Social Increasing Returns and the Effects of Immigration on the Host Country Economy

In this paper we analyse the impact of both the number of immigrants and their human capital on the welfare of the host economy. We will show that in the presence of ‘social increasing returns’ in human and physical capital accumulation, arising from a labour market characterized by a costly search and by randomness of the matching technology, immigrants’ skill level may influence the investments in human capital of natives as well as the investments in physical capital. We will find that the immigrants’ human capital interacts with social increasing returns making them stronger or weaker according to the level of immigrants’ human capital relative to that of natives. If immigrants have a higher level of human capital, increasing returns are accelerated, while if immigrants’ human capital is lower, increasing returns are weakened if not reversed. The consequence of this behaviour is that in the first case immigration has a positive impact on native welfare and there is a positive interrelation between the skills of natives, the skills of immigrants and the firms’ level of physical capital. In the second case immigration may have a negative impact on the welfare of natives, on the skills of native workers and on the physical capital of firms.     

Employment Relationships and Firm Innovation: The Double Role of Human Capital

We examine how employment relationships and human capital influence innovation in a sample of Spanish firms. Previous research has indicated that human capital directly affects innovation, but few studies have considered human capital as a variable that mediates or moderates the effects of other variables on innovation. We tested our hypotheses using a sample of 150 innovative Spanish firms and confirmed that, while human capital favours innovations, employment relationships are not directly associated with innovation unless they take human capital into account. Specifically, our analyses suggest that human capital mediates the relationship between a mutual investment employment relationship and innovation, which is characterized by high levels of incentives and expectations. However, we also found that human capital plays a moderating role when organizations develop an employment relationship characterized by low investments in personnel but high expectations from their work (the underinvestment model). We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these results.     

Can the Augmented Solow Model with Migration Explain the Italian Internal Brain Drain?

We extend the Dolado et al. (1994) model to both inflows and outflows of migrants and assume that they have a human capital endowment that contributes to increase/decrease the stock of human capital in the receiving/sending economy. We derive the conditional convergence equation in which the impact of migration flows on the growth rate is disentangled in a pure quantity effect and in a quality or composition effect of immigration and emigration rates that accounts for the relative human capital endowment of migrants with respect to resident population. Next, we test the model with Italian regional data for the 1970–2005 time period. We find that the model provides a good explanation of the Italian experience. The quantity effect is negative for the immigration rate and positive for the emigration rate, whereas the composition effect is positive for immigration and negative for emigration. Finally, we separate the centre‐north from the south and find that the composition effect of emigration is stronger for the latter. We interpret these results as a clear evidence of a brain drain from the Mezzogiorno to the centre‐northern regions.     

资本结构、股权融资和企业投资行为

本文建立了一个基于资本结构和股权融资的企业投资决策模型,内生地获得了企业投资时机、破产时机和股权出售比率,克服了传统企业投资决策模型研究不考虑融资影响的不足。本文模型的仿真结果表明,企业的初始债务和投资时的股权融资对企业投资具有较强的影响:初始债务对企业投资具有推动作用,而投资时的股权融资对企业投资产生抑制作用,这两方面的共同作用会导致企业的投资不足或过度。     

ICT服务业资本存量及其产出弹性估算研究

21世纪以来,ICT发展已经深刻地影响着中国经济社会。为检验中国ICT资本是否存在"生产率悖论",本文运用PIM系统估算了2003-2016年期间全国层面和地区层面ICT服务业和非ICT服务业资本存量及其产出弹性。研究发现,中国ICT服务业存在明显的"投资不足",但在2012年以后有所缓和;ICT服务业资本存量在各地区表现非均衡分布,但其差距趋于收敛;ICT服务业资本对中国经济增长具有显著的促进作用,产出弹性在0.1605-0.1705之间;从时间趋势来看,考察期间内ICT服务业资本对中国经济增长的影响效果不断增强,从区域差异来看,ICT服务业资本产出弹性在东、中和西部呈依次递减趋势。本文研究证实中国ICT资本不存在"生产率悖论"。     

Promotion,Turnover, and Compensation in the Executive Labor Market

This paper develops a generalized Roy model with human capital accumulation, moral hazard, and career concerns. We identify and estimate the model with a large panel that matches data on publicly listed firms to information on their executives. The structural estimates obtained are used to decompose the firm‐size pay gap. We find that although total compensation and incentive pay increase with firm size, certainty‐equivalent pay decreases with firm size. In larger firms, and for more highly ranked executives, weaker signal quality about effort results in higher risk premiums. This risk premium accounts for roughly 80 percent of the firm‐size gap in total compensation. Larger firms are also willing to pay more than smaller ones to attract executives. Finally, the estimated coefficients on human capital accumulation from formal education and experience gained from different firms are individually significant, but their collective effect on firm‐size pay differentials nets out.     

Imperfect Information and Training Quality

Abstract. This paper develops a theoretical model in which the level of training provided by a firm is not observed by workers. It is therefore not possible to have training wages completely contingent upon the level of training provided. Training wages will be too high. This, in turn, prevents firms from recouping the full benefits from training and leads to underinvestment. The more general the training, the more severe this underinvestment problem.     

Residual income valuation and management remuneration under uncertainty: a note

The so-called Residual Income Valuation theorem states that the value of a project or a firm can be determined either on the basis of cash flows between the firm and its owners or by using residual incomes, provided that cash flows and residual incomes are derived from a set of accounting data that fulfills certain regularity conditions. Residual income is defined as accounting earnings reduced by a capital charge on book equity capital. In this paper it is shown that this theorem also applies when residual incomes and in particular the discount factors are uncertain. Risk-aversion of principals and agents is taken into account on the basis of properly defined risk-adjusted discount rates. This approach is preferred as it facilitates practical application. Implications are drawn with regards to valuation but also to the design of management remuneration systems. It is shown that the capital charge rate used to determine the performance-related compensation component should be reduced below the risk-adjusted rate, if the fixed component falls below a certain threshold. Absent agency cost or other externalities, the reduction of the capital charge rate is required to avoid underinvestment.     

IMMIGRATION,WAGES, AND COMPOSITIONAL AMENITIES

There is strong public opposition to increased immigration throughout Europe. Given the modest economic impacts of immigration estimated in most studies, the depth of anti‐immigrant sentiment is puzzling. Immigration, however, does not just affect wages and taxes. It also changes the composition of the local population, threatening the compositional amenities that natives derive from their neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces. In this paper we use a simple latent‐factor model, combined with data for 21 countries from the 2002 European Social Survey (ESS), to measure the relative importance of economic and compositional concerns in driving opinions about immigration policy. The ESS included a unique battery of questions on the labor market and social impacts of immigration, as well as on the desirability of increasing or reducing immigrant inflows. We find that compositional concerns are 2–5 times more important in explaining variation in individual attitudes toward immigration policy than concerns over wages and taxes. Likewise, most of the difference in opinion between more‐ and less‐educated respondents is attributable to heightened compositional concerns among people with lower education.     

Analysing the Gender Wage Gap (GWG) Using Personnel Records

We use monthly personnel records of a large German company for the years 1999–2005 to analyse the gender wage gap (GWG). The unconditional GWG is 15 per cent for blue‐collar and 26 per cent for white‐collar workers. Different returns to entry age explain a substantial part of the GWG as well as segregation of men and women in different hierarchical levels. The relative GWG increases with increasing tenure for blue‐collar but declines for white‐collar workers. Taking into account the different impact of general and firm‐specific human capital on white‐collar and blue‐collar occupation, this is consistent with theories of statistical discrimination.     

机构投资者优化企业资本结构选择研究

公司治理与资本结构相互作用,机构投资者作为股东与管理者存在利益冲突,在资本结构方面也有所表现。本文主要分析机构投资者与管理者利益冲突的原因及其在资本结构中的表现,并提出了解决策略,最后本文对中国上市公司资本结构选择得出相关启示。     

Determinants of Foreign Workers’ Wages in Two Italian Regions with High Illegal Immigration

Since the end of the 1970s Italy has moved from being an out-migration country to being a foreign immigration country, but very few studies have addressed the factors determining the wages of immigrant workers, owing to the lack of available data. In this paper we analyse the determinants of the wages of immigrants in some areas of Latium and Campania, where the share of illegal immigration is relatively high, using the results of a set of sample surveys which collected information on several aspects of the immigration process in the years 1993–94. The purpose of the article is to shed some light on the factors underlying wage distribution among the immigrants using an estimation method that controls for sample selection problems. According to the empirical results, income differences seem to be relatively high among immigrants. Differences in labour market integration among sexes and area of origin clearly emerge from the results. Moreover, legal status plays an important role in the explanation of the wage gap between documented and undocumented immigrants, also because of the different occupational sector structure in the two groups.     

利润分享:一种协调人力资本的治理手段

在Mumcu模型的基础上,建立一个人力资本密集型企业与人力资本有关薪酬谈判的模型,即人力资本凭借其专用性使其投资重要性不断攀升,在与企业薪酬谈判中的话语权也不断增强。在这种情况下,关键性的人力资本已不仅限于获取劳动市场上的均衡工资,更可以与企业分享其创造的价值。反观,当人力资本密集型企业生产对关键性人力资本的依赖性不断增强并且难以控制时,企业只有通过与其分享租金以协调人力资本与企业保持合作,实现共赢。     

二氧化碳排放、人力资本和内生经济增长研究

本文在人力资本内生增长模型的基础上引入二氧化碳排放，并将二氧化碳作为环境质量引入效用函数，利用最优控制理论求得稳态时经济增长速度、二氧化碳增长速度，分析了稳态时实现经济增长和二氧化碳减排双重目标的条件，证明人力资本可以克服物质资本边际报酬递减和二氧化碳排放带来的负效用，实现经济增长和二氧化碳减排。通过比较静态分析、参数校准等方法研究了稳态时各增长率的变动趋势。随后本文考察引入二氧化碳排放后内生增长模型的动态性和稳定性，笔者分别通过相位图、数值模拟的方法研究了系统的动态过程，证明了系统的稳定性。     

Valuing an East European Company

Investors in many parts of the world are considering opportunities in transitional economies, but such investments typically require analyses that are different from those performed in mature, market-based economies. This article evaluates the application of traditional firm valuation procedures to state-owned enterprises in the former Soviet bloc countries. The valuation problems faced by the foreign joint venture partner extend beyond those posed by an absence of capital market prices and a lack of useful managerial data in the socialist-styled financial statements. A more fundamental problem arises from the deteriorated condition of the assets of most of these firms. Years of underinvestment and neglect have eroded the worth of assets so that firm value is driven by future growth opportunities rather than currently profitable assets. Based on extensive interviews with participants and using both socialist and western-compatible financial statements, we illustrate the difficulties in obtaining valuation estimates through the example of a Czech metals manufacturer. Given the importance of growth opportunities, we recommend that valuation be undertaken with active participation of insiders, instead of a mechanical task done by outside consultants alone.     

On Labor Policies Affecting Investment in General Human Capital

Abstract. This paper develops a search model including workers’ investments in general human capital and investigates the effects of labor policies such as subsidies to human capital investment and unemployment benefits on the accumulation of human capital. It is shown that the equilibrium is not optimal because workers underinvest in human capital or firms open too many vacancies in comparison with the number of unemployed workers. Comparative statics show that an increase in subsidies to human capital investment adds to the number of vacancies per unemployed worker and to workers’ investments in human capital and that an increase in unemployment benefits decreases them. Finally, labor policies that remove the distortion are explored.     

产权安排、治理机制、政企关系与企业效率——以“科龙”和“美的”为例

本文通过对“科龙”和“美的”两个案例的剖析 ,探讨企业产权安排、政企关系、治理机制与企业效率的关系。研究表明 ,产权清晰程度和产权的流动性是产权安排的两个方面 ,我国的产权改革主要是循着产权清晰的方向迈进;作为产权安排的一个极其重要的方面 ,虽然产权清晰并不能必然带来企业效率的提高 ,但却是提高企业长期效率的前提 ,它通过激励、外部竞争等治理机制对企业效率起了决定性的影响 ,同时又决定了不同的治理机制对企业发挥作用的程度 ,即使是相同或相似的治理机制 ,在不同的产权安排下也会产生不同的效果;无产权保障的治理机制也能在特定条件下解决企业的效率问题 ,但却不能永久解决;产权安排不同的变迁路径不仅体现了政府作为大股东的不同理性行为 ,而且也是管理者人力资本和财务资本积累差别的产物。因此 ,通过各种形式的民营化优化企业的产权安排将是公有制企业改革的必然出路 ,而这种优化产权安排的改革能否成功主要取决于多方利益博弈下政府作为大股东的代理行为能否得到有效约束 ,以及管理者的人力资本产权能否得到尊重和确认 ,而管理者是否具备足够的人力资本和财务资本则是这一改革的必要条件。     

Taxes,risky investments,and the simultaneous choice of organizational form and financing

By taking explicit account of liability limitations, we analyse the influence of taxes on the simultaneous choice of organizational form and financing. In a two-state model for a single reporting period investors striving for maximisation of expected utility choose the organizational form (with or without liability limitation) in which they implement a given risky real investment and decide how they finance it (equity or debt). We demonstrate that liability limitations result in tax-relevant differences between organizational forms. Thus, for example, the tax bases differ in relation to the chosen liability-contingent debt capital compensations as well as to tax loss offset rules. Therefore, even in the event of identical tax rates, taxes can influence the decision regarding the organizational form.     

Severance Payments and Firm–specific Human Capital

What effect does employment protection through severance payments have on the behaviour of employed workers? We analyse this issue within a stochastic two–period framework where workers decide on human capital investments and find two competing effects: severance payments imply higher job security that fosters human capital formation. At the same time, a lay–off is perceived by the workers to be a weaker penalty if severance payments are provided. This incentive lowers their optimal amount of firm–specific investments. Which effect prevails on balance depends on the distribution of investment returns among firm and workers. For strong positive reactions, employment protection is also in the interests of the firm.     

创始团队关键人力资本、战略地位优势与创业绩效

鉴于创始团队关键人力资本对新创企业发展的重要性及已有研究的不足,在界定相关概念及其结构维度的基础上,遵循资源/能力-地位-绩效理论逻辑,构建基于能力视角的创始团队关键人力资本对新创服务企业战略地位优势和绩效影响的概念模型。以环渤海、长三角、珠三角和海西地区的新创高技术服务企业创始团队成员为调研对象,基于182份有效问卷,运用SPSS 19.0和AMOS 17.0软件及多元层级回归方法分析数据。研究结果表明,创始团队关键人力资本的3个维度均显著提升新创高技术服务企业绩效,但作用机理不同,绩效效应存在差异,服务扩展优势部分中介适应性营销能力和市场链接能力与绩效的关系,服务扩展优势和服务差异化优势同时完全中介新服务开发能力与绩效关系;适应性营销能力和市场链接能力直接和通过服务扩展优势间接产生的综合绩效效应均显著高于新服务开发能力通过服务扩展优势和服务差异化优势间接产生的综合绩效效应;服务扩展优势在服务差异化优势转化为企业绩效的过程中发挥部分中介作用。新创高技术服务企业应合理配置和整合创始团队成员多样化能力,促进关键人力资本与战略地位优势的协同匹配。