|
on Heterodox Microeconomics |
| By: | Paul Chiambaretto (crg - Centre de recherche en Gestionj - Ecole Polytechnique) |
| Abstract: | Nous nous proposons d'étudier l'évolution de la nature de la coopétition à travers le temps. Nous commencerons par étudier sa naissance dans les sphères managériales et montrerons ainsi comment ce terme a mis du temps pour être accepté au sein de la communauté académique. Par la suite, nous analyserons comment le processus de définition de la coopétition a conduit à des tensions entre sa caractérisation par compréhension et par extension. Enfin, nous développerons l'idée selon laquelle ces débats et ces tensions sur la définition de la coopétition lui ont permis de devenir un concept à part entière. |
| Keywords: | coopétition; néologisme managérial; concurrence; naissance d'un concept |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00574175&r=hme |
| By: | Koen Rossel-Cambier |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at gaining deeper understanding of the possible effects of combined microfinance (CMF) on social and economic performance outcomes. By means of a case-study on the City of Bridgetown (COB), one of the leading credit unions in Barbados, it explores the possible limits, challenges and economies of scope of CMF. This case-study suggests that CMF, especially the combination credit-savings, may enhance the cost-efficiency of loan delivery and that it can generate economies of scope for marketing purposes. Savings is at the heart of the growth strategy of the credit union and has contributed to its current large breadth of outreach. The paper observes that more female than male clients participate in insurance schemes, highlighting gender differences. The case-study suggests that CMF can also lead to a number of combined and additional costs and financial risks, which need to be taken into account. The nature of product diversification can lead to additional access barriers for unbankable clients, especially related to financial costs and information asymmetry. |
| Keywords: | microfinance; combined microfinance; microinsurance; microcredit; microsavings; poverty; social inclusion; Caribbean |
| JEL: | C12 G21 G22 L31 O54 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/78912&r=hme |
| By: | Uschi Backes-Gellner (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich); Yvonne Oswald (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich); Simone N. Tuor (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | Previous studies on employer-provided training have consistently shown a gap in training participation between part-time and full-time workers. This study examines whether the training disadvantage for part-time workers differs by gender. To capture the uncertainty in the firm’s training decision and to factor in heterogeneity among part-time workers, our analysis draws not only on human capital but also on statistical discrimination theory. Our empirical results indicate that gender plays a role in determining part-time/full-time training differences. Whereas for women working part-time or full-time makes only a minor difference, for men working part-time constitutes a serious disadvantage in access to employer-provided training. The results remain consistent among different subsamples. |
| Keywords: | employer-provided trainnig, part-time |
| JEL: | I21 J16 M53 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0058&r=hme |
| By: | Aurelio Bruzzo |
| Abstract: | This contribution aims to present the main results of a preliminary survey carried out on relevant socio-economic disparities that exist among the Provincial Administrations and/or geographic regions of Argentina, using several indicators to conduct a descriptive statistic analysis on the matter. In fact, even in this simple way, it is assumed to usefully contribute to the scientific debate developed regarding the limited knowledge so far available about the socioeconomic growth, which occurred in Argentina at regional level during the last decades. For this purpose, according to the main official sources of statistical documentation, available at international level, a broad set of indexes has been elaborated; such parameters have been used to outline a overview, basically comprehensive and organic, on various aspects (population, labour market, income level, territory, etc.) deemed useful for obtaining further interpretation elements about disparities inside this country, still in development. |
| Keywords: | Argentine; Territorial disparities |
| JEL: | R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2010–11–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udf:wpaper:201011&r=hme |
| By: | Mogues, Tewodaj; Petracco, Carly; Randriamamonjy, Josee |
| Keywords: | agricultural extension, benefit incidence analysis, Development strategies, Food Security Program, water facilities, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1057&r=hme |
| By: | Behrman, Julia; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth; Quisumbing, Agnes |
| Abstract: | This paper strives to introduce a discussion of the gender dimensions into the growing debate on large-scale land deals. It addresses the current information gap on the differential gender effects of large-scale land deals through (1) an overview of the phases of large-scale land deals and discussion of related effects on rural men and women based on new literature on large-scale land deals and past literature on the gender effects of commercialization and contract farming; (2) a presentation of further evidence using several recent case studies on the gender effects of large-scale deals; (3) an identification of knowledge gaps and areas where further research is needed; and (4) a recap of promising initiatives, followed by recommendations and conclusions. |
| Keywords: | Gender, large-scale land deals, land tenure reform, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1056&r=hme |
| By: | Colette Harris |
| Abstract: | It is rare to find gender a specific focus of scholarship on conflict studies. In MICROCON we have tried to place gender in a central position within all projects and to convince all researchers to use a gender lens for their analysis. This paper uses a set of MICROCON working papers to illustrate how gender can be used at different conceptual levels in conflict analysis, and aims to show what can be gained by the use of a gender lens. The papers bear out Enloe’s insistence that those seeking an in-depth understanding of the social and political world require a feminist curiosity – that is, a curiosity about the roles gender categories play in political debate and action, as well as in scholarship. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcn:rwpapr:41&r=hme |
| By: | Kathleen Jennings (Fafo AIS) |
| Abstract: | ‘Peacekeeping economies’ have not been subjected to much analysis. This is partly, perhaps, because their effects have been assumed to be temporary. In reality, such economies often have impacts on local societies that endure long after peacekeepers have left. This briefing considers the gendered effects of peacekeeping economies in Bosnia, Kosovo, Liberia and Haiti, focussing especially on the sex industry. It then examines the effectiveness of the UN’s efforts to curb sexual exploitation and to promote gender equality through peacekeeping operations. It argues that the UN needs to go beyond policies based on individual responsibility, to consider the wider context in which its operations take place. |
| Keywords: | peacekeeping; sex industry; sex trafficking; gender; Haiti, Liberia; Bosnia Herzegovina; Kosovo |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcn:polbrf:8&r=hme |
| By: | Werner Eichhorst (IZA); Mathias Dolls (IZA); Paul Marx (IZA); Andreas Peichl (IZA); Stefan Ederer (WIFO); Thomas Leoni (WIFO); Markus Marterbauer (WIFO); Lukas Tockner (WIFO); Gaetano Basso (fRDB); Maarten Gerard (IDEA); Ingrid Vanhoren (IDEA); Connie Nielsen (NIRAS) |
| Abstract: | Report based on a study conducted for the European Parliament, Bonn 2010 (188 pages) |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izarrs:31&r=hme |
| By: | Lakshmi Iyer (Harvard Business School, Business, Government and the International Economy Unit); Anandi Mani (University of Warwick); Prachi Mishra (Research Department, IMF); Petia Topalova (Research Department, IMF) |
| Abstract: | Using state-level variation in the timing of political reforms, we find that an increase in female representation in local government induces a large and significant rise in documented crimes against women in India. Our evidence suggests that this increase is good news, as it is driven primarily by greater reporting rather than greater incidence of such crimes. In contrast, we find no increase in crimes against men or gender-neutral crimes. We also examine the effectiveness of alternative forms of political representation: Large scale membership of women in local councils affects crime against them more than their presence in higher-level leadership positions. |
| Keywords: | crime, women's empowerment, minority representation, voice |
| JEL: | J12 J15 J16 P16 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hbs:wpaper:11-092&r=hme |
| By: | Holvoet, Nathalie; D'Exelle, Ben |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relation between gender and network formation in rural Nicaragua. Applying dyadic regression techniques and controlling for individual socio-economic characteristics, we obtain insights into the determinants of the size and density as well as the socio-economic heterogeneity of individual networks. Assuming these network characteristics correlate with one's agency and benefits from network participation, we look for differences between men's and women's networks and its relation with gender. In general, the gendered private/public dichotomy and labor division is replicated in men's and women's networks. Furthermore, consistent with the restricted mobility of poor rural women, we observe that geographic distance limits the networks of women but not men. Next, female education and mobility, and newly-residing men, have a positive influence on the integration between men and women. Finally, clique formation is stronger around women than men. |
| Keywords: | Social network analysis; dyadic regression; gender sorting; social integration |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iob:wpaper:2011001&r=hme |
| By: | Hällsten, Martin (Stockholm University Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies - SULCIS); Sarnecki, Jerzy (Stockholm University Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies - SULCIS); Szulkin, Ryszard (Stockholm University Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies - SULCIS) |
| Abstract: | We examine the gap in registered crime between the children of immigrants and the children of native Swedes. Our study is the first in Sweden to address the role of family and environmental background in creating the gap in recorded crimes. Lack of resources within the family and/or in the broader social environment, particularly in neighborhoods and schools, generates higher risks for criminal activity in children, and if the children of immigrants to a larger extent are underprivileged in those resources, a gap in crime may occur. In the empirical analyses we follow all individuals who completed compulsory schooling during the period 1990 to 1993 in the Stockholm Metropolitan area (N=66,330), and we analyze how background factors related to the family of origin and neighborhood segregation during adolescence influence the gap in recorded crimes, which are measured in 2005. For males, we are generally able to explain between half and three-quarters of this gap in crime by parental socioeconomic resources and neighborhood segregation. For females, we can explain even more, sometimes the entire gap. Resources in the family of origin appear to be the strongest mediator. In addition, the residual differences are virtually unrelated to immigrants’ country of origin, indicating that ‘culture’ or other shared context-of-exit factors matter very little in generating the gap. |
| Keywords: | crime; inequality; children of immigrants |
| JEL: | I30 J10 K14 |
| Date: | 2011–03–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sulcis:2011_001&r=hme |
| By: | Nyborg, Karine (Dept. of Economics, University of Oslo); Zhang, Tao (Ragnar Frisch Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Firms with a reputation as socially responsible may have an important cost advantage: If workers prefer their employer to be socially responsible, equilibrium wages may be lower in such firms. We explore this hypothesis, combining Norwegian register data with data on firm reputation collected by an employer branding firm. Adjusting for a large set of background variables, we find that the firm’s social responsibility reputation is significantly associated with lower wages. |
| Keywords: | Self-regulation; wage differentials; CSR |
| JEL: | C51 D21 D64 Q56 |
| Date: | 2011–01–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:osloec:2011_001&r=hme |
| By: | Kati Schindler (German Institute for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the determinants of intra-household time allocation in post-war Rwanda. A decade after the 1994 genocide, Rwanda still bears the demographic impact of the war, in which at least 800,000 people died and the majority of casualties were adult males. The paper explores two unique features: exogenous variation in household types and large variation in regional cohort-specific sex ratios. Results indicate that, first, exposure to violence and male death can be a trigger of change in gender roles. Second, there is little flexibility to negotiate responsibilities within the household. Third, the local marriage market impacts the division of labor. Young, unmarried women engage more intensely in typical female activities when the shortage of men is severe. Conforming to the female gender role may be a strategy to improve their chances to marry. |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:90&r=hme |
| By: | Tindara Addabbo; Anna Maccagnan |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to analyse the effects of the crisis on the Italian labour market. The Italian labour market is characterized by deep gender differences and regional variability. The data show that the crisis lead to an increase in the gap of female employment rates and women?s inactivity rates with respect to Europe. The North of Italy experienced a higher increase in unemployment than the South, where many people withdrew from the labour market because of poor employment prospects. Moreover, in Italy, the increase in unemployment has been mitigated by the increase in the number of workers having access to the wage supplementation fund who are not computed within the unemployed. However, the heterogeneity in the system of unemployment benefits increased inequalities amongst the unemployed. Using a micro simulation techniques, we estimate the effect of the crisis on income distribution and poverty and find that at the national level, the population showed a reduction in equivalised household income by about 1 percent. The limited impact on household?s equivalent income can be connected to the relatively high share of unemployed who are young with relatively low income and sustained by other members of the household |
| Keywords: | labour market, poverty, economic crisis |
| JEL: | I32 J6 |
| Date: | 2011–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:depeco:0644&r=hme |
| By: | Schilizzi, Steven |
| Abstract: | Distributional equity concerns are often at least as important as economic efficiency and ecological sustainability in environmental and natural resource management policies. Until recently, however, economists have shied away from tackling equity issues, primarily because equity appeared as a slippery concept, varying across people and circumstances. This study takes this context-dependence of equity judgments as a starting point and shows that such dependence, far from being random, is systematic. A series of controlled laboratory treatments with University students were designed to investigate the role on distributional equity judgments of such context factors as knowledge of oneâs position in society, how the existence of equity-efficiency tradeoffs can affect equity judgments, and the importance of material incentives compared with hypothetical situations, where âin principleâ judgments are called for. Key results include the relative discriminating power of context factors, the hierarchy of context-dependence, the dissymmetry between support and opposition to equity principles, and the impact of different wealth endowments on equity judgments. A number of common beliefs are found not to be substantiated by our experimental findings. |
| Keywords: | Equity, fairness, resource allocation, environmental policy, experimental economics, welfare economics, public choice, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Public Economics, C92, D03, D63, H23, Q56, Q58, |
| Date: | 2011–02–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:uwauwp:100887&r=hme |
| By: | Diallo, Amadou Sekou |
| Abstract: | In most developing countries, historically, the main strategy for improving the food sector has focused on increasing farm-level production. But in recent years, with the emphasis on value chain analysis, there has been much more focus on subsector studies, demand-driven approaches, and improving vertical coordination to assure product quality to final consumption markets. Millet, sorghum, and later rice were the traditional leading three cereal crops produced and consumed in Mali. Maize has trailed them for more than two decades, but from mid 1990s on, it has been produced and consumed in much larger quantities. Given the potentials of maize, developing and better organizing its subsector has the potential to not only increase revenues for maize farmers, but also create profitable opportunities for other actors in the subsector (traders, marketers, processors, industries, and consumers). This paper seeks to provide a description of the changing supply and demand dynamics for maize in Mali, the organization of the marketing channels and players, and the characteristics of the main consumption markets. The main conceptual tools to be used are subsector analysis and the structure-conduct-performance (SCP) approach. The paper will draw on literature reviews, the authorâs personal interviews with value chain participants, and tabular and graphical analysis of production and price data to address the reasons behind the changes in production and demand, how the demand is likely to evolve, how the structure of the subsector might be affected, and what will be the implications for public sector investments and policies. |
| Keywords: | maize, value chain, Mali, cereals, food security, agricultural marketing, livestock feed, industrial organization, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, Marketing, L11-Production, Pricing, and Market Structure, Size Distribution of Firms, N57-Africa, Oceania, O17-Formal and Informal Sectors, Shadow Economy, Institutional Arrangements, O33-Technological Change: Choices and Consequences, Diffusion Processes, Q12-Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets, Q13-Agricultural Markets and Marketing, Cooperatives, Agribusiness, Q18-Agricultural Policy, Food Policy, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:midagr:101316&r=hme |
| By: | Luca Zamparelli (Department of Economic Theory, Sapienza University of Rome) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a classical micro-founded growth model with endogenous direction and size of technical change. In a standard induced innovation model firms freely adopt productivity improvements from an innovation possibilities frontier describing the trade-off between increasing capital or labor productivity. The shape of the innovation possibility frontier uniquely determines the steady state distribution of income. The model proposed allows firms to choose not only the direction but also the size of innovation by making innovation a costly activity requiring R&D investment. Comparative dynamics analysis shows that income distribution is are sensitive to saving parameters and fiscal policy. In particular, an increase in the discount factor or in subsidy to R&D raises the labor share. |
| Keywords: | Induced innovation, endogenous growth, direction of technical change, classical growth. |
| JEL: | D33 O31 O33 O40 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lui:celegw:1102&r=hme |
| By: | Angela Cipollone (Department of Ecoomics and Business, LUISS University); Marcella Corsi (Sapienza University of Rome); Carlo D'ippoliti (Sapienza University of Rome) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a multidimensional concept of knowledge, encompassing several formal and informal skills to complement education and on-the-job training, under a gender perspective. By considering the case of Italy, we estimate the impact of such a concept of knowledge on men’s and women’s employment status and wages. Results point out that despite much rhetoric about the fact that women have gradually overcome men in terms of educational attainments, women still lack of the main skills and competencies that can profitably be used on the labor market. In Italy, women’s accumulation of labor market experience is mostly constrained by unpaid work and care work burdens. These activities may be regarded as a source of potential knowledge in terms of social and interpersonal skills, managerial and organizational capacities; but they do not seem to be positively valued by the market, either in terms of employability nor in terms of wages. Gender segregation in education seems to be still a relevant issue, by compressing both women’s employment chances and wages. Thus educational and cultural policies aimed at overcoming traditional gender roles and images among the younger students seem a very sensible policy option. |
| Keywords: | gender differentials, returns to knowledge, human capital. |
| JEL: | J24 J16 C43 J71 C14 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lui:celegw:1103&r=hme |
| By: | Natalia Nehrebecka (Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw; Department of Statistics, National Bank of Poland) |
| Abstract: | The article describes the use of the Markov chains methodology for analysis of demographic evolution of Polish enterprises in the years 2003 - 2009. According to the results’ presented in the article, flexibility of Polish companies’ activity in changing economic conditions is stable. The level of migration between sectors is low and limited to several sectors. Expected company life is relatively short (on average, Polish companies exist more than twice shorter than e.g. Belgian companies subject to a study by the National Bank of Belgium). In general, the least “vital” companies may be considered companies from the transport section and then from the building industry, other services and commerce sections. Enterprises that stay on the market the longest are companies from the agricultural and industrial sectors. The mean value of the closeness to extinction indicator amounts to 46% for the whole population. Among all sectors and sections, non-specialised exporters have the highest average age. State-owned companies have significantly higher both the average age and the remaining lifetime than private companies. The bigger is a company the higher is its average age and average remaining lifetime. |
| Keywords: | Business demography, Markov chains, Transition matrix |
| JEL: | C81 M13 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2011-06&r=hme |
| By: | Mohieddine Rahmouni (GREThA, CNRS, UMR 5113); Murat Yildizoglu (GREQAM, CNRS, UMR 6579) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to present the theoretical literature dedicated to the analysis of the motivations and the determinants of firms\' technological innovations. To this end, we follow a strategy of presentation that starts with the simplest possible framework in which the innovation can occur (Robinson Crusoe economy), and that encompasses gradually richer economic contexts. The discussion is hence organized in a progressive logic, ranging from purely individual motivations and conditions of innovations (in the case of Robinson, alone on his island), towards the more complex case where the innovative activities take place in an international framework, under particular institutional configurations, depending on the considered countries. The intermediate stages successively introduce the following economic phenomena: demand, sectoral dimensions, competition, public authorities, and finally, international competition. |
| Keywords: | Technological innovation, Industrial economics, Evolutionary economics |
| JEL: | O12 O30 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2011-10&r=hme |
| By: | Robert J. Shiller (Cowles Foundation, Yale University); Virginia M. Shiller (Child Study Center, Yale University) |
| Abstract: | While leading figures in the early history of economics conceived of it as inseparable from philosophy and other humanities, there has been movement, especially in recent decades, towards its becoming an essentially technical field with narrowly specialized areas of inquiry. Certainly, specialization has allowed for great progress in economic science. However, recent events surrounding the financial crisis support the arguments of some that economics needs to develop forums for interdisciplinary interaction and to aspire to broader vision. |
| Keywords: | Economic methodology, Specialization, Behavioral economics, Psychology, Rational expectations, Economics as a moral science, Pareto criterion, Interdisciplinary, Journal of Economic Perspectives |
| JEL: | B4 B41 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:1788&r=hme |
| By: | Carstensen, Kai; Schenkelberg, Heike |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the predictions of different price setting theories using a new dataset constructed from a large panel of business surveys of German retail firms over the period 1970-2010. The dataset contains firm-specific information on both price realizations and expectations. Aggregating the price data we find clear evidence in favor of state-dependence; for periods of relatively high and volatile inflation not only the size of price changes (intensive margin) but also the fraction of price adjustment (extensive margin) is important for aggregate inflation dynamics. Moreover, at the business cycle frequency, variations in the extensive margin explain a large fraction of inflation variability even for moderate inflation periods. This holds both for price realizations and expectations suggesting a role for state-dependent sticky plan models. Moreover, results from a structural sign-restriction VAR model show that the extensive margin reacts significantly to a monetary policy shock and is more important for the response of overall inflation than the intensive margin conditional on the shock. These findings confirm the validity of state-dependent pricing models that stress the importance of the extensive margin - even for low inflation periods. |
| Keywords: | Price setting behavior; time dependent pricing; state dependent pricing; monetary policy transmission |
| JEL: | E31 E32 E50 |
| Date: | 2011–03–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:muenec:12170&r=hme |
| By: | Schilirò, Daniele |
| Abstract: | The essay analyzes the decision process in economics and its relationship with the concept of rationality starting from the theory of rational choice, that is, a systemic approach based on the formal axiomatic method applied mainly in the microeconomic field, which has become the heart of neoclassical economics. The work also focuses on the important contribution of the cognitive economics to the concept of rationality and, consequently, of criticism that this theoretical approach moves to the standard economic theory in the definition of choices, indicating a systematic discrepancy between theory and empirical evidence. Moreover, the analysis puts forward the topic of rational expectations, as the rationality of expectations concerns the preferences, and also because the hypothesis of rational expectations has characterized the development of modern macroeconomics and influenced the issue of the efficient use of information by the economic agents. This work wants to highlight, using a very little formal language, the complexity of the choice process and the unsolved relationship between economic and psychological dimensions of such a process, but at the same time it wants to argue that the economic theory as a whole is far away today from an abstract conception perfectly rational and fully informed individuals which choose without making mistakes. |
| Keywords: | decisione; razionalità; incertezza; aspettative |
| JEL: | D84 D01 |
| Date: | 2011–03–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:29477&r=hme |
| By: | Ali, Tanweer |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the development of employment policy in the United Kingdom leading to the creation of the Young Person’s Guarantee and its main component, the Future Jobs Fund. Past public-sector direct employment schemes, including those associated with the workfare model, had been discredited as ineffective across the OECD. In numerous countries, however, newer job creation schemes were implemented from the 1990s, aimed at addressing some of the shortcomings of earlier projects, and utilizing the growth of smaller community-based projects – the Intermediate Labour Markets, or ILMs. Whilst there was no strategic policy commitment to demand-led active labour market policy in the UK until recent years, a network of ILMs came into existence, and much of the funding for these small-scale local projects came from the government. With the onset of the current economic downturn, and the substantial rise in cyclical unemployment, policy-makers more closely examined options for a demand-led strategy. Although ILMs had not been created with a view to forming part of an ‘employer of last resort’ policy, and were generally directed at very specific groups, the potential of these schemes to form part of a wider national strategy was clearly seen. In 2009 the government announced a job guarantee for all young people, primarily through the Future Jobs Fund. This initiative was inspired by ‘employer of last resort’ (or ‘job guarantee’) concept and the work of Hyman Minsky, and the intention was to extend it over time. Although the Future Jobs Fund was scrapped in May 2010 following a change of government in the UK, it incorporates the lessons of past policy failures, representing a bold step in active labour market policy – and may form a model for reviving demand-led employment policy. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment; New Deal; Job Guarantee; Employer of Last Resort; Minsky; Future Jobs Fund |
| JEL: | J08 B50 |
| Date: | 2011–01–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:29422&r=hme |
| By: | Antti Kauhanen; Sami Napari |
| Abstract: | We examine gender differences in careers using a large linked employer-employee dataset on Finnish white-collar manufacturing workers over the period of 1981–2006. Our focus is on labour market entrants whom we follow over time. We find that men start their careers from higher ranks of the hierarchy than women do, although gender differences in education explain much of this gap. Men are also more likely to be promoted than women, especially during the first years in the labour market, amplifying the gender differences in hierarchical positions already apparent at labour market entry. Men earn higher starting wages than women, while the results concerning gender differences in the returns to career progression are not clearcut, but depend on the type of career event and on the career phase. Overall, our results helps to understand the factors behind the large increase in the gender wage gap during the early career observed in the earlier literature. |
| Keywords: | careers, internal labour markets, promotions, mobility, wage growth, gender wage gap |
| JEL: | J16 J24 J31 J62 |
| Date: | 2011–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1241&r=hme |