Intersectoral wage linkages: the case of Sweden

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether wage-setting in certain sectors of the Swedish economy affects wage-setting in other sectors. The theoretical background is the Scandinavian model of inflation, which states that wage-setting in the sectors exposed to international competition lead wage-setting in the sheltered sectors of the economy. The Johansen maximum likelihood cointegration approach is applied to quarterly data on Swedish sector wages for the period 1980:1–2002:2. Different vector error correction (VEC) models are created, based on assumptions as to which sectors are exposed to international competition and which are not. Granger causality tests are then carried out in the different restricted/unrestricted VEC models to test for sector wage leadership. The Granger causality tests provide strong evidence for the presence of intersectoral wage causality, but no evidence of a wage-leading role for the internationally exposed manufacturing sector.      

国际贸易与劳动力市场:研究述评

近三十年来,国际贸易迅速发展,同时各国劳动力市场保持着一种动态变化,国际贸易对劳动力市场的影响不断加深.在这一背景下,国际经济学和劳动经济学领域的学者对国际贸易与劳动力市场的关系进行了大量的理论与经验研究,相关研究主要集中在三个方面:国际贸易对各国工资的影响、国际贸易对各国就业的效应以及国际贸易对劳动力需求弹性的影响.本文将从上述三个方面对相关研究进行回顾.     

Downward wage rigidity and job mobility

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) we study whether being individually affected by downward wage rigidity has an effect on layoffs, quits and intra-firm mobility. Within a structural empirical model we estimate the individual extent of wage rigidity. This is expressed by the wage sweep-up, which measures by how much individual wage growth increases through the effect of downward wage rigidity when compared to a counterfactual labour market with flexible wage setting. We find robust negative effects of wage sweep-up on quits and layoffs and some evidence for a positive association of wage sweep-up and promotion opportunities. This is consistent with a core-periphery view of the labour force, where a core work force is protected from layoffs and wage cuts and at the same time enjoys good promotion opportunities. On the other side a peripheral work force provides a buffer for adjustment and suffers from both flexible wages, more insecure jobs and less internal promotion opportunities.      

浅谈我国死刑制度的限制适用及其发展

2011年判决的陕西＂药家鑫案件＂和云南＂李昌奎案件＂引发了民众对我国死刑制度适用的质疑和讨论。我国的刑法属于重刑法典。＂保留死刑,严格控制死刑＂是我国死刑的基本政策。我国法律在制定的过程中体现了尊重生命、慎用死刑的态度。     

The labor market effects of foreign owned firms

Foreign firms have a more educated workforce and pay higher wages than domestic firms even after controlling for worker quality, at a given moment in time. This does not imply that foreign ownership improves the labor market outcomes of the workers since foreign investment may be guided by unobservable firm and worker characteristics correlated with schooling or wages. This paper asks whether foreign investors acquire firms with high human capital or wages, or whether foreign acquisition improves these outcomes. Using a matched employer-employee data set, I find that foreign acquisitions of domestic firms have small effects on the human capital and on average wages of the acquired firms. Instead, foreign investors “cherry pick” those domestic firms that are already very similar to the group of existing foreign firms.     

美国NAIC关于长期责任准备金的提取方法及其借鉴

2004年12月,中国保监会发布了《保险公司非寿险业务准备金管理办法(试行)》,规定了各种责任准备金的提取方法。该试行办法中,有关对长期责任准备金的提取方法的规定侧重于原则性,缺乏可操作性,有待进一步完善。美国保险官协会(NAIC)于1997年修订、并于1998年开始实施的关于长期责任准备金的提取方法,对我国非寿险公司以及保险监管部门有借鉴意义。特别是按照美国保险官协会(NAIC)的新规定,长期责任准备金的提取涉及到精算人员的经验与判断,故对精算人员提出了更高的要求。     

Performance Volatility and Wage Elasticity: An Examination of Listed Chinese A-share Enterprises

The management of future financial risk on the part of managers and changes in firm finances are two of the fundamental reasons for upward and downward rigidity of wages. The proxy variable for firm financial risk is volatility, the past performance of which is among the principal indicators of wage rigidity. In firms whose current performance is on the upswing, the greater the volatility in past performance, the smaller the elasticity ratio and the more acute the upward rigidity; the more stable past performance, the larger the elasticity ratio and the more acute the upward elasticity. In firms in which current performance is declining, greater past performance volatility leads to a larger elasticity ratio and more acute downward rigidity, whereas more stable such performance leads to a smaller elasticity ratio and more acute downward rigidity.     

Game Theoretic Models of Wage Bargaining

This paper aims at being a tool to help apply game theoretic bargaining models to wage negotiations. In this perspective, we review a number of articles which explicitly deal with wage determination as well as purely game theoretical models which we believe can be fruitfully extended to account for specific features of labour markets. We discuss some common shortcomings in the wage negotiation literature, and suggest possible lines of research worth pursuing to deal with such weaknesses.     

Pro-poor trade policy in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper examines the presence of a pro-poor bias in the existing structure of protection of six Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gambia, and Madagascar. We build on a simple agricultural household production model and we propose an extension to include adjustments in labor income. Our approach, which can be implemented without repeated cross-sections of household level data, suits well the data constraints in SSA. It also allows us to capture the heterogeneity in trade protection at the tariff line level. The pro-poor bias indicators suggest that SSA's trade policies tend to be biased in favor of poor households, as these policies redistribute income from rich to poor households. This is because protection increases the agricultural prices of goods that are sold by African households and this effect dominates both the impacts of higher consumption prices and the strong Stolper–Samuelson effects that benefit skilled over unskilled workers.     

死刑案件新闻报道的刑事法律解读——兼论死刑案件新闻报道的价值取向

目前我国保留死刑制度，死刑作为最严厉的刑罚，广大民众关注死刑的适用，媒体热衷于死刑案件的新闻报道。从刑事法律的角度解读死刑案件的新闻报道，从真实死刑案件的新闻报道着手，分析新闻报道的现状，分析死刑制度沿革，寻找他们之间存在的共同价值取向——人权保障。