Does Ethnicity Matter for Access to Childhoodand Adolescent Health Capital in China? Evidence from the Wage-Height Relationship in the 2006 China Health and Nutrition Survey

This paper considers whether ethnicity conditions the return and access to health capital in China. Given that the wage-height relationship reflects the labor market earnings returns to childhood and adolescent health capital, differences in the labor market returns to height by ethnicity reflect ethnic differences in access to health capital during childhood and adolescence. We theoretically motivate the role of height in earnings by providing a Bioeconomic rationale for stature and height determining individual wages, and estimate height-augmented Mincerian earnings functions with data from the 2006 China Health and Nutrition Survey. Our results show that when the effects of unobserved genetic influences on adult height are accounted for, the labor market return on height is higher for Chinese ethnics. This suggests that in China there are ethnic disparities in access to the inputs that produce childhood and adolescent health capital.     

Unemployed Chinese workers: the survivors,the worried young and the discouraged old

The forces of globalization and the wave of economic reform in the People's Republic of China have led to government policies to downsize state-owned enterprises and support a competitive labour market. Chinese workers who have been laid off ( xiagang ) are leaving the 'iron rice-bowl' security of the socialist state. Unemployment produces personal challenges for laid-off workers and human resource policy challenges for the government. For workers, xiagang and unemployment status mean they must cope with the unfamiliar challenges of job search and the threat of economic hardship. But how unemployment influences workers' lives is strikingly diverse in its impacts. Distinctly different patterns emerge for workers depending on: 1) their position in the social structure and stage of life, 2) their available skills and coping resources, and 3) their experience of economic and psychological distress. The present study reports survey responses of a sample of 2,412 laid-off Chinese workers in seven cities in China and identifies three distinct sub-groups of unemployed workers: 1) 'Survivors': more confident and better educated workers, 2) 'The Worried Young': distressed younger workers with few coping resources, and 3) 'The Discouraged Old': older workers with less education looking towards retirement. Each of these groups of workers views their circumstances and life prospects in quite different ways. Our results are examined in the context of the literature on social change and the life course. Our findings also suggest different human resource policies for each of these groups of workers.     

A PATCHWORK SAFETY NET: A SURVEY OF CLIOMETRIC STUDIES OF INCOME MAINTENANCE PROGRAMS IN THE UNITED STATES IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Abstract Social welfare programs in the USA are designed to serve as safety nets for people in hard times, in contrast with the universal approach found in many other developed western nations. In a survey of cliometric studies of social welfare programs in the USA, we examine the variation in the safety net in the USA across states in the 20th century, the determinants of the variation and its impact on socioeconomic outcomes. The USA has always displayed substantial variation in the extent of the safety net because the features of most public social welfare programs have been and currently are determined by local and state governments, even after the federal government became involved in the 1930s. Differences across states persist strongly for typically a decade, although the persistence weakens with time, and there are some periods when federal intervention led to a re‐ordering. The rankings of state benefits differ from program to program, and economic and political factors have different weights in determining benefit levels in panel data estimation of their effects. Variation in benefits across programs during the early 1900s had significant impact on labour markets, economic activity, family formation, death rates and crime.     

Employers and child workers: an institutional approach

This article explores employers' perspectives on the introduction of child employment legislation in Australia 1 through the lens of the three pillars—regulative, normative and cultural‐cognitive—of institutional theory. The study extends the traditional industrial relations (IR) focus on regulation to examine how human resource (HR) practices around child employment become legitimised, normalised and socially supported.     

Competitive strategies and new technology: an empirical investigation in the UK polymer processing industry

This paper examines how companies can achieve competitive advantage by fitting their business strategies to the way in which new technology implementation is managed. In particular, the inter-relationship between strategy, technology and performance is examined. Five strategic types and seven types of technological objectives were used to find combinations which were associated with high performance. It was found that companies pursuing a prospector strategy (a strategy based on product innovation) combined with technological objectives emphasizing marketing, image and technical development were the highest performing group of companies. The lowest performing companies were those where strategy was dominated by price competition.
The general conclusion of the paper is that, in order to achieve competitive advantage, companies need to see technology objectives as an inherent part of strategy. The study was carried out on a sample of twenty companies within the polymer processing industry, but the findings should be applicable to companies in other industries, and particularly to smaller companies.     

Economic Growth in a Cross‐section of Nonindustrial Countries: Does Colonial Heritage Matter for Africa?

The paper investigates the effects of Sub‐Saharan African colonial heritage on economic growth in a sample of nonindustrial countries. An empirical Solow growth model is specified in a way that allows an examination of whether or not growth in Sub‐Saharan Africa reflects a legacy of extractive colonialization strategies, motivated by a hostile disease environment that resulted in extractive growth‐retarding institutions that persisted after independence. Parameter estimates suggest that the partial effects of extractive institutions engendered by a twentieth century colonial heritage account for approximately 30% of the growth gap between the former colonies in Sub‐Saharan Africa and other nonindustrial countries.     

Britain's future in Europe: a personal view

Differentiation is now 'official' in the EU and the idea of a several-speed Europe is acceptable. The major member-States, Germany apart, no longer favour a federal United States of Europe. Additions to the 'acquis communautaire' will be small in number and EU regulation will increase more lowly. Britain should work within the EU to keep it 'open and flexible'.     

The Measurement of Average Farm Size

Comparisons are regularly drawn between the average sizes of farms in particular countries or regions and in different farm-type categories. Indeed average farm size is often considered to explain (or create expectations of) changes or differences in technical or economic efficiency through time or between countries. There are, however, a number of issues involved in specifying what is meant by a farm and in choosing a suitable measure of farm size. These are examined prior to a discussion of various measures of average size, one of which (the mid-aggregate point) is described in some detail. The measures are illustrated with reference to agricultural holdings in England and in the Member States of the European Union.     

The cost of male subemployment in the black community

Summary and Conclusions In 1969, the direct and indirect costs of the subemployment of black men exceeded total federal expenditures on manpower programs by almost $2 billion ($4.0 vs. $2.1 billion) and today, with the black unemployment rate approaching 13 percent, it is improbable that this difference has narrowed appreciably. Nor is there any evidence to indicate that the black male’s tie to the family unit has strengthened to any significant extent. There is no readily available panacea for eliminating these economic costs and the continued waste of human resources, but the World War II and Korean War experiences are indicators of how society can act to simultaneously attack the related problems of subemployment and family instability.