Breach Penalties in Labour Contracts: Advance Notice and Severance Pay

This paper analyses the determining factors of advance notice and severance pay provisions that appear in collective bargaining agreements. The theoretical model constructed is a simple bargaining model in which advance notice and severance pay play the role of breach penalties that the firm must pay for breaking the employment relationship. The hypotheses are tested on data gathered from collective bargaining agreements from different industries that were signed between 1970 and 1989.     

Private Labels: Facilitators or Impediments to Supply Chain Coordination

We consider a retailer’s decision of whether to develop an internally produced, private label version of a national brand and the role that this decision plays in coordinating the supply chain. Our model assumes that the perceived quality of the private label is lower than that of the national brand, and we allow for the two products to have different marginal costs. We further allow for a fixed development cost that the retailer must incur to develop private label capability, and distinguish two types of private labels depending upon whether they would or would not be developed as product line extensions by a vertically integrated supply chain. We refer to these two types as first‐best (FB) and non‐first‐best (NFB) product line extensions, respectively. When the private label can be characterized as a NFB product line extension, its development creates adverse cannibalization effects, yet it also helps to mitigate the effects of double marginalization with respect to the national brand. We characterize the conditions under which the retailer will develop private label capability, and distinguish among the conditions under which this is either beneficial or detrimental to the overall performance of the supply chain.     

我国如何有效实施风险导向审计

从2007年1月1日,新审计准则生效,现代风险导向审计开始以审计准则的名义作为一种规范来遵守.但由于审计准则的水准高于审计实务的水平,所以审计实务能否尽快适应高水准的审计准则,就值得我们进一步商榷.本文通过分析我国实施现代风险导向审计面临的问题及问题产生原因,提出一些有利于我国更好地开展现代风险导向审计的建议.     

From Labour Shortage to Unemployment: Soviet Workers' Attitudes about Possible Changes in Labour Relations

Abstract. After seventy years of centralised economy, the ex-Soviet Union is now experiencing the problem of developing a market economy. The monopoly of the means of production had generated guaranteed employment. an elevated number of vacant positions and scarce territorial and occupational mobility. At the same time, there were low salaries and a series of guaranteed basic services. The translation to a market economy can generate the fear of losing certain guarantees. The author analyses these problems, referring principally to field research conducted among industrial workers.     

Action,Reaction and Resignation: How Refugee Women and Support Organisations Respond to Labour Market Integration Challenges during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Even without the impact of a global pandemic, refugee women face obstacles to their integration into the labour market. Complex integration challenges are situated across different, yet interwoven, levels. These include restrictive policies at the institutional level, limited funding for support measures at the organisational level and a lack of skills at the individual level. Many of these are gendered and specifically affect women. Some might be further intensified by Covid-19. However, the pandemic's effect on the labour market integration of refugee women has yet to be explored.This paper examines specific challenges support organisations and refugee women have faced during the pandemic and their responses to these. Following a process perspective, we utilise a qualitative methods approach with semi-structured interviews. We collected our data in Austria, a European country that hosts numerous refugees and has an elaborate support network.Results show that the external shock of the pandemic amplified the importance of developing digital skills to support post-pandemic labour market integration. In addition, the pandemic exacerbated challenges for refugee women and support organisations. This led to ‘action’, ‘reaction’ and ‘resignation’ responses. We discuss these, and provide avenues for further research and practice.     

Opportunities and Impediments for Risk-Based Standards: Some Views from a Workshop

Techniques for performing scientific risk assessments for a wide variety of chemical and radiological hazards present in the environment and workplace are available. Speakers at a workshop sponsored by the Environmental and Public/Occupational Health Standard's Steering Group addressed both the state-of-the-art in risk assessment and areas of difficulty that require further research. The Steering Group concluded that within the limits of the available data, risk-assessment techniques are a useful tool in decision-making. In the past, many government agencies have not been effective either in listening to public concerns or in communicating technical or scientific information about risks. This has been true at all levels of government. Workshop speakers discussed some ways that government agencies can more effectively communicate with the public. The Steering Group concluded that major efforts must be made to ensure that two-way communication takes place. Thus the results of the workshop show that effective management of risk requires both a scientific assessment of risk and a responsive consideration of the public's perception of risk. Intensive efforts must be made to ensure that effective two-way communication takes place between members of the public and the appropriate government agencies.     

Labour Economics: History and Theory

Abstract. In recent years, labour economics has been the area of study of most interest to economists, both from the theoretical and practical perspectives. The new field of labour microeconomics and the resultant new approaches that have arisen are a fundamental part of what has recently been called ‘microeconomic foundations’. Despite the newness of this topic, recent developments are in fact the result of phenomena recognized throughout the history of economic thought. This paper begins by analyzing the historical and theoretical origins of labour economics, and provides an overview of labour economics theory during the 1960s. 1970s and 1980s. It goes on to examine the relation between the labour market and technological innovation, and labour policy measures at the microeconomic and macroeconomic levels. Finally, it underscores the need for a theoretical construct that sets Keynesian and neoclassical explanations of unemployment in the same framework as demographic, social, institutional, time and economic factors.     

Labour Market and Labour Market Policy in the Eastern Part of Germany: New Approaches and New Links to Structural Policy

ABSTRACT: After unification, East German GNP dropped severely, total employment fell to about two thirds of the former level. Long-term labour market prospects remain poor. From the very beginning up to now, labour market policy (short-time work, early retirement schemes, work creation measures, further training and retraining) absorbed much of the surplus labour supply. Regulations were changed to allow for‘“mega-measures” (contrasting the traditional individual approach). A new co-financing model links work-creation measures more closely to regional structural policy. A labour market infrastructure was built up in a short time, including new elements such as‘“employment promotion companies” and‘“reconstruction agents“.     

The War of the Woods: Facilitators and Impediments of Organizational Learning Processes

This study examines unfolding organizational learning processes at MacMillan Bloedel, a company which, after years of resisting stakeholder pressures for change, disengaged from the field’s dominant paradigm and developed a new solution. We elaborate the Crossan, Lane and White multi–level framework of organizational learning processes, finding support for the four feedforward learning processes they identified (intuiting, interpreting, integrating and institutionalizing), and adding two action–based learning processes: ‘attending’ and ‘experimenting’. We introduce the concept of a ‘legitimacy trap’ to describe an organization’s over–reliance on institutionalized knowledge when external challenges arise. The trapped organization rejects external challenges of its legitimacy when it perceives the sources of those challenges to be illegitimate. Feedforward learning is blocked as the organization escalates its commitment to its institutionalized interpretations and actions. Taking a grounded theory approach, we discuss how individuals attend to new stimuli and engage in intuiting about them, how groups interpret, experiment with and integrate new solutions, and how the firm validates and institutionalizes the successful solution. Facilitators and impediments of each of these learning processes are identified. Our additions to the model recognize the importance of context in organizational learning processes, and suggest how power may impact organizational learning.     

Uncertainty, Contrariness and the Double-bind: Middle Managers' Reactions to Changing Contracts

This article describes the emerging changes in psychological contracts being experienced by British middle managers in relation to their employing organizations, the middle managers' negative reactions to these changes and organizational responses to such negativity. By analysing case studies of 16 organizations, a classification of changes to five elements of the psychological contract are identified: knowledge, motivation, goals and means, role behaviour and ethics. By analysing the semi-structured interviews of 37 middle managers, selected from a much larger database for their obvious negative reactions, a continuum of such reactions is considered: uncertainty, contrariness and double-bind. This consideration leads, then, to suggestions for further research.     

Cooperation,Contracts and Social Networks: From a Bounded to a Procedural Rationality Approach

The idea of this paper is that ifdecision-making processes are more consideredin a procedural rationality assumption, thenthe interplay of trust and calculativereasoning, and, at a more collective level, theinterplay of contracts and social networks maybe clarified. We use Lindenberg's framingtheory to define enlightened self-interest asthe rationality of contractual relationships.Cooperation is then explained by thewillingness to pursue the relationship which,from the background, decreases the salience ofthe gain frame. This willingness is supportedby a process of mutual relational signaling.When temptations of opportunism are strong,cooperation needs to be embedded, first in aformal contract and then, if stakes are toohigh, in a social network. In this framework,we show that the acceptance of contractualincompleteness by the parties is a positivesignal, which favors cooperation.     

Tasks and Types: An Application of Mechanism Design to Self-Selection in Labour Markets

The Baron–Myerson (1982) regulatory mechanism is applied to the screening activity of a monopolist, who hires workers differentiated by quality and assigns them to different tasks. The employer charges a price to the workers for the screening service: necessary and sufficient conditions are provided for a self-selective price function to exist. It is shown that under the optimal price function tasks are assigned in such a way that workers' effort is increasing in workers' quality. It is not necessarily true, however, that the price function must be increasing in workers' quality. A simple two-types model is provided, showing the same results. Also the extension of the model to a dynamic context and, particularly, the requirements of a credible pre-commitment available to the screener are discussed.     

预测性决策中的陷阱及其破解策略

决策内容的超前性、信息处理的局限性、参与主体的质疑性容易使领导者在预测性决策中陷入锚定效应、框架效应、错误共识效应、沉没成本效应、布里丹毛驴效应等决策陷阱中,大大降低决策效益。可利用大数据技术辅助领导者制定科学的决策。在决策管理上,建立规范的决策体系;在信息处理上,打造高效的认知模型;在成效预估上,搭建可视的分析平台;在效应反馈上,构建科学的反馈系统。     

A Stock-Flow Model to Analyse and Forecast Labour Market Variables

ABSTRACT: In confronting problems of employment and unemployment, students of the labour market, and economists in general have focused mainly on the determination of the level of such variables. Much less attention has been paid to such questions as: how many persons have entered the area of employment and the labour force in various time periods, and how many have exited; their sex and age distribution; and the determinants of the level and structure of flows amongst the various labour market conditions. Yet it appears superfluous to underscore the relevance of such questions. To illustrate, suffice it to recall that in Italy, the present level of employment is essentially the same today as it was in 1961‘; but this has not prevented whole generations of young people from 'stably’entering the employment area, albeit with varying degrees of difficulty in different periods. As for the numerous statistical surveys of labour market flows in a range of countries, and as for the works of job search theorists², it should be observed that such surveys and analyses essentially concern conjunctural phenomena. Consequently, these authors have paid no attention to the distinction between short-run turnover and generational turnover, or to the extremely singular characteristics of the statistical data on flows. An attempt to construct labour market models that present an integrated version of the 'structural’aspects of the market in terms of stock and flows is therefore lacking. The present study sets forth various objectives and is divided into two parts. In the first, an analysis of several controversial terminological aspects of the concepts of stock and flow is presented, and an attempt is made to point out those theoretical structures which have been responsible for the long-prevailing neglect of the labour market flows, particularly long-run flows. Then the problem of defining the concepts of short-run and generational turnover will be confronted in light of an analysis of the statistical methods used in the surveys; finally, a methodology for measuring generational flows is proposed. In the second part of the paper a model based on generational flows, as previously defined, will be presented together with a computational procedure capable to produce long run estimates of alternative scenarios of labour demand and supply and of the structure of employment by sex and age. A brief summary of some of the empirical results obtained applying our model and forecasting procedure to the Italian labour market will also be discussed in the final part of the paper.     

Labour Market and Decentralized Decision-making: An Institutional Approach

The persistent failure in the labour market is due to uncertainty and asymmetric information, and relies on a reconsideration of the bargaining process. This process is not generated by individual action but rather by the behaviour of social groups and institutions in which State intervention can immprove the efficiency in matching demand and supply. In this framework we will discuss the ways by which institutional decentralization can be implemented in a labour market characterized by deep regional differences and by long-term unemployment persistence as in Italy. The main conclusion is that this policy option better fits the active labour policies. In fact the actual aim of such supply-side policies is to reduce the regional and skill mismatches and therefore it needs a substantial involvement of local public agencies.     

Employers' Reactions to the Productivity Drive: the Search for Labour Consensus*

Abstract. European employers' different policies of personnel management and of industrial relations depend to some extent on the technological and organisational choices they make, but cultural - and especially institutional - factors play an even greater role, in a period in which previous models for action clearly appear inadequate and in which, as a consequence, uncertainty grows. This article illustrates a conceptual and analytical framework which helps understand the scope and the meaning of the recent managerial search for a greater labour consensus noted by many observers. Then it shows how this framework can be used, by applying it to the analysis of the Italian case. Finally, it tries to transform some of the propositions discussed into questions and hypotheses which should guide comparative research.     

渠道关系中的感知不公平研究——基于心理契约及不公平容忍区域的视角

营销渠道中的不公平对渠道关系极具破坏性。长期以来,文献多限于间接分析公平对渠道关系的影响,缺乏直接从不公平角度展开研究。对此,本文重点探讨渠道关系中的感知不公平。本文在显性契约、关系契约的基础上,引入了心理契约维度,重构了渠道关系及分析框架;指明心理契约与感知不公平存在相关性,前者可对后者进行衡量;界定并刻画了不公平容忍区域,讨论了不公平类型、角色定位对不公平容忍区域范围的影响。本文构建的分析框架提出了一个新视角,有助于打开"渠道成员行为发生"的"黑箱",对营销渠道不公平的深入研究大有裨益。     

Tax Structure and Female Labour Supply: Evidence from Ireland

How great an effect does the structure of income taxes have on female labour supply? This issue is investigated using a discrete‐choice static labour supply model for married couples in Ireland. The model incorporates fixed costs of working and simultaneously explains participation decisions and preferred hours of work. The model is estimated using data from the 1994 wave of the Living in Ireland Survey. Simulations examine the labour supply effects of introducing greater independence in the tax treatment of married couples, compared with an income‐splitting system, and alternative forms of tax cuts.     

Personality and Labour Market Income: Evidence from Longitudinal Data

This study contributes to the literature on how personality is rewarded in the labour market by examining the relationship between personality and labour market income. Our results suggest that adulthood extraversion is positively associated with income when education, work experience, and unemployment history, measured prospectively from longitudinal data, are controlled for. In addition, childhood constructiveness indicating active and well‐controlled behaviour has a positive association with income in adulthood.