Stability and Segregation in Group Formation

This paper presents a model of group formation based on the assumption that individuals prefer to associate with people similar to them. It is shown that, in general, if the number of groups that can be formed is bounded, then a stable partition of the society into groups may not exist. (A partition is defined as stable if none of the individuals would prefer be in a different group than the one he is in.) However, if individuals' characteristics are one-dimensional, then a stable partition always exists. We give sufficient conditions for stable partitions to be segregating (in the sense that, for example, low-characteristic individuals are in one group and high-characteristic ones are in another) and Pareto efficient. In addition, we propose a dynamic model of individual myopic behavior describing the evolution of group formation to an eventual stable, segregating, and Pareto efficient partition. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C72, H41.     

当前我国城市社群隔离产生的原因、危害及对策

中国改革开放后 ,一大批农民离开自己的土地和家园来到城市。农民工群体与市民群体成为当前我国城市中两大主要群体。他们之间的关系对整个社会整合与稳定有着十分重要的作用。本文分析了两大群体间产生隔离现象的原因 ,危害及其对策     

工资性收入不平等：基于户籍歧视的分析

文章利用2012年中国城镇居民与流动人口收入调查数据,采用不同的工资分解方法,从地区分割、职业分割和收入阶层的角度测算并分析了户籍工资差异及户籍歧视情况。实证结果表明,户籍歧视在不同经济发展区域都存在;户籍歧视的加剧体现在工资歧视和就业歧视两方面;对于极低工资、低工资和较高工资的劳动者而言,户籍歧视带来的收入不平等问题相当严重。     

中国公共征信的运营、问题及对策

当前,我国公共征信建设主要在国家与地方两个层面展开,中国人民银行和商务部实质上构成了国家层面公共征信建设的主体,各省区市以社会信用体系建设为依托开展了区域性公共征信建设。这使得我国公共征信形成条块分割与局部垄断共存的碎片化局面,在一定程度上限制了公共征信发展的空间。今后,应通过信用立法、制定相关政策等,解决我国公共征信建设中存在的问题。     

A Study of the Ethical Performance of Foreign-Investment Enterprises in the China Labor Market

This paper analyses the ethical performance of foreign-investment enterprises operating in China in comparison to that of the indigenous state-owned enterprises, collectives and private enterprises. It uses both the deontological approach and the utilitarian approach in conceptualization, and applies quantitative and econometric techniques to ethical evaluations of empirical evidences. It shows that according to various ethical performance indicators, foreign-investment enterprises have fared well in comparison with local firms. This paper also tries to unravel the effect of a difference in business culture and competitive market forces on ethical performance by comparing the behavior of foreign-investment enterprises with that of the indigenous state-owned enterprises and collectives on the one hand, and with that of the indigenous private enterprises on the other.     

Gender wage inequality and labour mobility in the hospitality sector

The main aim of this paper is twofold. Firstly we analyse the effects of educational mismatch on workers’ occupational mobility and secondly, we quantify the contribution of educational mismatch and labour mobility on gender wage inequality. The decomposition of the gender wage gap was controlled by different types of gender segregation. We use matched employer-employee data from 302 hotels in Andalusia. The evidence suggests that not only is external mobility far higher than internal mobility in this sector, but also that it is the main cause of wage inequality. The reason for this is the existence of labour discrimination against women, which manifests as a lack of access to labour improvements under the same conditions as men. Educational mismatch has a limited effect on internal and external mobility. Finally, gender discrimination is the overall cause of gender wage inequality and is mainly due to horizontal segregation and external mobility.     

Prejudice, exclusion, and compensating transfers: the economics of ethnic segregation

Prejudiced groups self-segregate and exclude others. This is observed in South African apartheid, in the exclusion of Eastern European or Muslim immigrants from Western Europe and in ghettos formed by immigrants in many countries. In the United States, minorities (mostly African Americans) are segregated in central cities and wealthier European Americans reside predominantly in the suburbs. A fully closed general equilibrium model of the last case is presented. The model treats land, labor and product markets. Most whites flee the inner city for white-dominated suburbs. This benefits blacks by lowering inner city rents relative to wages. When whites are weakly prejudiced, exclusion from the suburbs hurts whites as well as blacks. But when whites are strongly prejudiced, a lump sum endowment transfer from whites to blacks can split the gains-from-trade: whites can pay transfers to blacks in exchange for blacks accepting exclusion. The transfer needed to compensate blacks is large if blacks are strongly hurt by exclusion and small if they are only slightly hurt. How much transfers to US central cities and to the poor compensate American blacks for the effects of exclusion is an open question.     

Occupational Segregation and Gender Wage Differentials: Evidence from Malaysia

In Malaysia, the participation of women in the labor market has increased over time. However, occupational segregation and wage differentials continue to be prevalent between men and women in the labor market. The present paper investigates gender‐related occupational segregation and wage differentials based on data collected from 7135 working households in Peninsular Malaysia in 2011. The wage decomposition model introduced by Brown et al. (1980) is used to examine the determinants of gender‐related wage differentials. The results suggest that differences within occupations account for the largest portion of the wage gap between men and women. The results also indicate that wage discrimination within occupations plays an important role in the gender wage gap, while sample selection bias plays an important role in the examination of gender wage gaps.