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.     

讨论式教学法在劳动与社会保障法教学中的应用

讨论式教学有别于传统的讲授式教学。为了达到良好的教学效果，讨论的主题应当紧扣劳动与社会保障法课程内容，能够激发学生的讨论热情，难易适中。在讨论过程中，教师应居于主导地位，有效地控制讨论进程，把握讨论方向，避免偏离讨论主题。讨论结束后，教师要及时总结、评价和补充，对涉及的理论或制度问题进行系统的整理和陈述，以达到讨论式教学的目标。     

Downward wage rigidity and business cycle asymmetries

The growth rates of wages, unemployment and output of a number of OECD countries have a strongly skewed distribution. In this paper we analyze to what extent downward wage rigidities can explain these empirical business cycle asymmetries. To this aim, we introduce asymmetric wage adjustment costs in a New-Keynesian DSGE model with search and matching frictions in the labor market. Increasing wages is less costly than cutting them. It follows that wages increase relatively fast and thus limit vacancy posting and employment creation, but they decline more slowly, leading to a strong reduction in vacancies and employment. The presence of downward wage rigidities strongly improves the fit of the model to the observed skewness of labor market variables and the relative length of expansions and contractions in the output and the employment cycles. The asymmetry also explains the differing transmission of positive and negative monetary policy shocks from wages to inflation.     

新疆企业用工需求与劳动力供给问题调查研究

发展是第一要务，是解决新疆一切问题的基础。中央新疆工作座谈会的召开，19个省市的大力支持，以及中央出台的一系列特殊优惠政策和措施，为新疆大建设、大开放、大发展提供了前所未有的历史机遇。疆内众多企业在此大环境下抓住有利时机，增加订单，扩大产能，千方百计加快发展。此时企业用工需求量也在大幅增加，出现了“招工难”、“用工荒”的社会现象，已影响到企业的生产经营和发展前景。本文立足新疆实际，采用问卷调查的方法，对当前企业用工和劳动力供给状况以及存在的问题开展调查研究，深刻剖析了企业劳动力供给与需求不匹配的原因和症结，并提出政策建议。     

农村剩余劳动力转移与教育投资主体多元化

现阶段我国面临农村剩余劳动力转移的巨大压力,而农村教育水平低是制约农村剩余劳动力转移的根本性原因。在农村教育投资机制中,政府、企业与农户均呈现出投资不力状况,建立多元化的农村教育投资新机制,鼓励多方投资农村教育,提高农民素质,实现农村剩余劳动力的转移。     

Tax Reform,Sector‐specific Labor Supply and Welfare Effects*

This paper focuses in particular on the 1992 tax reform in Norway. In this reform the top marginal tax rates were cut considerably. We find that the impact on overall labor supply is rather modest, but these modest changes shadow for stronger sectoral changes. The tax reform stimulated the women to shift their labor from the public to the private sector and to work longer hours. A calculation of mean compensated variation, calculated within the framework of a random utility model, shows that the richest households benefited far more from the 1992 tax reform than did the poorest households.     

Multi-dimensional contracts with task-specific productivity: an application to universities

Academics produce science and teaching which requires specific unobservable characteristics. Applying the multi-dimensional screening methodology of Armstrong and Rochet (European Economic Review, 43, 959–979, 1999), it is shown that universities optimally propose a menu of contracts to academics: high powered incentives for those who are productive and lower ones for other agents. In some cases, the university can write a single contract for both tasks to increase production. An academic is then expected to produce more teaching to show that she likes science, which is an argument to produce science and teaching in a single institution: universities. These results are discussed in light of economic, sociological and educational literature.      

Human resources in Sino-foreign joint ventures: selected case studies in Shanghai,compared with Beijing

This article examines HRM in joint ventures (JVs) in Shanghai compared with those in Beijing using a case-study approach. It focuses primarily on issues relating to labour contracts, rewards and benefits, social insurance, trade unions and personnel policies, and describes current developments in China in each of these areas. In order to place these JV human resource practices in context, we also draw on interviews in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Shanghai and Beijing. Taking as a starting point a summary of traditional SOE 'iron rice-bowl' ( tie fan wan ) practices in the management of personnel, we ask to what extent HRM in the present JV sample differs from traditional methods and to what extent 'iron rice-bowl' practices continue despite foreign ownership. The extent to which HR practices in JVs are distinct from those in contemporary SOEs is also examined. We conclude that, although, as one would expect, foreign ownership has modified traditional practice, the degree and extent to which this is true varies widely. There is strong evidence of institutional and organizational continuity in 'iron rice-bowl' practices in both JVs and SOEs. Finally we propose a framework for categorizing the companies investigated in terms of their distance from traditional 'iron rice-bowl' HR practices and proximity to 'imported' practices. This consists of two 'pure' and two hybrid categories: pure 'iron rice-bowl'; hybrid I (predominantly local); hybrid II (predominantly imported): and, finally, pure imported. In this schema, the companies examined do not however group neatly according to whether they are JVs or SOEs.     

劳动力成本提高条件下如何保持竞争力

近年来我国劳动力成本呈上升趋势,许多人担心我们在国际市场上的竞争优势将被削弱。文章认为,对此既要防止无所作为,又要避免反应过度。只要能够实现增长方式的转变,仍然可以获得动态比较优势的收益,寻找到新的经济增长源泉。应通过改善就业、再就业环境,挖掘劳动力供给的制度潜力,延缓劳动力成本上升趋势;避免对劳动力市场的过度干预;通过发展教育和培训,有效扩大人力资本存量,减少劳动力成本带来的冲击。     

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.