Le travail n'est pas une marchandise. Contenu et sens du travail au XXIe siècle

Dans sa dernière leçon au Collège de France, Alain Supiot revient sur les travaux qu'il a consacrés aux transformations du travail au XXI^e siècle, en soulignant le rôle du droit et des institutions pour faire face aux conséquences de la révolution numérique et au défi écologique. La faillite morale, sociale et écologique du néolibéralisme doit nous obliger, selon lui, à reconsidérer la fiction juridique du travail marchandise et à établir ce que le préambule de la Constitution de l'OIT nomme «un régime de travail réellement humain», qui fasse place au sens et au contenu du travail. Cette thèse est illustrée par l’étude du cas de la recherche scientifique.     

A theory of instrumental and existential rational decisions: Smith,Weber, Mauss,Tönnies after Martin Buber

This paper proffers a dialogical theory of decision-making: decision-makers (DMs) are engaged in two modes of rational decisions, instrumental and existential. Instrumental rational decisions take place when the DM views the self externally to the objects, whether goods or animate beings. Existential rational decisions take place when the DM views the self in union with such objects. While the dialogical theory differs from Max Weber’s distinction between two kinds of rationality, it follows Martin Buber’s philosophical anthropology. The paper expounds the ramifications of the dialogical theory in understanding structures of exchange considering assessments of diverse thinkers.

     

A structural analysis of greening the supplier,environmental performance and competitive advantage

A clear research need has been identified to confirm the structural relationships between greening the supplier, enhanced environmental performance and improved competitive advantage, to provide an impetus for firms to green their suppliers. A mail survey was conducted and empirical data of 119 ISO 14001 manufacturing firms in Malaysia was gathered for this study. Structural equation modelling technique was applied in this research article. Results from the analysis, reveal the existence of a positive and significant linkage between green suppliers with both environmental performance and competitive advantage. At the same time, environmental performance has also been shown to positively and significantly affect competitive advantage; while environmental performance plays a partial mediating role between greening the supplier and competitiveness. Such significant finding is especially essential for the manufacturing sector registered with ISO 14001 who intend to enhance their environmental performance and carve a niche competitive edge in the business arena.     

Bayesian optimal design for changepoint problems

We investigate Bayesian optimal designs for changepoint problems. We find robust optimal designs which allow for arbitrary distributions before and after the change, arbitrary prior densities on the parameters before and after the change, and any log‐concave prior density on the changepoint. We define a new design measure for Bayesian optimal design problems as a means of finding the optimal design. Our results apply to any design criterion function concave in the design measure. We illustrate our results by finding the optimal design in a problem motivated by a previous clinical trial. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 37: 495–513; 2009 © 2009 Statistical Society of Canada     

Preserving dominance relations through disaggregation: the evil and the saint

This article investigates the circumstances in which stochastic dominance relations at any finite degree at the household level can be assumed to be preserved at the individual level. We find necessary and sufficient conditions on the common sharing function adopted by households to divide the cake among a “strong” and a “weak” individual. The sharing function which maps the household income into the outcome of the weak individual must belong to the class of utility functions which supports the stochastic order. In addition, the household must follow a compensating rule, meaning that the share of resources devoted to the weak individual increases with household income. Applications to fiscal federalism are also proposed. “All inequality is a source of evil - for by the inferior more is lost in the account of happiness than is gained by the superior” J. Bentham, First Principle preparatory to Constitutional Code, 1822.      

Analysis of organizational conditions for risk management: the case study of a petrochemical site

This paper presents an ergonomic intervention in the petrochemical sector. The scheduled shutdown of one of the gas production sites has led the management to reduce the number of personnel on site, and then to get new recruits and experienced technicians from other sites as the policy for leaving personnel had not been properly planned, resulting in understaffing on site. Workers with seniority on the site, and who are also the most experienced do not accept the way newcomers are induced on site, whereas the management accuses them of resisting change. The intervention consisted in reconnecting local and corporate management through making the work activity visible and linking two sets of data that they held separately. Different types of analyses were made, work demography, decision making processes and tools used by the management, analysis of the building of career and work logics. Those different levels of analysis are gathered in macro-ergonomics, while showing the possible combinations between top down and bottom up approaches. The intervention resulted in concrete changes: HR simulation tool, training organisation, feedback.     

Longitudinal Links Between Gambling Participation and Academic Performance in Youth: A Test of Four Models

Gambling participation and low academic performance are related during adolescence, but the causal mechanisms underlying this link are unclear. It is possible that gambling participation impairs academic performance. Alternatively, the link between gambling participation and low academic performance could be explained by common underlying risk factors such as impulsivity and socio-family adversity. It could also be explained by other current correlated problem behaviors such as substance use. The goal of the present study was to examine whether concurrent and longitudinal links between gambling participation and low academic performance exist from age 14 to age 17 years, net of common antecedent factors and current substance use. A convenience sample of 766 adolescents (50.6% males) from a longitudinal twin sample participated in the study. Analyses revealed significant, albeit modest, concurrent links at both ages between gambling participation and academic performance. There was also a longitudinal link between gambling participation at age 14 and academic performance at age 17, which persisted after controlling for age 12 impulsivity and socio-family adversity as well as current substance use. Gambling participation predicts a decrease in academic performance during adolescence, net of concurrent and antecedent personal and familial risk factors.     

Encompassing and indirect inference

Summary In the literature on encompassing [see e.g. Mizon-Richard (1986), Hendry-Richard (1990), Florens-Hendry-Richard (1987)] there is a basic contradiction: on the one hand it is said that it is not possible to assume that the true distribution belongs to one of two competing modelM ₁ andM ₂, but, on the other hand, this assumption is made in the study of encompassing tests. In this paper we first propose a formal definition of encompassing, we then briefly examine the properties of this notion and we propose encompassing tests which do not assume that the true distribution belongs toM ₁ orM ₂; these tests are based on simulations. Finally, generalizing an idea used in the definition of an encompassing test (the GET test) we propose a new kind of inference, called indirect inference, which allows for estimation and test procedures when the model is too complicated to be treated by usual methods (for instance maximum likelihood methods); the only assumption made on the model is that it can be simulated, which seems to be a minimal requirement. This new class of inference methods can be used in a large number of domains and some examples are given. The present paper is based on Gouriéroux-Monfort (1992), and Gouriéroux-Monfort-Renault (1993), respectively GM and GMR hereafter. Invited paper at the Conference on ?Statistical Tests: Methodology and Econometric Applications?, held in Bologna, Italy, 27–28 May 1993.     

Literacy Skills as an Explanation for Labor Market Imbalances by Occupational Type in Canada: Microsimulation Projections for 2014–2024

Population Research and Policy Review - In Canada, the immigration selection process gives great importance to education level. However, studies find that given an equivalent level of education,...