The labor wedge as a matching friction

We use a search and matching model to decompose the labor wedge into three classes of labor market frictions and evaluate their role for the labor wedge and unemployment. We find that there is an asymmetric effect of labor market frictions on the labor wedge and unemployment. While the wedge is to a large extent explained by changes in matching efficiency, unemployment is accounted for by the combination of frictions to matching efficiency, job destruction and bargaining. If search and matching frictions give rise to the labor wedge, then it is relevant for explaining unemployment mainly through changes in matching efficiency.     

The factor income distribution in China: 1978–2007

This paper investigates changes in aggregate labor share in China during 1978 and 2007 with a particular focus on the 1995–2007 period during which official statistics report a drop of 12.45 percentage points in labor's share of national income (labor share). Our main findings are: (1) The reported fall in aggregate labor share is overstated. According to the official statistics released by the NBS (2007a), the labor share fell 5.25 percentage points from 2003 to 2004. However this dramatic decline, 42.16% of the total reported decline of the labor share from 1995 to 2007, is completely due to the changes in the way NBS break down the operating surplus state-owned and collective-owned farms and the mixed income of the owners of individual economy; (2) For the last three decades, two main forces have been driving shifts in the aggregate labor share: (i) structural transformation between the agriculture and non-agriculture sectors and (ii) shifts in the labor share within the industry sector; (3) From 1995 to 2003, these two effects are both negative and together drive down aggregate labor share by 5.48 percentage points. The structural change explains 61.31% of the decline and the remaining 38.69% of the decline is due to the changes in the labor share within sectors, primarily in the industry sector; (4) Labor share in agriculture is lower than labor share in services. Therefore, when the service sector grows relative to the agriculture sector in the economy, the aggregate labor share of income declines; and (5) Restructuring of the SOEs and expanded monopoly power are the main reasons for the decline of labor share within industry after 1998. Relative price shifts, the factor input ratio, and biased technological progress are all insignificant forces for this decline because the substitution between factors in the industry sector is nearly unit elastic.     

无固定期限劳动合同对企业的影响分析

文章在分析企业规避无固定期限劳动合同的行为基础上,对企业存在抵触情绪的原因进行了归纳,并对如何在企业推行无固定期限劳动合同提出了几点建议。     

Perceived agency politics and conflicts of interest as potential barriers to IMC orientation

While the concept of integrated marketing communications (IMC) is widely acknowledged in the literature, research on potential barriers to its implementation is relatively scarce. In particular, the possible significance of interagency politics and conflicts of interest has received little empirical consideration. This is perhaps somewhat surprising given the generally acknowledged proposition that marketing budgeting is largely a political process. This paper describes an exploratory study of leading Australian public companies and investigates the relationships between perceived agency politics, conflicts of interest and IMC orientation. The findings suggest that the salient conflict of interest is between advertising and public relations firms. The limitations are discussed and directions for future research offered.     

Productivity effects on Mexican manufacturing employment

We examine the effects of labor productivity and total factor productivity (TFP) on employment across 25 Mexican manufacturing industries from 1984 to 2000. Employing panel data methods, several interesting findings emerge. First, we observe a strong and positive impact of NAFTA on employment. Second, productivity exerts a procyclical, positive effect on employment but this effect becomes smaller after NAFTA. Third, partitions of our sample according to capital-labor intensity suggest that industries which are less capital-intensive were affected negatively on impact by NAFTA but that productivity impacted employment positively after NAFTA. In contrast, more capital-intensive industries display these results in reverse.     

On the Need for Gender in Dynamic Models

In this paper we emphasize the need for more theoretical research using dynamic models that include gender as a variable of analysis. We begin by summarizing some of the main observations characterizing fertility, gender, and economic growth. We then explore three types of theoretical models: one-sex dynamic, two-sex static, and two-sex dynamic. We conclude that more models of the last type – dynamic models that include gender in the analysis – are needed to analyze issues that involve both an intertemporal and a gender dimension.     

Malaysian industrial relations at century's turn: Vision 2020 or a spectre of the past?

Malaysia's industrial relations (IR) has been characterized by extensive state control guaranteeing a high level of managerial prerogative within the workplace, minimal overt conflict and very little bargaining power for labour. These arrangements were an integral component of the package to attract investors when Malaysia's industrialization strategy focused on low-cost, export-oriented industries. Since then, however, Malaysia has adopted the goal of developed country status by 2020 and embarked on a higher value-added, more capital-intensive industrialization strategy. This paper analyzes current Malaysian IR at the workplace level, posing the question as to whether the economic progress towards 'Vision 2020' is being accompanied by a transformation of Malaysia's IR. It will be seen that there is evidence of substantial growth in training, the implementation of multi-skilling in some workplaces as well as isolated instances of some 'lean production' practices. Fundamental change, however, is not occurring; workers remain excluded from the decision-making process both within and outside the workplace.     

INTRA-HOUSEHOLD INEQUALITY: A CHALLENGE FOR THE CAPABILITY APPROACH?

In this paper, the author examines the capability approach and how it applies in the context of individuals and families living together on unequal terms. The interpretations of agency, freedom, and choice in Sen's framework are analyzed from a feminist perspective, and the author suggests that these important concepts invite special attention in the presence of domestic power imbalances. Problems with the interpretations embedded in the capability approach are pinpointed and adjustments proposed. Drawing on the vast literature on household behavior in developing countries, the author argues that capabilities have a distinctly interdependent dimension. While the discussion of agency in the capability approach has been either normative or policy-oriented, exercises that seek to evaluate individual well-being should pay more attention to the existence of alternative types of power within the realm of the household.     

Using data envelopment analysis to quantify ILO objectives and identify policies conducive to decent work in a globalizing world

The International Labor Office, an arm of the UN based in Geneva, has as its goal the promotion of opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. Since 1999, the ILO has conducted a series of studies of decent work. In 2001, the organization posed the global challenge of reducing the decent work deficit as measured by an employment gap, rights gap, a social protection gap, and a social dialogue gap. Using standard economic terms, “decent work” may be seen as an efficiency point along a generalized input-output function, dependent upon variables of both economic performance and economic and social policy. The decent work deficit of a given country (if any) is then obtained as the difference between an observed point and its projection on the efficiency frontier. Using data envelopment analysis (DEA), we fit a piecewise linear frontier to observations for 61 countries from all continents. Importantly, 27 of these countries lie on the decent work frontier; the remaining ones reveal conditions of decent work deficit. The possibilities of reducing such deficits by appropriate control of policy variables are discussed.     

浅析《论十大关系》对于构建和谐社会的先启意义

《论十大关系》是毛泽东探索适合中国国情的社会主义建设道路的重要论著。其中提出的以苏联经验为鉴戒、统筹兼顾、体制改革等思想,对于我国的社会主义和谐社会建设具有长远指导意义。