiterbildung

Wirtschaftsdienst - Der Koalitionsvertrag der neuen Ampelregierung listet zwar Vorschläge zur Neuausrichtung der beruflichen Weiterbildung auf, bleibt aber mit seinen Vorschlägen...     

20 Jahre Deutsche Einheit

Am 1. Juli 1990 trat die Wirtschafts-, W?hrungs- und Sozialunion der beiden deutschen Staaten in Kraft. Der Prozess des ?konomischen Zusammenwachsens von Ost- und Westdeutschland erwies sich jedoch als schwieriger als erwartet. Warum ist das so? Und was k?nnte getan werden, um in Ostdeutschland eine eigenst?ndige Wirtschaftsdynamik zu etablieren?     

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.     

The trade structure effects of endogenous regional trade agreements

This paper formulates an empirical model to estimate the impact of endogenous new regional trade agreement (RTA) membership on trade structure. The likelihood of new RTA membership is influenced by economic fundamentals such as country size, factor endowments, and trade and investment costs. In a sample of country-pairs covering mainly the OECD economies we find a particularly strong effect of endogenous RTAs on intra-industry trade in a difference-in-difference analysis based on matching techniques. The associated trade volume effects are similar to the ones found in previous research on the effects of endogenous RTAs. Overall, this indicates that RTA membership might reduce inter-industry trade not only in relative but also in absolute terms and that the trade volume effect is due to the associated growth in trade within industries.     

Entwickeln sich wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Forschung und Politikberatung auseinander?

Most German economists show strong patterns of professional specialisation. In their work, they either focus on basic research or on policy consultancy. The evidence provided by Haucap und Mödl has been used to question work incentives in academia. The suggestion to change work incentives, however, is not supported by Richter, who rather calls into question the German tradition of research funding. He argues that Germany should devote more competitive funding to research projects and less to institutions. Schmidt et al. explore the question the other way around: do policy consultants publish in top journals? They conclude that they do. Güth/Kliemt show how precarious and limited our (technologically useful) knowledge is. The discussion of alternative policies among economic experts should be used to tease out the controversial arguments to allow for better informed political judgements. Wagner/Fratzscher take a historical view, showing that when modern economic research (and economic research institutes) apply a more pluralistic paradigm than that which prevailed in Germany for a long period after the Second World War, economic research will automatically have a more significant impact on politics, since policy advisors will produce more varied advice with the potential for realisation. Koll also claims that policy advice must not be based on a single supply-side oriented mainstream point of view. By drawing lessons from the crisis, economics must identify a new mainstream providing reliable guidance and policy advice.