Efficiency and equity as goals for contemporary U.S. immigration policy

As the United States has entered its postindustrial stage of economic development, mass immigration has again become a distinguishing feature of the U.S. economy. In all of its diverse forms, immigration presently accounts for anywhere from one-quarter to one-third of the annual growth of the U.S. labor force. By the turn of the 21st century, it could conceivably comprise all of such growth.Immigration is the one aspect of population and labor force growth that public policy should be able to shape and control. Unfortunately, however, the extant public policies that govern the size and composition of the immigrant and refugee flows are largely unrelated to emerging economic considerations.The revival of mass immigration is not taking place in a vacuum. Indeed, it appears that the labor market is being radically transformed. The demand for labor is increasingly favoring those workers with skill and education. There are diminishing needs for job seekers without these human capital endowments. On the labor supply side, it is unfortunately the case that the United States already has a significant number of adults who are ill-prepared for many jobs that are being created.To assist in this effort to enhance efficiency, immigration policy should be flexible. It should be capable of responding to changing domestic economic conditions. Currently, the nation's immigration policy is dominated by political motivations that give priority to family reunification and humanitarian goals. Immigration can be a short run means to provide skilled and educated workers to fill critical worker shortages. But in the long run, equity considerations derived from the nation's multiracial and multicultural character of the labor force also come into play. It is imperative that citizen workers be prepared for the high quality jobs in the growth industries of its postindustrial economy. Immigration must not inhibit market pressures from encouraging employers to provide better opportunities for training and employment of citizens.The obverse is also true. It is essential that immigration does not provide only workers who can be employed in the declining occupations and industries. With a sizeable adult illiteracy problem already, the nation can ill-afford to increase the pool of unskilled and poorly educated workers, which increases the competition among such workers for the shrinking number of jobs available to them.     

人力资本内涵与分类的再研究

从分析人力资本之父舒尔茨的人力资本观点出发,在长期研究与实践中提出了新的观点与看法,并从激励的角度对前人的解释作了一些补充与完善。同时,从分析美国人力资本研究专家明塞尔的人力资本划分方法入手,以人力资本激励特征为基础提出了自己的人力资本分类方法,将人力资本划分为一般人力资本、行业人力资本和特殊人力资本。     

The effects of job displacement on job quality: Findings from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study

This study examines the extent to which job displacement divides the career experiences for a cohort of workers. Previous studies of job displacement find nontrivial economic losses for displaced workers, but the effects of displacement on “non-economic” properties of jobs have been largely overlooked. Results using the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study indicate that workers who were displaced have lower levels of occupational status, job authority, and employer-offered pension and health insurance than they would have had had they not been displaced. Difference-in-differences estimates, which control for temporally-invariant unobserved heterogeneity, are generally larger than cross-sectional estimates; still, there is a close correspondence of estimates across a range of methodological approaches attesting to the robustness of the estimates in the face of various technical assumptions and model specifications. Effects of displacement on job quality also exhibit conditioning by gender, education, occupation, and industry: while less educated, blue collar and manufacturing workers experience significant losses for employer-offered benefits, more educated, upper white collar and non-manufacturing workers experience significant losses for occupational status, job autonomy, and job authority.     

From new entries to retirement: The changing age composition of the U.S. male labor force by industry

The process whereby the age composition of an industry is formed appears to be largely a function of past rates of growth in employment; the social (or institutional) framework sets limits and affects the ensuing age composition but relatively little. The following types will illustrate this process. 1. Consider an industry which has increased considerably more rapidly in employment over several decades than has the total labor force. The rapid growth brings in a disproportionately large share of youth who are first entering the labor market; other younger workers move from slowly growing (or declining) industries. These movements add many more younger workers. On the other hand, there is little, if any, unemployment in the industry so that there are few pressures being exerted on the older workers to retire, and relatively few will retire. Under these circumstances the age composition will be younger than tliat of the entire male working force. 2. Consider an industry which has grown slowly, if at all, for some time. There will be comparatively fewer (in comparison with the first example) new entries and less mobility from other industries. The men already engaged in this industry will continue to work there; they gradually become older and are not counterbalanced by increasing numbers of young workers. Unemployment is likely to be higher, leading to a higher retirement rate. There are also likely to be large numbers of men a decade or two under the retirement age-the heritage of an "ancient" period when the industry had experienced significant increases in employment; these add pressure on the older men and more retire. The age composition of such an industry gradually veers toward the older side; it is considerably older than that of the entire male working force. At any given moment of time most industries will reflect variable past growth rates. For example, one industry may have a very large proportion of young workers because it grew very rapidly in employment only during the decade prior to the time of study (i.e., the time of a decennial census); another may have a large proportion in the middle ages reflecting very rapid growth two or three decades earlier, followed by very slow growth in the decade prior to the time of study; and so forth.In light of the foregoing analysis, it appears that technological change, as measured by average annual changes in output per worker, has little bearing on the age composition of an industry. Conversely, the latter probably does not affect changes in output per worker.     

Fringe benefits and income inequality

In this paper, we analyze the distribution of fringe benefits among workers and underline its implications for income inequality. To this end, we develop a positional approach to inequality based on the concept of rent as a potential link between positions and their rewards. We hypothesize that workers extract rent in the form of benefits in industries with worker leverage (in the form of unioniziation, internal labor market, and public employment) or share rent with firms in highly profitable industries that endure for efficiency wage reasons. On the basis of a unique dataset from Israel, we test these hypotheses by estimating the probabilities of obtaining benefits according to industries’ structural features while controlling for cross-industrial differences in workers’ demographic and human capital characteristics. The analyses reveal that benefits are determined by structural factors, representing a separate dimension of the rewards attached to positions, different from earnings. We further stress the importance of incorporating fringe benefits into inequality research, given that benefits together with earnings stratify workers and evidently signify structured positions in the economy.     

跨国移民与学缘网络——以日本D大学中国人研究者为个案

国际移民的研究中一直以关注移民的文化适应、移民与移入地居民的互动、移民网络的建构及移民社区的形成为主流，但是当今世界的国际移民群体已经发生了分化．不仅存在低人力资本的国际移民，同样存在着高人力资本的移民，他们的受教育程度、社会经济地位普遍高于移人地居民，本研究通过70个样本的个案研究发现，在他们的国际移民实践中，对血缘和地缘网络的依赖程度十分有限，他们更热衷于构建跨越区域空间的学缘网络、这不仅成为他们孤独的移民生活的情感寄托，也成为他们职业发展的需要。     

The Impact of Overeducation and its Measurement

The central focus of this article is the influence of the applied measure when the impact of overeducation is analyzed. For a database of Flemish school leavers, four alternative measures of overeducation are related to job satisfaction, mobility, training participation and wages. The magnitude and significance of the effects diverge between these measures. When attained education is controlled for, overeducated workers are less satisfied, more mobile, participate less in training and earn less than adequately educated workers. When required education is controlled for, no robust results are found for job satisfaction and training participation. Overeducated workers earn more than adequately educated colleagues, but have a higher turnover rate. We have little clear results with respect to undereducation. Caution is thus recommended for the interpretation of empirical results with respect to the impact of over- and undereducation.     

Firm-level social returns to education

Do workers benefit from the education of their co-workers? We examine this question first by introducing a model of learning, which argues that educated workers may transfer part of their general skills to uneducated workers, and then by examining detailed matched employer–employee panel data from Portugal. We find evidence of large firm-level social returns (between 14% and 23%), much larger than standard estimates of private returns, and of significant returns accruing to less educated workers but not to their more educated colleagues.     

产业结构升级与劳动就业的相关性分析

产业结构升级与劳动力充分就业之间存在相互依存又相互制约的关系。现阶段 ,我国面临着产业结构升级与劳动力供给大量增加的矛盾。解决这一矛盾 ,应合理寻择产业结构升级的重点 ,增加人力资本投资 ,大力发展第三产业和中小企业。     

Puzzles and further explorations in the interrelationships of successive births with husband’s income,spouses’ education and race

When fertility is examined in the detail of individual parity progressions and birth-order transitions, important interactions between the effects of income and education are seen. Among the findings are: the negative effect of education on fertility is stronger at all parities for less educated compared to more highly educated women. Additional income has a more positive effect for more highly educated than for less educated women. For women with 0-8 years of education the effect of more income is positive when the family has no children but negative thereafter, but for college-educated women the effect of more income is positive. And additional income has a less positive (more negative) effect on fertility among nonwhites than among whites.     

Hiring older workers and employing older workers: German evidence

Using German establishment data, we examine the relationship between delayed compensation, training, and hiring of older workers. Both those establishments that delay compensation and those with greater human capital requirements are less likely to hire older workers. We demonstrate that the routinely used control for the age of existing workers is endogenous and that instrumenting provides stronger evidence for the role of delayed compensation. Specifically, delayed compensation is simultaneously a negative determinant of hiring older workers but a positive determinant of employing older workers and, thus, more clearly associated with “employing older workers but not hiring them.”     

Parental investment responses to a low birth weight outcome: who compensates and who reinforces?

This study analyzes how parental investment responds to a low birth weight (LBW) outcome and finds important differences in investment responses by maternal education. High school dropouts reinforce a LBW outcome by providing less investment in the human capital of their LBW children relative to their normal birth weight children whereas higher educated mothers compensate by investing more in their LBW children. In addition, an increase in the number of LBW siblings present in the home raises investment in a child, which is consistent with reinforcement, but this positive effect tends to be concentrated among high school dropouts. These results suggest that studies analyzing the effects of LBW on child outcomes that do not account for heterogeneity in investment responses to a LBW outcome by maternal education may overestimate effects of LBW on child outcomes for those born to low-educated mothers and underestimate such effects for those born to high-educated mothers.     

Changes in assortative mating: The impact of age and education, 1970–1890

Data from the U.S. Census and Current Population Survey are used to examine trends in the propensity to marry or to cohabit by the age and educational attainment of potential partners. Marriage rates declined sharply across all age and educational combinations between 1970 and 1980 and declined more sharply for less-educated persons between 1980 and 1990. The rise in cohabitation compensated somewhat for the decline in marriage rates, but the compensation was unequally spread among age and educational combinations. Highly educated men were more likely, and highly educated women were no more or less likely, to marry than to cohabit with less-educated partners in 1970 and 1980. By 1990, however, educational assortative-mating patterns between these two types of unions were similar. In 1990, marriages and cohabitations involving women who were better educated than their partners were more common than those involving women who were less educated than their partners. In addition, men and women in their early 20s tend to have partners better educated than themselves, but persons in their 30s tend to cross the less-than-high-school/ more-than-high-school educational barrier when partners differ in educational attainment.     

新生代农民工就业条件行业差距实证研究

本文利用全国流动人口动态监测调查数据,选取流动人口典型就业行业（包括制造业、建筑业、批发零售和住宿餐饮业）。探讨行业之间就业条件差距的代际变化情况,分析新生代农民工丁资、劳动强度、社会保险状况等就业条件的行业差距及其影响因素。研究结果表明,不同行业农民工就业条件的代际差距有明显扩大趋势,反映出行业发展的不均衡与部分劳动者的权益损害。行业待遇差距过大,将会恶化劳动力供给结构不均衡,甚至加剧近些年出现的“用工荒”现象,不利于我国宏观经济的健康发展。     

Employment transitions in the Netherlands, 1980–2004: Are low educated men subject to structural or cyclical crowding out?

This article addresses whether low educated men are displaced from their jobs by higher educated workers in the Netherlands in the period 1980–2004. In particular, we test whether structural or cyclical crowding out is predominant in the Dutch labor market. In order to do so, we try to explain the observed trends in education-specific transition rates to entry into first employment from education, exit from employment into unemployment or inactivity, and re-entry into employment from unemployment or inactivity for men by both business cycle effects (that is, changes in aggregate unemployment rates) and structural effects (that is, changes in labor supply–demand ratios for high educated). Discrete-time event history models are estimated using the OSA Labor Supply Panel 1985–2004. Retrospective information enables to study trends from 1980 onwards, so that structural effects can be distinguished from cyclical effects. The results show that structural crowding out exists at both the worker in- and outflow. First of all, it was observed that a growth in the oversupply of high educated increases the employment exit risk of low educated workers more so than that of higher educated ones. In addition, it was shown that an increase in the oversupply of high educated especially reduces the re-employment chances of low educated unemployed men. There is no evidence found for cyclical crowding out among low educated workers in the Dutch labor market.     

90年代以来甘肃省人力资本水平空间差异探讨

随着知识生产与创造的高素质科技劳动者逐步成为一个地区能否吸引现代经济活动的关键．人力资本在区域经济增长中越来越受到人们的关注。文章从时间和空间两方面入手．探讨了90年代以来甘肃省人力资本水平的空间差异及其变化状况。结果表明：甘肃省区域人力资本水平得到明显提高。人力资本水平的地理空间格局由1990年的中部高、西北和东南部低的“凸”字形分布渐渐转向2000年的中西北部高。而东南部低的倾斜式分布：区域人力资本水平差异仍然较大，其增长幅度的区域差异也十分显著。文章还就人力资本差异的形成机制进行了探讨，并提出了促使区域人力资本可持续发展的相关建议和对策。     

Effects of sexual preferences on earnings in the Netherlands

A small literature suggests that bisexual and homosexual workers earn less than their heterosexual fellow workers and that a discriminating labormarket is partly to blame. In this paper we examine whether sexual preferences affect earnings at the beginning of working careers in the Netherlands. Using an alternative, and quite possibly a better, measure of sexual identity, we find (i) that young and highly educated gay male workers earn about 3% less than heterosexual men; (ii) that similarly qualified lesbian workers earn about 3% more than their heterosexual female co-workers; and (iii) that among homosexual workers the gender gap is not observed. From this we conclude that the Dutch labor market does not discriminate on the basis of both sexual orientation and gender in entry-level jobs.All correspondence to Erik Plug. Both authors would like to thank Jim Albrecht, Mikael Lindahl, Hessel Oosterbeek, Susan Vroman and an anonymous referee for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Responsible editor: Daniel S. Hamermesh.     

回顾与前瞻:中国的成人教育与人力资源开发

教育是人力资源开发的基本手段,成人教育则是人力资源开发的关键所在。通过成人教育进行人力资本投资,提高了劳动者素质;优化人力资源配置,促进城镇失业和农村剩余劳动力转移问题的解决;并对产业进步、企业发展及完善劳动力市场发挥积极作用。成人教育未来走向是贯彻终身教育理念,注重人的全面发展,关注老年教育。     

技能型人才隐性人力资本的测定与价值研究——基于吉林省汽车制造业的实证分析

技能型人才由于其技能和知识的特点,所具有的人力资本相对于一般人力资本和管理人力资本显示出不同的特点,隐性人力资本占有很大的比例。技能型人才隐性人力资本是指通过长期工作经验的积累所掌握的难以模仿、能够创造价值的隐性知识、技能、诀窍等,以及由其技能关系所具备的社会关系资本和情感资本,是企业持续竞争优势的重要来源。利用数学中的模糊综合评判法对吉林省汽车制造业技能型人才的隐性人力资本进行测定,并对其经济价值进行实证验证,具有一定的理论与现实意义。     

人力资本投资、产业结构升级与城市就业的动态关系研究——基于全国270个地级及以上城市的面板VAR模型

本文基于2001—2012年全国270个地级及以上城市的面板数据,采用面板VAR模型,对人力资本投资、产业结构升级与城市就业之间的动态关系进行面板单位根检验、面板Granger检验、面板数据的脉冲响应和方差分解。结果发现,在我国东、中、西部地区人力资本投资、产业结构升级与城市就业的关系具有差异性,但是不论东、中还是西部地区,人力资本投资对就业的贡献度均大于产业结构升级对就业的贡献度。要推动不同城市实现稳定就业,人力资本投资比产业结构升级政策可能会更加有效。因此,应加大城市的人力资本投资力度,充分发挥人力资本投资的传导机制,实现人力资本投资、产业结构升级与城市就业的良性循环。