From political praise to stock options: Reforming compensation systems in the people's republic of China

The recent reforms in the People's Republic of China have brought into focus the system of compensation in Chinese enterprises. This paper examines the evolution of compensation schemes in China, with a special emphasis on the reforms of recent years, the obstacles they face, and the prospects for the future.     

On nonparametric estimation of the Schumpeterian link between innovation and firm size: Evidence from Belgium,France, and Germany

This paper analyses the Schumpeterian link between innovative activity and firm size by means of the nonparametric Nadaraya-Watson estimator and of the partially linear approach by Speckman. Four data sets referring to the manufacturing industries of three European countries are available for the analysis. We demonstrate how nonparametric methods can produce more reliable conclusions than conventional methods. For this purpose, the roles of bandwidth choice, wild bootstrap, density estimation and trimming are studied. For the German data set of 1984 and for the French data set we find that small firms and large firms are more innovative than firms of intermediate size while the relation is rather hump-shaped for Germany 1989 and decreasing for Belgium. Including an additional parametric component into the estimations based on the French data contributes considerably to the explanation of innovative activity without affecting the U-shaped link between innovation and firm size.     

Does Age Exacerbate the Gender-Wage Gap? New Method and Evidence From Germany, 1984–2014

ABSTRACT

Given theoretical premises, the gender-wage gap adjusted for individual characteristics is likely to vary according to age. This study adapts John DiNardo, Nicole M. Fortin, and Thomas Lemieux's (1996) semi-parametric technique to disentangle year, cohort, and age effects in adjusted gender-wage gaps. The study relies on a long panel of data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) covering 1984–2015. The results indicate that, in Germany, the gender-wage gap increases over a birth cohort's lifetime, including in the post-reproductive age for some birth cohorts. The results suggest that age and gender are overlapping handicaps in the labor market and call for a policy intervention.     

Focus Groups: Contributing to a Gender-Aware Methodology

A focus group is an open group interview from which research hypotheses can be derived. It enables economic research to step down from its narrow theoretical assumptions and to embed research questions in a life context. It also can contribute to strong objectivity and when done in women's groups and/or on gender issues, focus groups can contribute to a feminist methodology. Experience from a focus group by the author held in Africa has indicated how diverse and enriching economic notions can become, when discussed in a group, before the research has started.     

Is productive inefficiency a fatal disease? The effects of technical and scale efficiency in firm exit: the case of the Greek rubber and plastic industry

This article presents an integrated framework for testing the effects of productive efficiency, i.e. technical efficiency (TE) and scale efficiency (SE), on firm exit, facilitating the identification of the effects, causing a firm's operation at increasing or decreasing returns to scale. A panel data set of firms in the plastics and rubber industry of the Greek manufacturing sector is used to study the effect that TE and SE may have on a firm's probability to exit. Results reveal that technical efficiency is the most critical factor influencing firm exit, while SE exerts a quadratic effect on the probability to exit.     

Nontradable goods prices and per-caita income: an application to regional Korean data

A system of demand equations (given oligopolistic interdependence amon firms) is derived and estimated for two four-digit SIC code industries to explain firms' R&D behaviour through time. The two industries chosen are the perfume, cosmetic and toiletries (PCT) industry, and the drug industry. The industries chosen belong to the same two-digit SIC code classification called the Cchemical and Allied Products industry but not in the drug industry. The introduction of the R&D tax credit in 1981, however, reduced the tendency to free-ride in both industries.     

The income effect and supplier induced demand. Evidence from primary physician services in Norway

A much debated issue within the health economic literature is whether physicians can induce demand for their services. The relationship between physicians' ‘nonpractice income’ and supply of primary physician services in Norway is examined. It is argued that, if inducement exists, physicians with a low nonpractice income who work in municipalities where competition for patients is high, compensate for lack of patients by inducing demand. This model is adapted to the institutional setting of the Norwegian primary physician services, where there is a fixed fee schedule. The analyses were performed on a large set of data, encompassing all primary care physicians in Norway who are remunerated per item of treatment. Data on output in practice were merged with information about nonpractice income from the tax forms of the physician and her/his spouse. In municipalities with high physician density, nonpractice income had no effect on the number of consultations per physician, or on the number of treatment items per consultation. The results are interpreted as evidence against the inducement hypothesis.