The labour market flexibility debate in India: Re‐examining the case for signing voluntary contracts

A major focus of India's ongoing policy debate over labour market flexibilization has been the statutory requirement that firms employing 100 or more workers cannot dismiss employees without prior government permission. The case for repealing that requirement (or greatly increasing the workforce threshold) is notably underpinned by Basu, Fields and Debgupta (2009). Here, the author challenges their particular theoretical argument for hiring and firing at will based on the voluntary signing of contracts, demonstrating that their general policy conclusion is logically unsustainable even within the framework of that model. The case for labour market flexibilization through voluntary contracting thus remains unfounded.     

Resilience in low-income African American women living and aging with HIV

Women are living with HIV into middle and older age and are likely to face multiple comorbidities and stressors as they age. This study focused on understanding how women who experience multiple forms of oppression and ongoing adversity are still able to adapt and stand strong. Using a theoretical framework of resilience and a feminist research ideology, interviews of eight middle-aged and older African American women living with HIV were analyzed. Despite experiences of HIV-related discrimination, trauma, and violence, these women demonstrated a remarkable ability to adapt and maintain support. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

摩天时代背景下当代城市建设的反思

摩天大楼成为近年来中国城市建设的重要特征。摩天大楼时代到来的同时，也带来了高楼建筑的社会问题，如安全问题、能原消耗问题、投资风险等。欧洲城市在建造高楼方面，保持了克制与理智的态度，欧洲国家纷纷制定各种法令限制摩天大楼的建设。作为河北省省会城市，2008年开始的“三年大变样”，使石家庄的城市建设步入摩天时代。2012年，石家庄市城乡规划局出台了《石家庄市城市风貌特色管理暂行规定》，石家庄将加强城市风貌特色管理，提高城市品位。人与高楼的和谐共融才是城市建筑存在的重要意义，如此，高楼大厦才会有灵魂，城市才会有未     

Retrofitting Drucker: Knowledge work under cognitive capitalism

This article uses Peter Drucker's work vector-like, to carry the thesis of cognitive capitalism into the management field. Drucker's prophetic insights into the knowledge society are juxtaposed with recent, Italian autonomist Marxist-inspired analyses of capitalism's cognitive phase. If the capacity to create knowledge – or what autonomists call the ‘general intellect’ – is becoming the key productive force, arguably there is a need for a full-blown social form of knowledge management. Our reading of Drucker thus retrieves the one worthwhile thing from the rubble of normative knowledge management. It is the idea of society-level knowledge management premised on a universal and unconditional guaranteed basic income (GBI; or social wage). Basic income represents not just a social investment in knowledge, which Drucker himself called for, but also compensation for biolabour's augmented social productivity. With Drucker as the steppingstone, we conclude, the autonomist tradition merits greater attention from critical management and organisational scholars interested in factoring class and gender back into the knowledge management equation.     

Partners,Institutions and International Currencies: The International Political Foundations for the Rise of the Renminbi

The use of an international currency is not just a natural market phenomenon; it relies heavily on international political foundations. The historical lessons of the four major international currencies—the pound, dollar, euro and yen—show that a strong partner network and a favorable international institutional environment are the two major political foundations for the formation of a stable international currency. The rise of the renminbi, as a late starter looking to become a major international currency, depends not only on the requisite economic conditions but on governmental diplomacy aimed at attracting more monetary cooperation partners and creating international institutions that support its worldwide use. This strategy reinforces the political foundations for the rise of the renminbi. Building a network of partners supporting the renminbi as an international currency and creating a system of international monetary institutions are the real tests of the issuing country’s political leadership. This political leadership capacity has three dimensions: public trust founded on reputation building; a centripetal force driven by provision of benefits; and coercive force applied through sanctions. Comparatively speaking, the renminbi is still in the early stage of its ascent, so the development of its political infrastructure should concentrate mainly on gaining public trust through reputation-building and employing centripetal force involving provision of benefits.     

Trying to stay ahead of the curve in Chile's economic development: exploring a way out of the middle‐income trap through pragmatic export development

Underneath impressive growth levels, the Chilean economy displays signs of being caught in a middle‐income trap. It has been unable to improve its productivity, increase the added value of its exports or upgrade its value chain. Its economy cannot compete either with low‐wage countries or highly productive, innovative countries. Its export strategy based on export promotion seems to have outlived its usefulness. It achieved remarkable quantitative success, but must now attend qualitative attributes. Instead of regarding market‐driven export promotion and state‐led export development as substitutes, this article proposes to view them as alternatives in different stages of development. To choose the appropriate time, more attention should be given to non‐traditional, structural indicators, like export sophistication and political‐institutional capabilities.     

中国收入分配的公平与效率关系测度及评价

首先对公平与效率做出了精确定义,确定其指标,然后测度由于收入分配总量和结构引致的公平与效率的变化量,在此基础上构建了一个公平效率指数,用来反映中国二者关系的变化及其协调程度,最后采用目标优化的方法对收入分配总量和结构进行了优化,根据优化结果提出了改善收入分配关系的建议。     

初次收入分配对我国居民旅游消费影响研究

文章选取初次分配工资分配率、城镇居民基尼系数、各收入阶层旅游消费占比作为分析指标，经分析研究所得结论为：低、中收入阶层旅游消费占比与分配率负相关，分配率所代表的初次收入分配总量性影响对中收入阶层旅游消费影响较大，中、高收入阶层旅游消费占比都与城镇居民基尼系数正相关，其中城镇居民基尼系数代表的初次收入分配结构性影响对高收入阶层旅游消费影响较大；并针对各阶层的特殊性对各收入阶层旅游消费发展提出相应政策建议.     

Parental income and the fruits of labor: Variability in homework efficacy in secondary school

Research in the sociology of education has shown that noncognitive traits are important predictors of educational outcomes and a mechanism of the intergenerational transmission of status. However, previous research on this topic typically posits that there is a constant effect of these traits with variable prevalences of these traits by socioeconomic status. Using time spent on homework as an example, I analyze income-based heterogeneity in homework efficacy, defined as the individual effect of study time on academic achievement, using a national U.S. probability sample of secondary students. Higher income students gain more knowledge from their homework time than their counterparts in all grades and all subjects except history, with greater group differences for math than for science and reading. These results are confirmed by models accounting for time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity in the 8th–10th, but not 10th–12th, grade windows. These results imply that increases in the amount of homework assigned may increase the socioeconomic achievement gap in math, science, and reading in secondary school.