Social upgrading in globalized production: The case of the textile and clothing industry

Vertical specialization generated by the international fragmentation of production within global networks is driven not only by comparative advantage, but also by the locational decisions of lead firms which determine the role and bargaining power of local producers in their value chain. This study examines the consequences of such specialization in textiles and clothing for 26 labour‐abundant countries from 1990 to 2007. Fixed effects regressions based on panel data reveal that the industry does not always reap the benefits of the resulting international trade integration. Rather, the authors observe a negative relationship between vertical specialization and relative real wages in the textile and clothing industry.     

构建基于企业社会责任的劳动工资增长机制

构建基于企业社会责任的工资增长机制,应从两个方面入手:一是建立企业社会责任履行制度体系及其监督保障机制,二是建立依托于工资集体协商的劳动工资共同决定机制。这种双重机制是目前我国推行企业社会责任建设进程中一项重要的基础性工作。负有一定社会责任的经济组织,要在合法取得利润的前提下,切实保障企业员工的工资并使其随企业发展和利润的增长而增长,在此基础上进一步维护其他利益相关者的利益或为社会服务,这对发展和谐劳动关系以及对构建和谐社会,都将有着重大的现实意义。     

Business Cycle Accounting

We propose a simple method to help researchers develop quantitative models of economic fluctuations. The method rests on the insight that many models are equivalent to a prototype growth model with time‐varying wedges that resemble productivity, labor and investment taxes, and government consumption. Wedges that correspond to these variables—efficiency, labor, investment, and government consumption wedges—are measured and then fed back into the model so as to assess the fraction of various fluctuations they account for. Applying this method to U.S. data for the Great Depression and the 1982 recession reveals that the efficiency and labor wedges together account for essentially all of the fluctuations; the investment wedge plays a decidedly tertiary role, and the government consumption wedge plays none. Analyses of the entire postwar period and alternative model specifications support these results. Models with frictions manifested primarily as investment wedges are thus not promising for the study of U.S. business cycles.     

The cost of caregiving: wage loss among caregivers of elderly and disabled adults and children with special needs

Sixty-one percent of the adults caring for elderly and disabled family members and 53% of parents of children with special needs are employed. Yet studies examining the experience of employed caregivers of children with special needs and elderly or disabled adult family members have not examined the impact on earnings or the workplace policies that might help reduce the conflicts between work and caregiving. This study begins to fill this gap using data from a nationally representative US survey of American adults. We find that employees who live with a child with a health problem are 48% more likely to have lost wages. Each adult with health issues that an employee is responsible for raises the chances of wage loss by 29%. At the same time, access to paid leave for family health needs reduces the likelihood of wage loss by 30%, and having a supportive supervisor reduces the odds of experiencing wage loss by 37%. Implications for employers and US policy-makers are discussed.     

Cohort Differences and the Marriage Premium: Emergence of Gender‐Neutral Household Specialization Effects

Using fixed‐effects models and National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 data, we compared cohort, gender, and household specialization differences in the marriage premium. Do these premiums (a) persist among millennials, (b) reflect changing selection into marriage across cohorts, and (c) differ by the gender division of spousal work hours? Despite declining gender‐traditional household specialization, the millennial cohort garnered larger marriage premiums for women and men. Positive selection explained millenial women's marriage premiums, but less of men's. Household specialization mattered only among millennials, where it is gender neutral: Male and female breadwinners earned significantly larger marriage premiums, whereas husbands and wives specializing in nonmarket work earned no premium, or even penalties, when employed. Results show increasing disadvantage among breadwinner households, with dual earners most advantaged among millennials.     

Class Differences in Establishment Pathways to Fatherhood Wage Premiums

Organizations have been argued to favor fathers over childless men and skilled fathers over less‐skilled fathers, but group wage inequalities vary across as well as within establishments. This article theorizes class differences in the contribution of being employed in a high‐wage firm to the fatherhood wage premium. Analyses of linked employer–employee data from the Canadian Workplace and Employee Survey reveal that sorting into high‐wage establishments accounts for 60% of the economy‐wide premium for less‐educated and nonprofessional fathers, whereas high‐skilled fathers tend to work in lower wage establishments but receive the largest net fatherhood premium within firms. Among the subsample of fathers who changed employers in the past 5 years, less‐skilled fathers fared worse, whereas high‐skilled fathers sorted into high‐wage firms. Results thus suggest that employment in a higher wage firm likely enables less‐skilled men to transition to fatherhood, whereas high‐wage employers may discriminate in favor of only high‐skilled fathers in hiring.     

外出农民工就业质量的变化趋势及特征分析——基于流动人口动态监测调查数据的研究

通过构建就业质量评价指标体系,基于2010—2017年中国流动人口动态监测调查数据,对外出农民工就业质量进行测度。研究发现,外出农民工就业质量指数从2010年的28.86上升至2016年的37.41,整体就业质量有所提升。从衡量就业质量的四个维度来看,2010年至2017年,外出农民工月平均收入水平实现较大幅度增长;周平均工作时间在波动中小幅下降,但仍高于《劳动法》规定的工作时间上限;城镇职工医疗保险参保率出现下降趋势,外出农民工社会保障的覆盖率、保障水平与城镇职工相比仍有较大差距;外出农民工劳动合同签订率仍然处于较低水平,尤其是无固定期限劳动合同签订率近年来出现下降趋势。通过进一步对不同地区(经济带)、不同雇佣身份、不同行业和不同职业外出农民工的就业质量进行比较分析,本文从政府、企业、工会和农民工个体四个不同视角出发,提出提升外出农民工就业质量的对策建议。     

Pension Reforms,Working Patterns and Gender Pension Gaps in Europe

European pension reforms are dominated by the principles of privatization and individualization. Privatizing and individualizing pension entitlements call for a redefinition of the responsibilities of states and individuals. Moreover, statutorily introducing individualization calls for equal opportunities to be guaranteed. However, the implementation of equal opportunities is a long way off because pension‐determining factors are still subject to gender distinctions, among other things. Gender distinction is inherent in life courses as well as in welfare arrangements. Welfare arrangements determine the legitimate reasons for gaining pension rights, how the measures of different entitlements are interrelated and which factors hamper a person's ability to fulfil the pension norm. This article analyses the link between welfare arrangements and women's life courses for a better understanding of the gendered norms of pension entitlements by focusing on gendered wages and life expectancies, gendered working patterns, and the connection between care and pensions.     

Under economic adjustment programs,do private sector wages respond to changes in public wages and employment?

We examine the spillovers from changes in public sector wages and employment on private sector wages. Using a panel VAR model, we show that changes in public sector wages have a greater effect on private sector wages than changes in public sector employment. We motivate our analysis using the Economic Adjustment Program for Greece, and a simple theoretical model. The empirical validity of these effects is verified through a series of robustness tests. These results have important implications on the evaluation of the recent EU Economic Adjustment Programs and the future design of Internal Devaluation strategies.     

Gender, technology and jobs

Men have traditionally gained more than women from access to technologies at work which bring prestige, job security, more satisfying work and higher pay. Typically female jobs have centred on technologies, if they have at all, which tend towards routine and possibly deskilled work. Typing is a prime example. It is possible that this is changing through computerization, which is extensive but also equally distributed by gender. Does the wage premium, which use of a computer has been found to confer on users, benefit women sufficiently to suggest some sort of equalization through technology, or possibly even a female advantage? This is tested using data from four European countries. There is no across‐the‐board benefit from the use of computers. For both men and women it depends on the nature of their occupation. Some, more routine usages of computers are associated with a negative outcome. However, this occupational balance itself varies by gender.