Spot market wages,implicit contracts and technological change: skill-level evidence from Finland

This article investigates the relevance of the theories of implicit contracts and spot market model to the skill-level wages in Finland. We use linked worker-firm panel data over the period from 1991 to 2004, which included major institutional and technological changes. We find similar patterns in the wage flexibility of primary and highly educated workers: their wages increased with the decreasing spot market unemployment rate after the EU membership still exhibiting some weak backward linkages. The wages of the secondary-educated did not follow the decreasing spot market unemployment, but instead some signs of the full commitment risk sharing were found.     

Does population density matter in the process of matching heterogeneous job seekers and vacancies?

This paper studies the matching of job seekers and vacant jobs using data on local labour markets. We estimate differences in the ability of the local markets to form new matches and trace whether these differences can be explained by the differing population densities across markets or by the heterogeneity of job seekers measured by the distribution of their education level. We find that high-density areas are more efficient in forming matches than other areas despite frictions caused by the wider heterogeneity of job seekers in those areas than elsewhere.

Internationalising higher tourism education: the case of curriculum design in the Central Baltic Area

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to increase understanding of the process of curriculum design when incorporating an international dimension into a curriculum in higher tourism education. The process of the internationalisation of the curriculum design is investigated against a theoretical basis and described from a practical perspective by presenting a case from the Central Baltic Area. In this case, the purpose of the internationalisation of the curriculum is to provide an aligned skillset and knowledge necessary to support the development of the Central Baltic Area as a common tourism destination. First, a relevant and mutual skillset was identified by reviewing the existing curricula (N = 17) and national tourism strategies and plans (N = 3) as well as by interviewing representatives of tourism organisations (N = 103). Then, the identified skills and knowledge were translated into a joint curriculum and teaching processes.     

Matching in local labor markets: a stochastic frontier approach

This paper investigates the technical efficiency of labor market matching from a stochastic frontier approach. The true fixed-effects model (Greene J Prod Anal 23:7–32, 2005a; J Econom 126:269–303, 2005b) is utilised in order to separate cross-sectional heterogeneity from inefficiency, and inefficiency terms are modelled following Battese and Coelli (Empir Econ 20:325–332, 1995). The data set consists of almost 17,000 observations from Local Labor Offices (LLOs) in Finland. According to the results, there are notable differences in matching efficiency between regions, and these differences contribute significantly to the number of filled vacancies. If all regions were as efficient as the most efficient one, the number of total matches per month would increase by over 23%. The heterogeneity of the job-seeker stock is an important determinant of matching efficiency: the weight of the composition of the job-seeker stock in the inefficiency terms is on average 85%.