Social economy and employment – the case of Sweden

Recent research has shown growing shares of employment in the social economy (or non-profit sector) both in the European Union and in the United States. In the EU, there seems to be growing hopes that the social economy will be capable of contributing to local progress on the unemployment issue in crisis regions. This paper analyses employment in certain entrepreneurial forms, usually considered belonging to the social economy, in Sweden during the 1990s. The results show considerable regional differences of employment in the social economy, but also that its share of the labor market is very limited. The effect of social-economic organizations on employment, therefore, is probably mainly indirect in as much as they function as platforms for cooperation between firms or else as embryos for enterprises by strengthening local entrepreneurship and helping to nurture a deposit of social capital which has visible effects on private business and jobs. However, these effects need more detailed examinations.     

人力资本不平等与人力资本投资的生育率机制--基于面板数据联立方程模型的分析

人力资本不平等对人力资本投资有着重要的影响。分析了人力资本不平等通过生育率影响人力资本投资的机制。通过构建面板数据联立方程模型对我国省际数据的实证研究,发现人力资本不平等与人力资本投资之间存在很强的负相关。实证结果表明,当其他条件都相同时人力资本不平等程度越高的地区居民的生育率越高,而高生育率反过来阻碍人力资本投资,即生育率机制是显著的。     

基于资本配置效率的中国股票市场制度有效性分析

用资本配置效率表征股票市场制度有效性。使用面板数据分析方法,从行业和地区视角,对中国实行发行核准制度期间股票市场的资本配置效率进行了实证分析。结果表明:中国股票市场的资本配置效率较低,资本配置功能的实现程度较低,股票市场制度低效。指出:中国股票市场的制度变迁应由政府主导转变为市场主导、加大违规处罚力度、培育理性而成熟的投资者,从而更好地实现股票市场制度功能、提升制度有效性。     

低碳经济背景下现代企业的社会责任研究--基于环境资本依赖视角

中国的环境问题日益严峻,企业应承担主要责任,正是由于污染负外部性使企业依赖环境资本获得超级收益。文章从企业以利润最大化为最终目标的角度出发,首先基于柯布-道格拉斯生产模型,分析了环境资本对企业最高收益的影响,发现加入环境资本的三重路径依赖与传统双重路径依赖的资源最优化配置存在差异。其次文章依据污染强度区分行业异质性,运用DEA方法对产业全要素生产率进行了测算,发现考虑了环境资本的绿色全要素生产率普遍下降,进一步印证了环境资本对企业发展的额外贡献。研究发现企业的可持续发展必须克服典型的经济理性,内化环境污染成本,转变为“环境经济人”。同时政府需要实施环境规制,并防止企业发生寻租行为,从体制政策和市场调节多方面入手,提高现代企业主动承担环境社会责任的自觉性,以促进经济可持续发展。     

A Micro-Approach for Testing Marx's LTRPF: Evidence from Greece, 2000 and 2009

This article develops a novel micro-approach for the empirical evaluation of Marx's law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. Contrary to the traditional method which uses national macroeconomic data, this approach utilises data taken directly from company reports and accounts. The principal advantage of this approach is that it provides an accurate measurement of the value composition of capital, devoid of the measurement limitations of the traditional method regarding variable capital which stem from the inability to distinguish productive from unproductive labour. A disadvantage, however, is that this approach does not cover the entire national economy. The application of the proposed micro-approach to the ongoing Greek crisis yields results which are congruent with the traditional method and reinforce other recent studies linking the current crisis with low profitability.     

外资进入、竞争与性别就业差异

在中国性别就业差异持续扩大的背景下,文章基于2004-2007年的中国工业企业数据库检验了外资进入是如何通过竞争效应对企业性别就业差异产生影响的。结果显示,外资进入程度越高的地区与行业具有越低的性别就业差异,外资进入程度每增加1%,我国内资企业女性就业份额将会增加0.0407%,且这一结果在考虑了抽样偏倚、不同外资范围的界定、使用不同外资进入程度衡量标准和控制内生性后依然十分稳健。进一步的研究显示,外资进入通过提高企业面临的竞争程度来促使以利润最大化为目标的企业雇佣更多成本较低的女性劳动力,进而降低性别就业差异。更为重要的是,外资进入产生的竞争效应对于性别差异的影响在不同受教育群体之间存在差异,其对受过高等教育,特别是受过研究生以上教育的群体影响最大。文章结论表明,在经济全球化背景下完善市场竞争机制和提高女性受教育程度将有利于减少性别就业差异。此外,文章也为研究外资进入的社会经济影响提供了不一样的思路。     

Social Capital and the Shadow Economy

Viewed in a wider context of paid and unpaid informal economic activities, the shadow economy highlights the little recognized ambivalence of social capital as both potentially positive and negative in outcomes for different groups in the economy. Using a concept of social capital as access to durable networks of actual and virtual resources, as claimed by Pierre Bourdieu, I examine the shadow economy as a source of both resilience and repression, intimately connected to the formal economy and tied to a neo-liberal agenda. I draw from review activities I have previously conducted on the informal economy in disadvantaged neighborhoods and from research on social capital in the economy in a European context.     

Can Culture Account for Investment Expectations?

Until recently, risk-taking in investment decisions has been explained by cognitive biases and emotional urges. I would like to propose an alternative explanation, based on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, who links cultural capital to risk-taking. His concept of cultural capital has a very broad meaning, as it encompasses technical skills, aesthetic preferences, verbal facility, general cultural awareness, educational credentials, and artistic competencies. On theoretical grounds, one can assume that a high level of cultural capital enables the taming of uncertainty and allows for temporal horizons that cover longer terms. I test this hypothesis by conducting and analyzing a survey of 307 entrepreneurs. I define risk-taking in two ways: (i) in a somewhat mainstream way, on the basis of expected utility, and (ii) in a heterodox way, in a qualitative, context-dependent setting. I find that, in both cases, there seems to be a link between cultural capital and risk-taking. Furthermore, it seems to make financing issues more salient. I conclude by opening a discussion about the heterogeneity of entrepreneurs and their animal spirits.     

A Pathway Forwards for the Social Capital Metaphor

A major topic in economics is the analysis of a broad class of phenomena associated with interpersonal relationships, a topic that originally grew from theories of “social capital.” While the concept has been instrumental in bringing increased attention to social effects on economic outcomes, it has increasingly been replaced with approaches that consider instead networks and discrete interactions rather than aggregate measures of social capital. This has been an analytical improvement, but a great deal of work remains to bring empirical validity and relevancy to social network analysis. This paper presents two important approaches for achieving this, statistical analysis and agent-based modeling, and discusses their benefits, limitations, and complementary nature. Rather than waiting for either approach to achieve an ambiguous quality of maturity, integrating statistical analysis with simulation models of networks must begin now to push the frontiers of social network analysis forward.     

Current account dynamics and capital mobility in the newly industrialized countries

This paper examines the current account dynamics in a group of ten newly industrialized countries (NICs) during the period 1980–2012 using a panel error-correction model. The model is also used to empirically test whether the degree of capital mobility is positively related to financial openness. The Chin-Ito (2006, 2008) financial openness index is used to classify the countries into different groups, and we place the countries in one group that are similar to each other in terms of their financial openness. Furthermore, to evaluate the extent of capital mobility over the different period from 1980 to 2012, the total period under study is divided into three sub-periods. The estimation results indicate that there exist long-run equilibrium relationships between domestic saving, investment, and current account in all groups regardless of their degree of financial openness. We find that more openness in terms of the capital account is associated with a higher degree of capital mobility in the case of NICs. The empirical result also indicates that the degree of capital mobility is higher in the first and third sub-period.