THE IMPACT OF LABOR MARKET REGULATION ON EMPLOYMENT IN LOW‐INCOME COUNTRIES: A META‐ANALYSIS

Controversy over labor market policy often centers on achieving a balance between preventing worker exploitation, and avoiding loss of productivity or employment through excessive regulation. Although the literature documenting the impact of labor market regulation on employment is extensive, there is a dearth of evidence on the impact of such policies in low‐income countries (LICs). Since it is easier for workers, especially women, to slip into the informal sector in LICs, regulations are likely to have stronger impacts on formal employment in these countries (but lower impacts on unemployment). We systematically reviewed available research from countries that are, or were until recently, LICs. Most studies document that more stringent labor regulations are associated with lower formal sector employment and higher informal sector employment. We also conducted a metaregression analysis of the impact of minimum wages on formal and informal employment. After controlling for publication bias, higher minimum wages are associated with lower formal employment and a higher share of informal workers.     

Preferential trade agreements and manufactured goods exports: does it matter whom you PTA with?

This article explores two questions. First, do preferential trade agreements (PTAs) affect manufactured goods exports of developing countries? Second, does it matter for developing countries whom they sign the PTAs with? We find that the answer to both questions is yes. Using bilateral manufactured goods exports data from 28 developing countries during 1978–2005; we find that South–South PTAs have a significantly positive effect on manufactured goods exports. In contrast, no such effect is detected in the case of South–North PTAs. We confirmed the robustness of these findings to estimation methodology, sample selection, time period, zero trade flows and multilateral trade resistance.     

Do contagion effects exist in capital flow volatility?

The cross-border transmission of a financial shock has been a subject of rich literature. While a large number of studies have focused on the phenomenon of strong co-movements of asset prices and capital flows in the event of financial stress, very few discussed the contagion or spillover effects in terms of capital flow volatility. This paper is one of the first attempts to assess, empirically, whether or not there is a global and regional spillover effect in the volatility of capital flows to emerging and developing countries. Based on the sample of 49 emerging and developing countries for the period 1980–2009, the empirical results suggest strong and significant contagion effects in the volatility of capital flows to individual economies. The magnitudes of contagion vary depending on the type of capital flows, whether it is foreign direct investment (FDI) or portfolio and other investment (mostly bank lending). The findings also suggest the volatility dynamics of gross flows is different from that of net flows. The volatility of net inflows is more exposed to intra-regional contagion compared to that of gross inflows.     

Rural labour market policies in Croatia,FYR of Macedonia and Turkey

Considerable differences are found among countries regarding the importance of the agricultural labour force, between rural and urban labour, and in poverty and living conditions in rural areas. Declines in the agricultural labour force and rural population are foreseen for each of the countries, but with significant variations between them. Showing different patterns over time, labour market developments in the sector and in rural areas have been shaped by the overall labour market institutions, conditions and factors in each country, such as the legal basis, educational attainment and migration flows, and the presence of non-agricultural activities in rural areas.     

西方国家解决住房问题的历史经验及对我国的启示

文章认为,在历史发展的不同阶段,西方国家曾经采取过一系列有针对性的住房政策,在解决住房问题方面收到了良好的效果,总结其成功经验,可以在政策指向、制度建设和市场监管等方面得到有益的启示,并从发挥市场和政府双重作用、完善住房供应制度、建立个人信用系统、完善相关法律和强化监督等方面,促进我国住宅市场的健康发展。     

Why Developing Countries Have Failed to Increase Their Exports of Agricultural Processed Products

The article uses the case study of coffee, tea and cocoa to analyse whether tariff escalation constitutes a barrier to market access that thwarts diversification efforts of developing countries into exports of value‐added agricultural processed products. It also examines the extent to which non‐tariff barriers act as market access barriers that constrain developing countries from developing their exports of agricultural processed products. Our analysis shows that tariff escalation is not the main barrier; rather it is the prevalence of non‐tariff barriers (including domestic non‐tariff barriers) that limits the ability of developing countries to increase their agricultural processed exports. This has important policy implications in terms of the emphasis that trade negotiators and policy planners should place on addressing non‐tariff barriers.     

Toward a Humanist Reconstruction of Economic Science

This paper examines whether governance matters for the economic growth of developing countries, empirically captured within the institutional economics theoretical framework using the panel data estimation procedure. In doing so, it tests the effect of several dimensions of governance on the growth of 84 low and middle-income economies using regression specifications common in the growth literature. The empirical results show that political stability and government effectiveness is significantly positively correlated with growth. Voice and accountability and corruption are statistically significantly negatively correlated with growth. The regulatory quality and rule of law dimensions of governance are negatively but statistically insignificantly correlated with growth. The findings of this study imply that the dynamics of the current modern economy makes it necessary for developing countries to act now and within their own country, improve the dimensions of governance and establish good governance practices that are domestically relevant and internationally comparable and consistent.     

“Third World” Multinationals Revisited

Abstract

The notion of “Third World Multinationals” has always been, at least, slightly misleading, and has now also become obsolete, taking into account the dismantlement of most of the ideological divides between different political and economic blocks since the early 1990s, and the new rules of the games imposed by globalization. Furthermore, new multinationals emerging from China, and also from the former Soviet republics, are demanding a new and more flexible taxonomy. The present paper re-defines “Multinationals from Developing Countries” (MEDCs) and it reviews first, the current literature on multinationals, looking at the key factors which may explain the internationalization process of enterprises coming from outside the traditional, developed, and industrialised world, and also whether they may enjoy specific sources of comparative advantages, different from those ascribed to the old, established multinationals. A statistical appendix provides a brief but comprehensive survey of the current status of MEDCs, pointing out that, at the end of the day, there are roughly only four such enterprises in the usual rankings of the first one hundred multinational corporations, worldwide, and that the prospects of a forthcoming, and enhanced upgrading in the global corporate structure are heavily geared towards Asia. The data would also seem to support the argument that sheer “scale”, as such, of the enterprises does not explain a greater or lower degree of “transnationalization,” a conclusion which, added to that of the greater flexibility provided by the new information technologies, could be goods news for small-and medium-sized enterprises coming from the developing world.     

从跨文化角度看中西方广告特征及其翻译策略

广告文化具有明显的大众性,商业性,民族性和时代性的特点。一定的文化传统,信仰和价值观在很大程度上左右着商业经营者以及消费者的心理和行为,从而影响各国广告活动。本文就几点跨文化角度下的中西广告特征进行列举分析,并且针对这些特征提出一些翻译策略。     

新疆与中亚五国经济贸易发展研究

中国新疆与中亚五国的对外经济贸易对于加强国际经济合作,促进边疆地区的经济和社会发展,以及推动新疆跨越式发展均有重要意义。本文对2002-2011年中国新疆与中亚五国对外贸易情况进行了实证分析,揭示新疆与中亚五国经济贸易发展中需要关注的问题:贸易发展不平衡,质量和效益不高;俄白哈关税同盟带来挑战;边境贸易占主导,加工贸易较薄弱;贸易结算方式亟待改进。对于这些问题,本文提出了相关建议,以推动新疆外贸发展。