Imperfect goods and labor markets, and the union wage gap

Existing theoretical literature fails to explain satisfactorily the differences between the pay of workers who are covered by collective agreements and others who are not. This study aims at providing a model framework that is amenable to an analysis of this issue. Our general-equilibrium approach integrates a dual labor market and a two-sector product market. The results suggest that the so-called “union wage gap” is largely determined by the degree of centralization of the bargains and, to a somewhat lesser extent, by the expenditure share of the unionized sector's goods.

农民工工资支付法治化问题研究——基于对《保障农民工工资支付条例》的解读

《保障农民工工资支付条例》(以下简称《条例》)是我国当前面对农民工工资支付出现的新问题制定的一套具有规范化、权威性和有效性的法律保障机制。从农民工工资支付法治化保障机制的制度特点来看,《条例》的主体责任更加明确化,处罚方式强调规范化,监管过程具备严密化,监管主体呈现多元化。《条例》采取全程协同监管手段消除“灰色治理”的“梗阻”,用“法律红线”落实并明确各方的法律主体责任,以细化规定的方式打通工资支付的“绿色通道”,从而能够保障《条例》的有效落实。为了更好地保障农民工的切身利益,《条例》主要从实践逻辑层面上落实法治化保障措施:明确不同监管主体在监督检查领域中的职能定位,对用人单位实行严格的资格认定与法律责任制,在监管领域中始终关注劳有所得的民生问题。     

The role of parenthood in shaping the gender wage gap – A comparative analysis of 26 European countries

We use cross-national data on 26 EU countries to estimate how parenthood contributes to the gender wage gap, and assess how institutional elements affect this relationship. We find that irrespective of cultural norms and policies, fathers receive a wage premium, which increases the gender gap. Motherhood gaps vary across countries. The highest gaps are seen in Eastern European countries, where policies and norms lead to long absences from work. Moderate to small penalties are found in Continental Europe, Anglo-Saxon and Nordic countries, alongside higher maternal employment. No motherhood penalties are found for Southern EU countries, where mothers return to work quickly or exit the labor market indefinitely.     

The 2015 welfare reform of the National Basic Livelihood Security System in South Korea: Effects on economic outcomes

In July 2015, South Korea’s National Basic Livelihood Security System (NBLSS) was reformed for the purposes of eliminating welfare blind spots and reducing poverty. The reform is expected to affect the recipients’ economic behaviours and choices. In this study, we used changes in benefits and eligibility for the NBLSS under the customised benefit system to identify the effects of the change in the NBLSS on a proposed set of economic outcomes – income, labour supply, consumption, savings, poverty reduction. To estimate the effects, we used data from the 10th–12th waves of the Korea Welfare Panel Study and employed a difference‐in‐differences framework integrated with the propensity scores. We found that the NBLSS helps the poor to reduce financial and material hardships through income and consumption increments, but that it does not provide disincentives to the recipients from participating in the labour market or from saving.     

Pathways from workplace flexibility to turnover intention: Role of work–family conflict,family–work conflict,and job satisfaction

This study examined the prevalence of workplace flexibility and the mechanisms that allow workplace flexibility to influence turnover intentions through work–family and family–work conflicts and job satisfaction among low‐wage workers in South Korea. Participants included 250 low‐wage workers whose monthly salary was less than 2 million Korean won (approx. $1,900). The study results indicate that low‐wage workers have limited access to workplace flexibility and that workplace flexibility plays a significant protective role in reducing their turnover intention, indirectly by decreasing work–family conflicts and enhancing job satisfaction. This article also discusses the implications of these findings for labor policy and social work practice.     

数字经济对城乡居民收入差距影响研究——兼论城镇化的门槛效应

数字经济为缩小居民收入差距带来了新机遇,而“数字鸿沟”又可能引发新的贫富差距。研究数字经济对城乡居民收入差距的影响,对于认识和缩小差距,实现共同富裕具有重要意义。文章基于2011—2020年31个省域面板数据,通过构建静态、动态面板模型及门槛模型,分析数字经济对城乡居民收入差距的影响。研究发现:省域层面上,数字经济显著缩小城乡居民收入差距,且该影响具有单一门槛效应。在城镇化水平较低时,数字经济对城乡收入差距的影响不显著;当城镇化水平越过门槛值,数字经济水平显著影响城乡收入差距的缩小。异质性分析发现,我国南北地区呈现出不同的效应,北方省份城乡收入差距受数字经济水平影响较小,而南方较大。     

Inter‐country wage differences in the European Union

This article investigates the determinants of wage gaps between European Union countries along the wage distribution, applying the methodology proposed by Firpo, Fortin and Lemieux (2009) and Fortin, Lemieux and Firpo (2011). The authors conclude that both wage structure and composition effects contribute to explaining wage differentials, but that the wage structure effect is more important. This latter effect would appear to derive from differences between unknown factors, while the composition effect can largely be explained by differences in the following areas: education, proportion of workers with supervisory responsibilities, occupational structure, and, to a lesser extent, industrial structure.     

Children’s educational attainment,occupation, and income and their parents’ mortality

Using data from Finland, this paper contributes to a small but growing body of research regarding adult children's education, occupation, and income and their parents' mortality at ages 50+ in 1970–2007. Higher levels of children's education are associated with 30–36 per cent lower parental mortality at ages 50–75, controlling for parents' education, occupation, and income. This association is fully mediated by children's occupation and income, except for cancer mortality. Having at least one child educated in healthcare is associated with 11–16 per cent lower all-cause mortality at ages 50–75, an association that is largely driven by mortality from cardiovascular diseases. Children's higher white-collar occupation and higher income is associated with 39–46 per cent lower mortality in the fully adjusted models. At ages 75+, these associations are much smaller overall and children's schooling remains more strongly associated with mortality than children's occupation or income.     

Income inequality,poverty and crime across nations

We examine the relationship between income inequality, poverty, and different types of crime. Our results are consistent with recent research in showing that inequality is unrelated to homicide rates when poverty is controlled. In our multi‐level analyses of the International Crime Victimization Survey we find that inequality is unrelated to assault, robbery, burglary, and theft when poverty is controlled. We argue that there are also theoretical reasons to doubt that the level of income inequality of a country affects the likelihood of criminal behaviour.     

A Social Network Comparison of Low‐Income Black and White Newlywed Couples

Relative to White families, Black families have been described as relying on extended social networks to compensate for other social and economic disadvantages. The presence or absence of supportive social networks should be especially relevant to young couples entering marriage, but to date there has been little effort to describe the social networks of comparable Black and White newlyweds. The current study addressed this gap by drawing on interviews with 57 first‐married newlyweds from low‐income communities to compare the composition and structure of Black and White couples' duocentric social networks. The results indicated that low‐income Black couples entered marriage at a social disadvantage relative to White couples, with more family relationships but fewer positive relationships and fewer sources of emotional support (for wives), fewer connections to married individuals, and fewer shared relationships between spouses. Black couples' relative social disadvantages persisted even when various economic and demographic variables were controlled.