Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

[Review Of The Book Employment And Development: A New Review Of Evidence, By David Turnham], Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] I first encountered David Turnham’s work after majoring in labor economics in undergraduate and graduate school and spending a year in Nairobi studying and modeling the labor market there. The atmosphere in Kenya was crackling with intellectual excitement: John Harris and Michael Todaro had just showed how the solution to urban unemployment might be rural development, George Johnson had demonstrated that earnings function analysis ‘worked’ despite doubts about the quality of developing country data and the applicability of developed country concepts, Dharam Ghai was developing the basic human needs approach to development, and Joe Stiglitz was formulating efficiency wage …

Employment And Economic Growth In Costa Rica, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

Costa Rica’s economic growth in the last 25 years has had favorable labor market and income distribution consequences. Overall, employment growth kept pace with labor force growth, the mix of jobs improved, real wages rose, and relative inequality and absolute poverty fell. But during the economic crisis of 1980-82, when real per capita income plummeted, labor market conditions deteriorated markedly: unemployment doubled, employment composition worsened, and real wages fell by 40%. Growth, labor market conditions, and income distribution have moved together.

Challenges And Policy Lessons For The Growth-Employment-Poverty Nexus In Developing Countries, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

Productivity growth and structural change are generally considered to be important determinants of economic growth. However recent research revealed that they do not necessarily lead to higher growth and employment rates. Recent studies, drawing on data from developing countries, showed that only the “right” kind of productivity growth resulted in higher employment rates. Enterprises in Africa and Latin America caught up in matters of technology; however, this process resulted in a substitution of employment by technology. The same is true for structural change; only the “right” kind of structural change caused more growth and employment. Whereas in Asia, labour shifted …

Employment And Development In The Developing World: Taking Stock Of What Research Can Teach Us, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

Productivity growth and structural change are generally considered to be important determinants of economic growth. However recent research revealed that they do not necessarily lead to higher growth and employment rates. Recent studies, drawing on data from developing countries, showed that only the “right” kind of productivity growth resulted in higher employment rates. Enterprises in Africa and Latin America caught up in matters of technology; however, this process resulted in a substitution of employment by technology. The same is true for structural change; only the “right” kind of structural change caused more growth and employment. Whereas in Asia, labour shifted …

Aid, Growth And Jobs, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

Various development objectives are worthy, but one objective merits special attention: reducing the scourge of absolute economic misery in the world. This study focuses on an important but relatively underemphasized approach to poverty reduction: helping the poor earn more in the labour market for the work they do, so that they can buy the goods and services they need to move up out of poverty. The core of the study is divided into three sections: defining the global poverty challenge and the world’s employment problem, presenting policy options for improving employment outcomes for the poor, and suggesting ways of choosing …

Changing Labor Market Conditions And Economic Development In Hong Kong, The Republic Of Korea, Singapore, And Taiwan, China, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

In the newly industrializing economies (NIEs) of Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan (China), the entire working population has benefited from labor market institutions. The East Asian NIEs attained and maintained generally full employment, improved their job mixes, raised real earnings, and lowered their rates of poverty. This article reaches two principal conclusions. First, labor market conditions continued to improve in all four economies in the 1980s at rates remarkably similar to their rates of aggregate economic growth. Second, labor market repression was not a major factor in the growth experiences of these economies in the 1980s. …

An Evaluation Of Competitive Industrial Structure And Regional Manufacturing Employment Change., Joshua Drucker

Joshua Drucker

Public Actors In Private Markets: Toward A Developmental Finance State, Robert Hockett, Saule Omarova

Saule T. Omarova

The recent financial crisis brought into sharp relief fundamental questions about the social function and purpose of the financial system, including its relation to the “real” economy. This Article argues that, to answer these questions, we must recapture a distinctively American view of the proper relations among state, financial market, and development. This programmatic vision – captured in what we call a “developmental finance state” – is based on three key propositions: (1) that economic and social development is not an “end-state” but a continuing national policy priority; (2) that the modalities of finance are the most potent means of …

Are Large Informal Firms More Productive Than The Small Informal Firms? Evidence From Firm-Level Surveys In Africa, Mohammad Amin, Asif Islam

Mohammad Amin

Using data for over 500 informal or unregistered firms in seven countries in Africa, this study explores how labor productivity varies between small and large informal firms. We find robust evidence that small informal firms have higher labor productivity than large informal firms. Thus, even though poor performance of informal firms is typically attributed to their small size vis-à-vis registered or formal sector firms, incremental increases in the size of informal firms does not necessarily imply a narrowing of the formal-informal firm productivity gap.

Stagnant Structure Of Workforce Among Scheduled Tribes (Sts) In Andhra Pradesh, Venkatanarayana Motkuri

Venkatanarayana Motkuri Mr.

In the perspective of inclusive growth, generating and providing productive employment opportunities especially for the disadvantaged groups would enable and empower people belonging to these groups to contribute to the growth and benefit from it. In this context the paper presents a macro view of changes in the structure of the workforce of Scheduled Tribes in Andhra Pradesh its impact in the inclusive growth perspective. The analysis indicates that although there has been progress on many development indicators in the ST community in the state, they still lagged behind the ‘other’ social groups. Slow progress in expected change in structure …

New Establishment Dynamics: Business Formation And Survival Trends In Ohio, Afia Yamoah, Ziona Austrian, Joel A. Elvery

Ziona Austrian

The Ohio New Establishments Dynamics data (O-NED) is a new data set, developed by the College and Center. O-NED tracks employment and number of establishments for establishments that first started employing people between the 2nd quarter of 1997 and the 1st quarter of 2008. The report “New Establishment Dynamics: Business Formation and Survival Trends in Ohio” summarizes how trends in employment growth and establishment survivorship differ across sectors of the economy and various regions of Ohio. This new data set allows us to analyze the number of establishments born in a specific year called “birth cohort” and document their survival …

Crecimiento Económico Y Política Industrial En México, Isaac Leobardo Sánchez Juárez, Cuauhtémoc Calderón

Isaac Sánchez-Juárez

En este artículo se analiza un problema que resulta crucial para el desarrollo económico de México: el bajo crecimiento económico y la consecuente imposibilidad para generar los empleos necesarios. Se supone, en base a la teoría del crecimiento kaldoriana, que dicha problemática es resultado de errores de política económica, básicamente el abandono de la política industrial activa orientada al cambio estructural y desarrollo económico. Se proporciona evidencia que da cuenta de la alta correlación entre el bajo crecimiento económico y el bajo crecimiento del producto manufacturero, resultado que es compatible con los hallazgos de otros investigadores. De haberse implementado una …

Employment Generation And Poverty Alleviation In Developing Economies, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] We know well that the East Asian economies have achieved higher economic growth rates than those in any other region of the world and that production for world markets has featured as a hallmark of the East Asian successes. This paper has three purposes: first, to present comparative data showing that the rates at which employment opportunities improve and poverty is reduced mirror countries' differential growth experiences; second, to examine differences in labour market institutions, demonstrating that those in East Asia have similarities more likely to lead to higher output performance and shared improvements in living conditions; and third, …

Long-Term Economic Mobility And The Private Sector In Developing Countries: New Evidence, Gary S. Fields, Walter S. Bagg

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] Consistent with the mainstream view of economic growth as a factor promoting long-term economic mobility, we hypothesize that those economies in which economic growth has been most rapid are precisely the ones that have achieved the greatest progress toward poverty reduction through improved labor market conditions, especially in private employment. We also hypothesize that the positive relationship running from economic growth through the labor market to poverty reduction continued to hold in the 1990s in essentially the same way as in earlier years when globalization was less intense. Both hypotheses are confirmed by our data. Our results therefore cast …

Reducing Poverty: The Overall Framework, Guy Pfeffermann, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] How private firms contribute to economic mobility and poverty reduction and what governments can do to enhance their contribution is the theme of this book. We look first at the positive role the private sector plays in economic development, a role that has received less emphasis that that of other players. We then focus on the labor market and how various mechanisms in the economy interact to affect conditions for people as workers and as consumers. The volume examines the links among the business environment, private sector development, economic growth, poverty reduction, and economic mobility. Until recently, development economists …

Escaping From Poverty: Household Income Dynamics In Indonesia, South Africa, Spain, And Venezuela, Gary S. Fields, Paul L. Cichello, Samuel Freije, Marta Menéndez, David Newhouse

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] This study presents the main results of a larger, more technical report (Fields and others 2001) and subsequent work (Fields and others 2002) that analyzes income mobility in Indonesia, South Africa, Spain, and Venezuela. These economies were selected on the basis of the availability of panel data with which to analyze household income dynamics in the 1990s. By following households over time, we are able to investigate how households that were poor initially fared economically, relative to their richer counterparts. We can learn more about how and why households exit—and enter—poverty. To gauge income mobility, this study centers on …

Do Inequality Measures Measure Inequality?, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] In the literature, much attention has been paid to a number of aspects of inequality including the distinction between relative and absolute inequality, axiomatization of inequality, the Lorenz criterion for inequality comparisons, properties of various inequality measures, and inequality decomposition. In no way do I wish to argue with the main results derived in these areas. Rather, my purpose here is to add to the theory of inequality measurement by dealing with one aspect of inequality which has been largely ignored by economists and by others. This is the question of how inequality changes - in particular, whether it …

International Labor Standards And Decent Work: Perspectives From The Developing World, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] It is a very positive development that the world community has now reached agreement on four core labor standards, described further below. The moral force of this agreement will help slow and possibly even reverse the infamous "race to the bottom"—for example, child labor in the carpet industries of India undermining Nepal's efforts to keep its carpet industry free of child labor (Hensman, 2000). Ironically, some of the loudest and most strident voices against international labor standards come from the poorest parts of the world. My thesis in this chapter is that while some of the arguments being voiced …

A Welfare Economic Analysis Of Labor Market Policies In The Harris-Todaro Model, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

This paper presents a welfare economic analysis of the benefits of various labor market policies in the Harris-Todaro labor market model. The policies considered are a policy of modern sector job creation, which I call modern sector enlargement (MSENL); a policy of rural development, which I call traditional sector enrichment (TSENR); and a policy of wage limitation in the urban economy, which I call modern sector wage restraint (MSWR). First, I analyze the inequality effects of these policies. I then perform two welfare economic analyses, the first based on summary measures of labor market conditions (total labor earnings, unemployment, inequality …

Innovation And Employment: A Reinvestigation Using Revised Pavitt Classes, Mario Pianta, Francesco Bogliacino

Mario Pianta

The relationship between innovation and employment is addressed in this article through a model and empirical test at industry level for eight European countries in 1994–2004. We investigate this relationship for manufacturing and services and propose a Revised Pavitt taxonomy (covering both of them) in order to identify specific patterns of technological change and job creation and loss. The contrasting effects of strategies of technological or cost competitiveness are investigated using innovation variables from CIS2 and CIS3. Together with demand, wages and industry dynamics, they account for changes in employees and hours worked. The diversity in these relations across industries …

Innovazione E Occupazione, Mario Pianta

Mario Pianta

No abstract provided.

Innovation And Employment, Mario Pianta

Mario Pianta

The relationship between innovation and employment is a complex one and has long been a topical issue in economic theory. Moving from the classical question ‘‘does technology create or destroy jobs?’’ recent research has investigated the impact of different types of innovation and the structural and institutional factors affecting the quantity of employment change. Quality aspects have received increasing attention, with questions of ‘‘what type of jobs are created or destroyed by innovation?’’ This line of research has asked, ‘‘how does the composition of skills change’’ and ‘‘how does the wage structure change,’’ leading to a large literature on skill …

The Impact Of Innovation On Jobs, Skills And Wages, Mario Pianta

Mario Pianta

Unemployment, skill polarisation and growing wage inequality are major problems in advanced countries. Technological change - in particular the emergence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) - has often been called into question as a factor in such labour market developments. This article investigates the impact innovation has on jobs, skills and wages, discussing the concepts for analysis, reviewing the evidence of major studies and providing recent empirical evidence for European countries.

Employment Effects Of Product And Process Innovations In Europe, Mario Pianta, Tommaso Antonucci

Mario Pianta

This paper develops a model of the employment impact of innovation considering, on the one hand, the interactions with demand and labour costs and, on the other, the variety of patterns of technological change. Different technological strategies are considered. First, a search for technological competitiveness is based on product innovation and productivity rooted in quality advantages; second a strategy of active price competitiveness has productivity growth rooted in process innovation-based restructuring; third a passive price competitiveness strategy is pursued by noninnovators relying on cost-cutting. The new European innovation database drawn from the Community Innovation Survey 1994-96, merged with structural and …

Innovation, Demand And Employment, Mario Pianta

Mario Pianta

The paper examines the link between technological change and demand and their impact on employment in manufacturing industry. The specific nature of innovation, mainly oriented towards product or process innovations, is considered, in the light of the competitive strategies of firms and industries. An interpretative model is proposed and an empirical analysis is carried out, using the data of the European Innovation Surveys for five countries. The results of cross-industry regressions show that demand, structural change and orientation toward product innovations have a positive impact on employment change in the 1990s, while the intensity of innovative expenditure (including R&D, design, …