Unemployment Benefits and Employment Policies in the Presence of a Strong Trade Union: A Comparison

Abstract. The paper analyses, within a game theoretic approach, the consequences on private employment and real wages of a government policy of raising unemployment benefits following a fall in employment. The effects of such a policy are then compared with those arising from a more conventional demand policy. Under the policy regime described the reaction of the unions will cause, when the economy is hit by a negative shock on employment, a tendency for the real wage to rise and for private employment to decrease further. As far as the comparison of such policy with a policy of direct employment by the government is concerned we have reached the following conclusions. A policy based on unemployment benefit will give rise to a smaller increase in the real wage than a policy based on public employment if the change in the marginal utility of being employed due to change in the unemployment benefit is smaller than the utility that the union will obtain from an extra employed person. Moreover it appears that a policy based on unemployment benefits has a smaller negative effect on private employment, than a policy based on direct employment. if such a policy is adopted just after an employment benefits represent also a subsidy to the firms. We have shown that the effects on the real wage of the Policy rule considered are in this case stronger. The effects on employment depend on the relative strength of the union reaction and of the policy's supply side effects.     

中国失业问题与财政政策研究

失业是市场经济运行中各国以及我国社会经济发展面临的一大难题。促进就业、控制失业率是各国政府的宏观调控目标之一和不可推卸的责任。本报告从理论与实践的结合上,深入研究失业与宏观调控及财政政策的关系,揭示当前我国政府及财政促进就业政策的成效和问题,并在借鉴国际经验的基础上,进一步提出了近期我国缓解失业压力、建立促进就业长效机制的宏观对策思路和财政政策取向。     

政治关联与财务困境公司的政府补助——来自中国ST公司的经验证据

本文以2002-2007年沪深两市的ST公司为样本,实证研究了企业的政治关联对财务困境公司获取政府补助的影响.结果显示:(1)民营企业的政治关联对企业处于财务困境时获取政府补助有显著影响,但对国有企业作用不显著.(2)考虑企业所处的地区环境差异之后,本文发现民营企业的政治关联优势受到地区财政富余程度的显著影响,而地方政府干预要起作用也受到地区财政状况的制约.只有在地方财政有充足财力的情况下,民营企业才可能利用政治关联获得更多的政府补助.(3)从政府补助的效果来看,政府补助虽然可以在救助当年明显改善公司业绩,但对公司长期业绩的提升作用却因企业政治关联程度和企业性质的不同而存在差异:政治关联较弱的民营企业获得的政府补助对公司长期业绩的提高作用显著,但对于国有企业以及具有较强政治关联的民营企业作用则不显著,这在一定程度上说明政治关联导致了政府补助资金的低效运作.     

OPTIMAL TAXATION WITH IMPERFECT COMPETITION AND AGGREGATE RETURNS TO SPECIALIZATION

In this article we explore the proposition that, in economies with imperfect competitive markets, the optimal capital income tax is negative and the optimal tax on firms' profits is confiscatory. We show that if the total factor productivity as well as the number of firms or varieties are endogenous instead of fixed, then the optimal fiscal policy can lead to different results. The government faces a trade‐off between the fixed costs that society pays for the introduction of a new firm and the productivity gains associated to the introduction of a new variety. We find that the optimal fiscal policy depends on the relationship between the index of market power, the returns to specialization, and the government's ability to control entry. (JEL: H21, H30, E62)     

财政分权体制对劳动力转移影响的实证分析

基于政府支出内生经济增长理论,探讨地级市政府财政自主程度对于服务行业分行业劳动力流动的影响,将行业劳动力变更细分为跨地区和跨行业两类指标,结合2004年至2011年中国城市统计年鉴构建的面板数据,在区分面板数据类型基础上分别采用固定效应模型或随机效应模型研究财政分权体制下这两类指标的变化。研究结果表明,在控制一系列影响因素后,地方财权的扩张只对交通、仓储及邮电、房地产和租赁商务以及服务行业劳动力流入产生正向影响,而批发零售、住宿餐饮、金融和信息行业在地方财权扩张时就业空间受到一定的挤压,导致本地劳动力流出。在跨行业的劳动力流动问题中,受地方财权扩张正向影响的行业为房地产、金融和租赁商务,其他行业则会由于地方政府财税自主权的提升造成就业萎缩;此外,地方政府财权自主程度提升会加剧地区及行业间劳动力的流动。     

中国式财政分权与地方经济增长目标管理——来自省、市政府工作报告的经验证据

本文将实际经济增长分解为政府直接调控的"经济增长目标"和主要受市场因素影响但同时也受到政府间接干预的"计划外增长"两项,通过多层级政府框架的一般均衡模型模拟分析发现,财政分权在实际经济增长、经济增长目标和计划外增长方面的效应并不同步,而且还呈现地区差异性。在此基础上,系统搜集中国省、市两级政府2000~2016年政府工作报告里的GDP计划增长目标并进行系统GMM估计。实证结果表明:整体而言,财政分权对省、市实际经济增长的影响皆显著为正,但对其两个分解指标存在非对称性影响:从全国范围来看,财政分权对实际经济增长的正向影响主要体现为对经济增长目标的拉动作用,而对计划外增长影响较弱且不甚显著;分地区回归发现,东部地区财政分权对实际经济增长的正向影响更多地体现为对计划外经济增长的驱动,而西部地区则主要是通过影响由政府直接调控的经济增长目标来实现的。机制分析显示,财政分权通过不同程度地推动基建投资、房地产投资以及工业化进程,促进了经济增长目标的实现,进而推动实际经济增长。     

市场主体信心与财政乘数效应的非线性特征——基于SVAR模型的反事实分析

本文基于SVAR模型和反事实分析,利用季度数据,实证考察了市场信心对我国财政政策乘数效应重要影响。分析表明,在经济遭遇较强外部冲击时,以支出扩张为主的需求管理有助于提振市场信心,市场信心恢复放大了财政政策乘数效应。但随着经济逐步走出危机阴影,市场信心作用开始减弱。同时随着需求管理政策实施时间递延,支出扩张的边际增长效应开始递减,为满足支出需要,持续增税的负面效应开始递增。扩支增收效应相互叠加,再加上财政收支结构不当选择,使市场主体信心开始逐步受到侵蚀,并产生较强谨慎动机。市场信心和财政政策的相互作用,使财政政策乘数效应快速减弱。所以动态考察我国以扩支增收为主要特征的财政调控,尽管应对危机的乘数效应特别显著,但长期看乘数效应却非常弱,甚至出现非凯恩斯效应。本文政策含义非常明确,充分利用市场信心与财政政策效应非线性特征先验知识,适时转换需求管理型财政调控策略,既可避免经济增长对财政扩张政策过度依赖,又可提高财政政策灵活性、有效性和可持续性。     

货币供应机制与财政支出的乘数效应——基于DSGE的分析

本文通过构建包括货币供应机制的DSGE模型,分析了中国政府购买支出和公共投资支出的乘数效应,发现两类财政支出对私人消费和私人投资都产生了挤出效应,公共资本的产出弹性低是产生挤出效应的结构性原因,在中国货币供应机制减小对通货膨胀负向反应和增大对产出正向反应的配合下,政府购买支出和公共投资支出能够对私人消费和私人投资产生正向的挤入效应。     

More Jobs Through Less Employment Protection? Evidence for West Germany

ABSTRACT: In reaction to growing criticism of the allegedly negative employment effects of job protection regulations (lay-off and dismissal restraints), the West German government in 1985 introduced new legislation facilitating the conclusion of temporary (i.e. fixed-term) work contracts in order to stimulate employment growth (‘Employment Promotion Act 1985‘AZPA). The research unit ‘Labour Market and Employment‘ at the WZB has evaluated the employment and labour market impact of the new legislation for the period 1985-1988, and apart from providing a detailed analysis of the socio-economic and institutional diversity of job arrangements covered by the category of temporary (i.e. fixed-term) employment, the project‘s focus has been on the impact of minor changes in the institutional frame- work as effected by the EPA on firms‘ employment policies, as well as on the overall level of employment. Results show that like in most other European countries the temporary work force in Germany has considerably grown over the past years in both absolute and relative terms, this increase, however, being largely due to cyclical factors as well as medium-term structural changes on the supply and demand side of the labour market rather than to changes in the regulatory framework as effected by the EPA. The impact of the new regulations on firms‘ hiring decisions and on the overall number of hirings in the total economy have to be regarded as rather modest, in fact amounting to not more than an estimated 25,000 additional hires per year or roughly 0.5|X% of all employment contracts concluded in the private sector. This marginal positive impact on firms‘ employment decisions, however, is counterbalanced by unintended substitution effects and an increase in involuntary quits arising from them when labour demand declines. Even under the overall positive employment development given in the period under investigation the net employment effects of the EPA temporary work legislation thus are shown to be at best marginal. In case of a deterioration of the overall economic situation, however, the increase in temporary job arrangements supported by the new legislation is likely to lead to accelerated workforce adjustments by firms and thus over time to result in a depression of the overall level of employment. From a theoretical point of view, the findings suggest that measures aiming at de-regulating labour relations such as the EPA largely fail to modify essential behavioral parameters of economic actors in economic environments which for decades have adjusted to a relatively high level of welfare state regulation, as has been the case in Western Germany.     

The More You Give,the More You Get? The Impact of Corporate Political Activity on the Value of Government Contracts

Firms have been relying on corporate political activity (CPA) to achieve access and to affect public policy change for decades. Most research on CPA and public policy outcomes has implicitly assumed that access afforded by CPA results in an either‐ or (dichotomous) policy outcome such as votes or election outcomes. Based on recent research on how CPA can be a strategic signal to government agencies, however, it is possible that CPA may in fact, have a linear association with public policy outcomes as opposed to merely a dichotomous one, and we explore this relationship in the unique public policy context of government contract awards. We specifically analyze how higher levels of CPA impact the financial value of government contracts awarded to firms. Utilizing the S&P 1500 sample for 16 years (1997–2012) we find that CPA has a one to one association with the value of contract awards, indicating that CPA and public policy outcomes can be linked in ways that motivate firms to continuously invest in CPA, to maximize their political rents. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this finding in light of extant research on CPA and its direct impact on public policy outcomes.     

Demand Fluctuations in the Ready‐Mix Concrete Industry

I investigate the role of demand shocks in the ready‐mix concrete industry. Using Census data on more than 15,000 plants, I estimate a model of investment and entry in oligopolistic markets. These estimates are used to simulate the effect of eliminating short‐term local demand changes. A policy of smoothing the volatility of demand has a market expansion effect: The model predicts a 39% increase in the number of plants in the industry. Since bigger markets have both more plants and larger plants, a demand‐smoothing fiscal policy would increase the share of large plants by 20%. Finally, the policy of smoothing demand reduces entry and exit by 25%, but has no effect on the rate at which firms change their size.     

Technological Innovation and Employment Reallocation

The paper describes the dynamics of employment at a firm and sector level in French industry and examines how far technological innovation can give account of it. We use a sample of 15,186 firms, over the period 1986–90. The two facts we want to explain at a firm and sector level are the net change in employment and the micro turmoil (transfers between competing firms). Innovating firms and sectors create jobs more than others over the medium run (5 years). Process innovation is more about job creation than product innovation at the firm level, but the converse is true at the sector level. This paradox is probably due to substitution effects (creative destruction).     

Evaluating the Introduction of a National Minimum Wage: Evidence from a New Survey of Firms in Ireland

Abstract. In April 2000 the Irish government introduced a national minimum wage of IR£4.40 (€5.58) an hour. We use data from a specifically designed survey of firms to estimate the employment effects of this change. Employment growth among firms with low‐wage workers prior to the legislation was no different from that of firms not affected by the legislation. A more refined measure of the minimum wage, however, suggests that the legislation may have had a negative effect on employment for the small number of firms most severely affected by the legislation. However, the size of these effects is relatively modest.     

Unemployment and Employment Protection in a Unionized Economy with Search Frictions

Abstract. In the theoretical literature, the effects of employment protection on unemployment are ambiguous. Higher employment protection reduces job creation as well as job destruction. However, in most models, wages are bargained individually between workers and firms. Using a conventional matching model in which a monopoly union sets wages, I show that employment protection can unambiguously increase unemployment. Interestingly, I find that tightening the restrictions on redundancies and dismissals may even increase the probability of dismissal.     

British Employment Measures: Policy and Evidence

ABSTRACT: This paper examines how British labour market policy has developed over the decade up to mid-1986 and summarises the evidence available on the effects of the so-called 'special employment measures'. Given the wide range of schemes and the variations in rules governing them as they evolved, no attempt is made to give details of the different schemes. The aims are to identify the main shifts in policy and to address the principal methodological and empirical issues which arise in attempting to evaluate policy. The main focus of the paper is on those measures which have been designed to increase employment without threatening the attempts by successive governments first to restrain the growth of public expenditure and then to reduce the level in real terms. The mainstream macroeconomic and labour market strategy continues to stress the need for fiscal and monetary restraint combined with much greater labour market flexibility. Whilst the paper is concerned with employment measures, the Youth Training Scheme is also included. It represents the biggest of all the programmes initiated during the last decade or so of policy intervention and is concerned with providing employment as well as training opportunities.     

Fiscal Rules and Discretion Under Persistent Shocks

This paper studies the optimal level of discretion in policymaking. We consider a fiscal policy model where the government has time‐inconsistent preferences with a present bias toward public spending. The government chooses a fiscal rule to trade off its desire to commit to not overspend against its desire to have flexibility to react to privately observed shocks to the value of spending. We analyze the optimal fiscal rule when the shocks are persistent. Unlike under independent and identically distributed shocks, we show that the ex ante optimal rule is not sequentially optimal, as it provides dynamic incentives. The ex ante optimal rule exhibits history dependence, with high shocks leading to an erosion of future fiscal discipline compared to low shocks, which lead to the reinstatement of discipline. The implied policy distortions oscillate over time given a sequence of high shocks, and can force the government to accumulate maximal debt and become immiserated in the long run.     

Unemployment Insurance Policy and Union Wage Formation

Abstract. The paper considers the wage and employment effects of alternative social security policies. Such a policy can take the form of a fixed benefit level or linking the level of unemployment benefits to private sector wages. The latter is an important social security policy instrument to guarantee an equitable distribution of income. A fixed benefit level policy yields lower wages and larger employment than an automatic link between the level of benefits and the wage rate. Further, if the government decides to make the link conditional on the stabilization of the tax rate, wages are lower and employment is higher than in both former alternatives. By endogenizing its social security policy, the government is able to reduce the loss in employment that the link policy brings about.     

LIQUIDITY AND INEFFICIENT INVESTMENT

We study consumer liquidity in a general equilibrium model where the friction is the nonpledgeability of future income. Liquidity helps to overcome the absence of a double coincidence of wants. Consumers over‐hoard liquidity and the resulting competitive equilibrium is constrained inefficient. Fiscal policy following a large negative shock can increase ex‐ante welfare. If the government cannot commit, the ex‐post optimal fiscal policy will be too small from an ex‐ante perspective. The model throws light on the holding of foreign reserves in international markets.     

生产性财政支出、经济增长与社会福利最大化

从理论与实证两个方面研究生产性财政支出对经济增长与社会福利的促进作用这一财政领域十分关注的问题.理论研究中,通过构建包含政府财政消费性支出和生产性支出的内生增长模型,推导了经济增长和社会福利最大化目标下各自最优的生产性财政支出结构,并分析了政府生产性财政支出在两目标下最优支出结构的差异及原因.实证研究发现,2004年～2012年间,中国的东、中、西三大经济带政府生产性支出在社会福利目标下的最优占比普遍低于经济增长目标;而在2004年～2008年间,政府实际的生产性财政支出占比还未达到两目标下的最优占比值,政府的生产性财政支出还有进一步提升的空间;但在2009年～2012年间,政府实际的生产性财政支出占比已接近甚至超过了两目标下的最优占比值,继续增加生产性财政支出将对经济增长与社会福利的提升都产生抑制作用,尤其在东部地区、中部地区更为明显.因此,在中国经济发展进入"新常态"时期,政府更需审时度势、通过适时优化财政支出以促进经济增长与社会福利的最大化.     

财政政策与宏观经济稳定:情势转变视角

本文利用马尔可夫情势转变向量自回归模型,考察了20世纪90年代以来,我国宏观经济运行与财政政策的情势转变特征、财政政策对宏观经济稳定的影响以及财政政策的非线性效应。分析表明,我国财政支出政策的相机抉择变化比较符合凯恩斯经济周期理论所强调的"逆势而动"的特点,且有助于实体经济稳定,但加剧了通货膨胀波动;税收政策的相机抉择变化不符合宏观经济运行需要,并在一定程度上加剧了实体经济波动,但有助于价格稳定。我国财政政策总体上具有显著的、持续时间较长的"凯恩斯效应"。