COMPETITION AND RELATIONAL CONTRACTS: THE ROLE OF UNEMPLOYMENT AS A DISCIPLINARY DEVICE

Abstract When workers are faced with the threat of unemployment, their relationship with a particular firm becomes valuable. As a result, a worker may comply with the terms of a relational contract that demands high effort even when performance is not enforceable by a third party. But can relational contracts motivate high effort when workers can easily find alternative jobs? We examine how competition for labor affects the emergence of relational contracts and their effectiveness in overcoming moral hazard in the labor market. We show that effective relational contracts do emerge in a market with excess demand for labor. Long‐term relationships turn out to be less frequent when there is excess demand for labor than they are in a market characterized by exogenous unemployment. However, stronger competition for labor does not impair labor market efficiency: higher wages induced by competition lead to higher effort out of concerns for reciprocity.     

Firm Size and Employment Dynamics: Estimations of Labor Demand Elasticities Using a Fractional Panel Probit Model

This paper examines the comprehensive discussion on the relationship between job creation, or destruction and firm size. More specifically, the study will determine whether the argument about small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) showing higher employment dynamics is confirmed or not. As such, the following work applies elasticities from a standard labor demand model derived from the estimations of fractional probit models for panel data, as process recommended in Papke and Wooldridge [2008; Journal of Econometrics 145(1–2): 121–133]. Elasticities are a useful measure of employment dynamics, if it is assumed that SMEs act on the same markets. The elasticity results from German establishment data illustrate that firm size does matter for the increase or decrease of employment. SMEs with less than 10 workers exhibit a higher employment dynamic, compared with other entities, at each respective percentile in the distribution of the wage share. Additionally, the outcome of the analysis weakly confirms the hypothesis that smaller firms are more restricted to capital markets, compared with large entities. The results also illustrate that firm size only explains one aspect of job creation and destruction. As stated in the well‐known Hicks–Marshall rules for elasticities of factor demand, the results illustrate that the reaction of labor demand on economic changes increases with the share of labor. Firms with a high share of labor also have larger elasticities, compared with firms with a strong use of capital. Both effects, the size effect and the effect of the proportion of labor, would blend in reality, and therefore, possibly lead to controversial results for the relationship between firm size and employment dynamics. In addition, a model with a negative relationship among both variables is too simple to explain the behavior of firms.     

The sustainability of China’s Urban Employees’ Pension Programme: A case of getting old before getting rich?

This article examines the sustainability of China’s Urban Employees’ Pension Programme – the main component in China’s overall old‐age support system. It looks at the sustainability of the programme generally and, in particular, at case studies of two areas (Tianjin municipality and Guangxi province) to highlight both the extent of regional variations and the common challenges facing Chinese policy‐makers. It discusses a number of key issues that should assist policy‐makers to address the challenge of population ageing. It concludes that the challenge facing China is no more severe than that already faced by other countries in Europe and Asia. Moreover, the ageing of the population is not uniform across the regions of China. Consequently, those areas where the demographic shift is more advanced will provide some opportunity for policy experimentation. Given the experience to date of slow progress on various aspects of pension policy reform, the article suggests that it seems unlikely that paradigmatic change will be significant. Nonetheless, the study suggests a range of parametric policy measures that China should consider. The challenge facing China’s policy‐makers is to ensure that China gets old and rich at the same time.     

Social security reforms and early retirement

Many reform proposals of the social security systems in various OECD economies suggest to scale down the non-actuarial parts of the pension systems. These reforms have a flavor of increased efficiency at the costs of welfare losses for low-income individuals. Assessing the economic effects, we investigate five different reform proposals by means of a numerical overlapping generations model for the Norwegian economy. The model features an endogenous retirement age and heterogeneous individuals within generations. It turns out that the various reforms, which scale down the public non-actuarial pension system, lead to increases in the retirement age and steady-state welfare gains for all income classes. Received: 7 December 2000/Accepted: 29 January 2002 All correspondence to ?ystein Th?gersen. Financial support from the Research Council of Norway (The Economic Research Program on Taxation) is gratefully acknowledged. We are indebted to Lans Bovenberg, John Ermisch, Erling Steigum and two referees for valuable comments and useful discussion. Responsible editor: John F. Ermisch.     

Altruism and the macroeconomic effects of demographic changes

In this paper we show that the macroeconomic effects of demographic changes strongly depend on the degree of altruism and on the specification of the intertemporal utility function. We allow for agents either to be altruistic in the sense of Barro (1974) or non-altruistic. In the latter case, generations are heterogeneous like in the „unloved children” model of Weil (1989). In the former case, where the model is a standard Ramsey model with identical agents, we distinguish a Millian and a Benthamite intertemporal utility function. For each of these models, we study the effects of an anticipated and unanticipated permanent decline in population growth as well as the consequences of a baby-boom/baby-bust scenario. Received April 17, 1996/Accepted December 10, 1996     

DO TRANSFER TAXES REDUCE INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSFERS?

We estimate the effect of taxes on intergenerational transfers by exploiting a sequence of Italian reforms culminating with the abolishment of transfer taxes. We use the Surveys of Household Income and Wealth from 1993 to 2006, which have data on real estate transfers, and information on potential donors and recipients. Difference‐in‐differences estimates indicate that the abolition of transfer taxes increases the probability of high‐wealth donors making a transfer by two percentage points and increases the area transferred by 9.3 square meters relative to poorer donors.     

新课标下的中学体育教师现状调查及对策研究

采用文献资料调研、问卷调查及专家访谈等方法,对参加第4届中国学校体育科学大会的陕西部分中学及其他11所中学体育教师的年龄、学历、职称、数量、授课情况和科研水平等进行了调查。调查结果表明,中学体育教师队伍呈年轻化趋势,低职称、低学历教师所占比例较高,教师数量总体上趋于平衡,科研水平过低。建议中学及政府部门重视年轻体育教师的培养,合理配置师资,并通过各种有效措施提高教师的科研水平,为促进新课标在陕西更好地实施,为中学体育教学改革提供参考依据。     

论吴锡麒诗歌的艺术特色及其对浙派诗风的承变

乾嘉诗人吴锡麒是浙派中晚期的代表人物,他的诗歌清峭而不秀媚、情韵格律兼长,在某种程度上摆脱了后期浙派诗“神骨不俊、气格不高,力量不厚”的弊病,继厉鹗、杭世骏之后再振此派旗鼓。其诗歌在艺术特色上明显地表现出对此前浙派诗风的承袭、新变：汉魏唐宋,共炉而冶,在诗歌宗尚上不拘囿于宋诗;用笔雕琢、隶典自如,对浙派末流的钉饵捋扯既有承袭又有修正;以“清”为宗的诗歌风格和以雅正为纲的整体风貌。     

3G时代第五媒体发展现状及趋势

随着新技术的日新月异,手机不再仅仅是一种通讯工具,更是作为一种媒介引起人们越来越广泛的关注,成为继报纸、广播、电视、网络媒体之后的第五媒体.文章主要以作为第五媒体的手机为研究对象,重点探讨其在3G时代这一特殊背景下的发展现状与问题,并对其发展趋势进行了预测.     

建立在De Bruijn图架构上的三维片上网络设计

提出一种基于De Bruijn图的新型三维片上网络架构方式,利用De Bruijn图直径短、路由简单及容错等特性,实现三维片上网络水平面网络和虚平面网络相结合的分层架构与容错路由算法。利用仿真,在均匀流量和热点流量模型下将该架构与传统架构进行仿真与性能比较,结果表明,与传统的3D_Mesh、XNoTs等架构相比,基于De Bruijn图的三维片上网络架构方式具有较小的网络平均延时与良好的可扩展性。