The Eurasian Economic Union: Development Prospects and Possible Obstacles

This article analyzes the development prospects and problems for the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). It examines issues of integration within the EAEU, as well as interactions with other countries, both CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) and non-CIS. The main problem of integration within the EAEU is the dominance of redistributive motives over productive ones. This article assesses the extent of Russian oil and gas transfers to EAEU partners and the impact of tax maneuvers on their size. It shows that the creation of mechanisms for redistributing profits within the EAEU will allow a positive economic effect to materialize from free trade agreements with non-CIS countries. The article assesses the risks for the EAEU related to Russia’s introduction of a unilateral ban on food imports from countries on the sanctions list and to the possible establishment of tariffs on trade with Ukraine.     

Female labor force participation in the US: How is immigration shaping recent trends?

Women entered the paid workforce in unprecedented numbers during the 20th century. Yet recent years have been witness to a creeping reversal in women's labor force participation. Why did the revolution stall? In response to debates over a “natural” limit to women's employment, or a cultural backlash against the dual-breadwinner household, we consider an alternative explanation, namely whether immigration has slowed the growth in female labor force participation. Using CPS data from 1998 to 2018, we show that the increase in the share of immigrants and children of immigrants in the population has reduced overall female labor force participation. However, immigration accounts for relatively little of the retreat from the labor force. Instead, the compositional effect of population change is overshadowed by behavioral shifts that affect both natives and immigrants. Lower participation rates among native-born women accounts for most of the overall decline. Despite persistent differences, we also find substantial convergence in the labor force behavior of native-born and foreign-born women, which bodes well for the long-term economic incorporation of immigrants and their children.     

Les relations entre droit international et droit européen du travail et leur incidence sur le développement du droit social international et européen

Des observations sur la manière dont le droit de l'Union européenne fait place aux instruments destinés à assurer la protection des travailleurs élaborés à l'échelle internationale ou à l'action des organisations internationales pour la protection des droits sociaux, cette contribution tire une typologie destinée à mettre au jour les liens, souvent tenus mais d'une grande diversité, qui rattachent le droit européen au «droit international du travail», au sens large.     

Childhood family structure and complexity in partnership life courses

This study investigated the associations between childhood living arrangements and complex adult partnership trajectories. The authors defined first union dissolution as the event initiating a complex partnership life course, and measured the level of complexity using a weighted cumulative index of subsequent partnership episodes. The analyses were based on a representative sample of the German population born in 1971–73 from the German Family Panel and used multivariate hurdle models to estimate the probability of experiencing the initiation of a complex partnership trajectory, as well as the level of complexity. Results showed that respondents who did not grow up with both biological parents (i.e. those who experienced an alternative family structure) had both a greater likelihood of experiencing the dissolution of their own first union, and followed more complex subsequent partnership trajectories. These associations varied across types of (alternative) family structures experienced during childhood and according to the level of parental partnership (in)stability. This study contributes to our understanding of contemporary partnership complexity and its precursors using a long term life course theoretical and methodological frame. We acknowledge that continuities and disruptions in the development of adult (complex) partnership trajectories can be linked to a growing diversity of family structure in childhood. Thereby, we expand knowledge on intergenerational interdependencies of family instability and complexity beyond the reproduction of the event of union dissolution.     

The impact of the European Youth Guarantee on active labour market policies: A convergence analysis

The European Union’s (EU) Youth Guarantee aims to improve the labour market situation of young people. Rather than prescribing a uniform policy model, it acknowledges that supportive measures need to align with national, regional and local circumstances. It thus seeks to promote mutual policy learning through the open method of coordination. As an innovative measure, the EU has deployed funding programmes to support the domestic measures related to the Youth Guarantee. We therefore examined in this study whether this mix of recommendations and financial incentives has entailed a convergence of member state policies. Our analysis of policy outputs for the period 2007?2014 yields a mixed empirical picture. There is catching‐up convergence regarding policies’ sectoral coverage but increasing divergence concerning the number of adopted policy instruments. The first two years of financial incentives did not produce any effect on enhancing policy experimentation among less active member states. We offer an optimistic and a pessimistic interpretation of these findings.     

西班牙—摩洛哥边境的建构与治理研究

休达与梅利利亚地处非洲北端地中海南岸,是孤立在非洲大陆上的两个西班牙飞地。这两座城市的陆上边界活动与经济要素的流动,反映出摩洛哥与西班牙、欧盟与非欧盟国家之间的冲突与交流。其建构与治理不仅影响着两国的政治稳定、经济发展、外交关系,也影响着欧盟的移民政策和欧洲—非洲关系,同时建构了独特且动态的边民认同。2020年受到新冠肺炎疫情的影响,休达与梅利利亚的边境空间有了新的变化。本文通过梳理该边境问题的产生与流变,分析其“双重性”“交织性”“波动性”等特点,进而指出,休达与梅利利亚的边境空间具有屏障功能、桥梁作用、认同建构、边境建构及其重构等作用,其对研究飞地边民认同、欧盟政策与欧洲—地中海关系意义重大。     

产业协同集聚的资源错配效应研究

利用2003－2016年中国280个地级市的数据，分别测算了产业协同集聚指数、资本错配和劳动力错配指数，采用差分GMM方法考察产业协同集聚对资源错配的影响。结果发现：产业协同集聚的提高，会显著降低资本错配和劳动力错配指数；分地区的回归发现，东部地区产业协同集聚改善了资本错配，对劳动力错配负向作用不显著，中部地区产业协同集聚会改善资本错配，但会恶化劳动力错配，西部地区产业协同集聚则加剧了资本错配，但可以缓解劳动力错配情况。进一步作用机制分析表明，产业协同集聚水平的提高，会显著提高金融业的专业化分工，进而改善资本错配，同时会提高劳动力成本，改善劳动力错配。文章的政策含义是通过产业协同集聚，可以提高金融业的专业化分工和劳动力成本，进而缓解资本和劳动力的错配，提高经济效率，促进经济增长。     

How much is too much: Does the size of income support transfers affect labor supply?

Cash transfer programs pursue mainly protective objectives, but can also impact rural livelihoods by inducing investments in productive activities and changing household labor allocation. We adopt a continuous treatment approach to quantify how households’ labor supply responds to transfer size. We find a shift from paid labor to own farm labor and find that the transfer size is well within a level that would have disincentive effects on time spent on own farm activities. The switch from paid to own farm labor occurs at lower levels of transfers for labor-constrained households, and at higher levels for non-labor constrained households.     

Causal dynamics of poverty reproduction in EU countries

This study investigated causal mechanisms of poverty reproduction in EU countries by placing emphasis on the parental background effect on sons’ poverty risk after having controlled for endogeneity among observable and non‐observable effects of the involved mechanisms. The countries under investigation were old EU member states representing the four welfare regimes in the EU. Having employed path models and utilised EU‐SILC 2005 data, the analysis yielded no statistically significant direct effect of parental background on sons’ poverty risk in Denmark. Greece, however, exhibited a statistically significant and quite strong direct effect. Germany and the United Kingdom stood in‐between. Moreover, the analysis found indirect channels through which the parental background affects sons’ poverty risk. These findings are expected to enrich the academic discourse and inform the policy‐making process on poverty reproduction and social protection in the EU.     

劳动合同服务期规则的适用——以海南省某企业招聘信息为切入点

海南省某企业在其招聘广告中要求劳动者承诺终身服务,涉及服务期规则的适用问题。现行《劳动合同法》存在对劳动者过度保护的倾向性,劳动者约束性条款数量较少。而服务期规则作为用人单位长期留用人才的唯一法律依托,存在着可设定服务期的事项范围过窄、违约金条款不具有应有惩罚性的问题。服务期规则的不健全把企业吸引和培育人才的手段引向异端。司法实践中出现了对现行服务期规则进行突破的裁判或未突破现行规则但裁判结果有违诚信原则的情况。针对现状,建议拓宽可设定服务期的事项范围、改进违约金规则使其具有惩罚性来保障企业人力资本投入上的合理利益,同时规定最长服务期限来维护劳动者基本权益,从而最大限度地维持劳资双方利益平衡。