Information and communication technology adoption in micro and small firms: Can internet access improve labour productivity?

The rapid spread of information and communication technologies (ICT) may increase firms’ productivity with important consequences for job creation and for economic growth. This article contributes to this discussion by analysing the impact of internet adoption on labour productivity and the mechanisms shaping this relationship in Peruvian micro and small manufacturing firms over the period 2011–2013. The article estimates a reduced form where labour productivity is a function of internet adoption and other explanatory factors. Internet adoption is instrumented using a measure of the availability of financial opportunities for micro and small firms in Peru. Findings indicate that internet adoption: (a) increases firms’ labour productivity; (b) reallocates employment away from temporary administrative workers and non‐remunerated workers and expands employment of permanent production workers; (c) leads to the formalization of labour relationships, to the implementation of new organizational practices and to the improvement of training measures. While changes in employment and formalization of workers are linked to labour productivity gains, increases in training measures and organizational changes do not generate any additional productivity increase. Policies oriented to promote the adoption of ICT in micro and small firms can be beneficial to close the productivity gap with larger firms in Peru. Moreover, policies directed to the formalization of the workforce can provide an extra benefit, i.e. additional labour productivity gains in firms adopting the internet. Finally, policies oriented to the development of digital skills are also important to ease the re‐employment of those workers losing their jobs and the achievement of additional productivity gains that new organizational practices can provide.     

历史文献学视野下的重大历史事件

重大历史事件的提出源于国家文艺创作政策,是重大历史题材的内核。从历史文献学的视角来看,重大历史事件的文献形态表现为本源事件、衍生事件和文本事件。重大历史事件的衍生特征主要体现为本源事件的内容选择性、视角多样性、衍生多态性和历史叙事的结构层次性。重大历史事件具有文献能产性,其根本动力来源于历史主体的社会认可需要、纪念活动的客观物证需要和文艺创作的传奇叙事需要。     

Insecure times? Workers' perceived job and labor market security in 23 OECD countries

By examining the association between employees' perceptions of job security and central labor market policies and characteristics, this paper seeks to understand the mechanisms through which institutions generate confidence and positive expectations among individuals regarding their economic future. The analyses distinguish between different facets of perceived job security and different institutional mechanisms. My multilevel analyses of a data set that contains information on 12,431 individuals and 23 countries show that some labor market policies and characteristics are more likely than others to provide workers with subjective security. Unemployment assistance in particular is an effective means of reducing workers' worries about job loss. Dismissal protection, by contrast, only unleashes its psychologically protective effects under certain conditions. The paper's main conclusion is that the effectiveness of policies varies and that different types of labor market institutions serve as complements rather than as substitutes.     

Structural change in Ethiopia

This article investigates the pace and pattern of structural change in Ethiopia. It departs from the existing literature in two main ways. First, it uses a methodology that enables a more comprehensive assessment of structural change. Second, it entailed the construction of a consistent dataset for Ethiopia—comprising three labour force surveys—tracking 10 economic sectors between 1999 and 2013. Our analysis suggests that the structure of production has changed considerably, but that shifts in the composition of employment have lagged behind. Output per capita growth has been strong and mainly driven by within‐sector productivity improvements. However, the contribution of structural change has increased over time, which is encouraging. Evidence of a growing demographic dividend is also uncovered.     

Academic Affiliations of Social Work Journal Article Authors from 1999–2003

Abstract

The academic affiliations of the authors of all articles published between 1999 and 2003 in six major social work journals were tabulated to produce a ranking of the colleges and universities whose faculty made the most substantive contributions to the social work literature. The results of this analysis are compared with findings of four identical, previously published studies, which cover the five-year periods of 197–1983, 1984–1988, 1989–1993, and 1994–1998. The limitations of this method of analysis are discussed, as are its merits.     

Equilibrium Labor Turnover,Firm Growth,and Unemployment

This paper considers equilibrium quit turnover in a frictional labor market with costly hiring by firms, where large firms employ many workers and face both aggregate and firm specific productivity shocks. There is exogenous firm turnover as new (small) startups enter the market over time, while some existing firms fail and exit. Individual firm growth rates are disperse and evolve stochastically. The paper highlights how dynamic monopsony, where firms trade off lower wages against higher (endogenous) employee quit rates, yields excessive job‐to‐job quits. Such quits directly crowd out the reemployment prospects of the unemployed. With finite firm productivity states, stochastic equilibrium is fully tractable and can be computed using standard numerical techniques.     

Identification Properties of Recent Production Function Estimators

This paper examines some of the recent literature on the estimation of production functions. We focus on techniques suggested in two recent papers, Olley and Pakes (1996) and Levinsohn and Petrin (2003). While there are some solid and intuitive identification ideas in these papers, we argue that the techniques can suffer from functional dependence problems. We suggest an alternative approach that is based on the ideas in these papers, but does not suffer from the functional dependence problems and produces consistent estimates under alternative data generating processes for which the original procedures do not.     

The Pursuit of Productivity

This study names a pantheon of entrepreneurs and managers who have introduced a range of far‐reaching productivity innovations throughout modern history. The thread tying together all of the innovations, in whatever sector of the economy one examines, is the theory of swift, even flow. The study argues why swift, even flow explains the power and long‐lasting nature of these innovations and why other factors thought by some to affect productivity fall short.     

社会资本对居民生活垃圾分类行为的影响机理分析

社会资本与环境保护合作行为的逻辑关系已经成为环境管理的一个重要研究方向。基于219户城镇居民调查数据的实证研究发现,除了年龄、受教育年限和中共党员身份外,以社会网络、社会规范和社会信任为要素的社会资本,对提高居民生活垃圾分类水平有显著的正向影响。具体而言,社会网络能够降低居民机会主义和“搭便车”的行为倾向;社会规范能够提高居民行为的可预测性,增强居民投资环境保护集体行动的信心;社会信任则通过降低交易成本,促进居民生活垃圾分类的自主合作行为。为从源头上化解我国生态环境管理面临的“垃圾围城”困境,政府应积极促进居民间的网络互动,完善互惠共享的社会规范,提升居民间的普遍信任,同时加大对生活垃圾分类知识和技巧的宣传力度、发挥党员在遵守社会规范中的带头作用,通过社会资本发展促进公众的自主环境保护合作行为。     

中国生产性服务业TFP的时空差异与影响因素分析

在利用Malmquist指数法测算2005-2013年中国30个省份生产性服务业的全要素生产率(TFP)的基础上,采用核密度估计法分析了TFP的动态演变,并运用分位数回归方法对中国生产性服务业TFP的影响因素进行了实证分析。研究发现:在考察期内中国生产性服务业TFP总体呈下降态势,技术效率下降是其下降的主要原因;核密度曲线说明中国生产性服务业TFP省际差距扩大,技术效率和技术进步逐渐呈现两极分化的趋势;分位数回归结果表明,工业化水平和人力资本水平对生产性服务业TFP提升具有普遍的促进作用,而信息化水平、对外开放水平、制造业集中度对生产性服务业TFP提高的贡献大小均与地区生产性服务业TFP的水平有关。