The Prevalence and Impacts of ‘Envelope Wages’ in East–Central Europe

ABSTRACT

To evaluate the prevalence and impacts of the illegitimate wage practice where employers pay formal employees both a declared wage and an additional undeclared ‘envelope wage’, a survey involving 10,171 interviews across 10 East–Central European nations is reported to evaluate its commonality and evidence from 313 interviews conducted in Moscow to analyse its impacts. Finding that 10% of employees were paid envelope wages during 2007 amounting on average to two-fifths of their gross wage, and that this arrangement has deleterious implications for both employees and the economy, the article concludes by discussing how it might be tackled.     

Japanese Foreign Direct Investment in the UK Electronic Industry: The Eclectic Approach

This article analyses the combined effects of Japanese firms' ownership and location advantages on the size of foreign direct investment (FDI). The size of FDI is measured by two proxies, the firm's employment level and its total assets. Econometric models are estimated. The estimated regression models show that the parent company's firm-specific resources and the external economies in the located region determine the flow of FDI at the time of entry of Japanese electronic firms in the UK. This result shows that empirical analysis on FDI flows should combine both the ownership and location advantages, as suggested by Dunning's eclectic paradigm.     

Factors Determining Joint Venture Formation in the Agribusiness Sector of Sub-Saharan African Countries

This paper reviews the definition and the importance of joint ventures (J.V.'s) as well as the determining factors for their formation with particular reference to agribusiness in sub-Saharan African countries. The study provides evidence to show: · that African countries have increasingly attempted to create an attractive environment to encourage foreign investment in general, and J.V.'s in particular; · and that where J.V.'s have been successfully established the host countries have benefited substantially. The paper concludes that while the various reforms underway in terms of political changes, liberalisation of regulations, privatisation, and other measures taken by African countries should encourage J.V. formation, much remains to be done as regards proper implementation of policies, promotion of entrepreneurship, strengthening regional markets, overcoming the debt crisis, and improvement of the infrastructure, all of which would require substantial support from the international community.     

Age effects in Okun’s law with different indicators of unemployment

We reassess the results from the literature on the relationship between the youth unemployment rate and GDP growth (Okun’s law), based on the concern that the unemployment rate is not an ideal indicator for teenagers and young adults. Using the unemployment ratio instead, we find that youth unemployment (15–24 years old) is not significantly more responsive to economic growth than prime-age (25–64) unemployment. However, compared to prime-age unemployment, teenagers’ unemployment (15–19) is relatively unresponsive, whereas young adult’s (20–24) unemployment is more strongly correlated with economic growth. These results are quite different than those obtained with the unemployment rate as the dependent variable.     

What are the drivers of total factor productivity in the European Union?

This paper examines the evolution of total factor productivity (TFP) over time, as well as across countries and sectors, and investigates its determinants. To this end, a panel data set of 17 European Union (EU) countries and 13 sectors over the period 1995–2007 is used as part of a twofold approach. First, we estimate aggregate and sectoral TFP for 17 EU countries by means of the augmented mean group estimator to control for endogeneity, cross-section dependence and heterogeneous production technologies. Second, we investigate the relative importance of the drivers of predicted TFP using a dynamic ordinary least-squares estimator. The results indicate that rationalization, human capital and information and communication technologies are the main drivers of TFP.     

The domestic politics of financial regulation: Informal ratification games and the EU capital requirement negotiations

This paper contributes to our understanding of post-crisis financial regulation by reasserting the centrality of domestic politics in defining government preferences and explaining regulatory outcomes. It draws on Robert Putnam's two-level game approach and Foreign Policy Analysis to develop a model of a three-level informal ratification game. This adds value to existing approaches by capturing the contested nature of government preferences and delineating the causal mechanisms through which domestic groups shape international negotiations. The model is used to explain the UK's pivotal role in the reform of bank capital requirements in the European Union (EU). It demonstrates that governments are able to take advantage of a narrowing domestic ‘win-set’ by marginalising the influence of industry and building political momentum for regulatory reform. In particular, the paper shows how UK negotiators were able to exploit the increased domestic costs of agreement and synergistic strategies between negotiations to successfully oppose the maximum harmonisation of capital rules across the EU.     

出口价格、出口品质与贸易联系持续期

贸易联系持续期对于一国出口贸易的平稳发展具有重要的意义。本文基于1996~2013年中国文化贸易HS6位码数据,通过构建出口品质、出口价格以及贸易联系持续期指标,采用多种回归模型实证分析发现以下结论。文化产品出口品质有助于文化贸易联系持续期的稳定,而出口价格则抑制了贸易联系持续期,尤其在核心文化产品种类以及较短的贸易联系持续期样本上。本文一个有趣的发现是,对于出口品质较高或贸易联系持续期较为稳定的文化产品样本,出口价格的负向抑制效应得到了极大的缓解,甚至产生正向促进效应。多种稳健性回归结果也均验证了上述结论。本文研究成果不仅为企业出口“价格-品质”争论提供了更为可靠的经验证据,同时对文化贸易联系持续期的稳定以及国际竞争力的提升具有一定的政策启示意义。     

提升全面质量管理在企业中的应用水平

全面质量管理(以下简称"TQM")是一个组织以顾客为中心,以全员参与为基础,以流程(过程)管理为主要切入点,以数据统计和分析为基本手段,以顾客忠诚和零缺陷为主要目标,目的是通过让顾客忠诚和本组织所有成员及社会受益而确保企业中长期稳定发展的管理途径。它在传统质量管理的基础上,进一步将质量管理系统化、标准化、程序化和规范化,并推广到企业经营管理的所有领域,通过综合的组织绩效管理方法,使组织和个人得到进步和发展,提高企业的整体绩效和竞争能力,为顾客和其它相关方创造价值,使组织持续获得成功,以引导企业的生产经营实现从优秀到卓越的跨越。     

Borders in tourism: the transformation of the Swedish–Finnish border landscape

Permeability in the European internal borders has increased, challenging state-centric tourism development in the border regions. The aim of this article is to examine the development of the Finnish–Swedish border, which has been one of the European Union's internal borders since 1995, as a tourist attraction. An examination of the path of tourism development in this border region shows that the differentiative meaning of the border that has been characteristic for state-centric tourism development has diminished and some of the excitement of crossing the old east–west border has vanished. At present the significance of the border for local tourism development can be seen in the new cross-border enterprise and commercialisation of tourist attractions. Such development can have a wide-ranging influence for the reorganisation of border landscape and dissolution of mental boundaries in the region. This study contributes to an understanding of the transition in the European Union's internal border regions from the perspective of tourism.     

Scarred from the past or afraid of the future? Unemployment and job satisfaction across European labour markets

Previous research has shown that both past unemployment and anticipated future unemployment have a detrimental impact on employees' attitudes and behaviours, which may affect organisational performance. Surprisingly, however, very little is known about the relative impact of past unemployment compared with current job insecurity. Although it is possible that both effects operate simultaneously, this paper – focused on employees' job satisfaction and utilising a set of cross-sectional data derived from the European Social Survey 2006–2007 – reports on a strongly pronounced insecurity effect: anticipated unemployment substantially reduces employees' job satisfaction. Interestingly, inclusion of the perceived risk of future unemployment as a separate predictor variable in ordered probit regressions relegates the experience of past unemployment to a statistically insignificant coefficient and thus weakens the ‘scarring’ hypothesis. These results hold true even when several socio-demographic characteristics and proxies for individual personality traits are controlled. Implications for organisations and human resource practitioners and scope for future research endeavours conclude the analysis of the paper.