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on Unemployment, Inequality and Poverty |
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Issue of 2006‒10‒14
eight papers chosen by |
| By: | Robert Coulon (Université de Bourgogne) |
| Abstract: | (VF)Dans quelle mesure les entreprises françaises déclinent-elles la notion de Responsabilité Sociale dans leurs pratiques de gestion des Ressources Humaines (GRH) ? Cherchent-elles à développer des pratiques RH qui dépassent l’application des règles de droit ? Pour répondre à ces questions, nous présentons les résultats d’une enquête auprès de 106 professionnels RH appartenant dans leur majorité à des entreprises industrielles de taille importante. Leurs témoignages, recueillis par questionnaires, portent sur un ensemble limité de pratiques RH socialement responsables.Selon nos résultats, les pratiques de GRH intègrent assez peu la notion de Responsabilité Sociale des Entreprises (RSE) ; elles répondent essentiellement à des règles de droit.(VA) As far as human resource management practices (HRM) are concerned, how do French companies respond to corporate social responsibility (CSR)? Are they eager to develop practices beyond the existing legal rules? To answer these questions, we present the results of an inquiry involving 106 HR managers who mainly belong to large manufacturing companies. Their statements, collected by questionnaire, are focused on a few “responsible” HRM practices.According to our results, the HR management practices are still very slightly affected by CSR, they mainly respond to legal rules. |
| Keywords: | Responsabilité Sociales des Entreprises (RSE);Gestion des Ressources Humaines (GRH);Human Resource Management (HRM), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). |
| JEL: | M12 M14 M51 |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dij:wpfarg:1060902&r=ltv |
| By: | Amelie Constant; Martin Kahanec; Klaus F. Zimmermann |
| Abstract: | Ethnic differences are often considered to be powerful sources of diverse economic behavior. In this paper, we investigate whether and how ethnicity affects Ukrainian labor market outcomes. Using micro data from the Ukrainian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (ULMS) and Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition of earnings, we find a persistent and rising labor market divide between ethnic Russians and Ukrainians throughout Ukraine's transition era. We establish that language rather than nationality is the key factor behind this ethnic premium favoring Russians. Our findings further document that this premium is larger among males than among females. |
| Keywords: | Ethnicity, earnings differences, discrimination, transitional labor markets, ethnic premium |
| JEL: | J15 J70 J82 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp627&r=ltv |
| By: | Amelie Constant; Liliya Gataullina; Klaus F. Zimmermann; Laura Zimmermann |
| Abstract: | The paper explores the evolution of ethnic identities of two important and distinct immigrant religious groups. Using data from Germany, a large European country with many immigrants, we study the adaptation processes of Muslims and Christians. Individual data on language, culture, societal interactions, history of migration and ethnic self-identification are used to compose linear measures of the process of cultural adaptation. Two-dimensional variants measure integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization. Christians adapt more easily to the German society than Muslims. Immigrants with schooling in the home country and with older age at entry as well as female Muslims remain stronger attached to the country of origin. Female Muslims integrate and assimilate less and separate more than Muslim men, while there is no difference between male and female Christians. Christians who were young at entry are best integrated or assimilated, exhibiting lower separation and marginalization in the later years, while for Muslims a similar pattern is observed only for assimilation and separation. Christian immigrants with college or higher education in the home country integrate well, but Muslims do not. For both religious groups, school education in the home country leads to slower assimilation and causes more separation than no education at home. While school education has no impact on integration efforts for Muslim, it affects similar attempts of Christians negatively. |
| Keywords: | Ethnicity, ethnic identity, religion, migrant assimilation, migrant integration, ethnic exclusion |
| JEL: | F22 J15 J16 Z10 Z12 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp628&r=ltv |
| By: | Cheti Nicoletti (Institute for Social and Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to analyze the determinants of job dissatisfaction in a European cross-country comparison perspective. In particular we would like to understand if differences in the reported job dissatisfaction between European countries reflect a rescaling of the dissatisfaction measures or, also, a different impact of the job dissatisfaction determinants. To this aim we estimate dissatisfaction models separately by country using fixed effects logit models. We test the equality of the model coefficients across countries by extending the test proposed by Allison (1999) for simple logit and probit models. |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2006-42&r=ltv |
| By: | Jahyeong Koo; W. Michael Cox |
| Abstract: | Suicide rates in Japan have increased dramatically in recent years, making Japan's male rate the highest among developed economies. This study revises the standard economic model of suicide to accommodate Japan's experience, focusing on the change in human capital for the unemployed. We then use the new model and de-trended data to emperically investigate the relationship between the suicide cycle and the unemployment cycle. Unlike previous aggregate time series studies, we find that the relationship between the suicide rate and the unemployment rate is significantly and robustly positive for both males and females even after controlling for several social variables. |
| Keywords: | Human capital ; Unemployment |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:feddwp:0603&r=ltv |
| By: | Richard B. Freeman |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the claim the the US faces an impending labor shortage due to the impending retirement of baby boomers and slow growth of the US work force, and that the country should orient labor market and educational policies to alleviate this prospective shortage. I find that this analysis is flawed, by making growth of GDP the target of economic policy and by paying inadequate attention to the huge supply of qualified low wage workers in the global economy. My analysis shows that the projections of future demands for skills lack the reliability to guide policies on skill development, and that contrary to the assumption implicit in the shortage analyses, demographic changes have not historically been consistently associated with changes in labor market conditions. I argue that if there is to be a shortage, the country should allow the competitive market to raise labor compensation rather than to adopt policies to keep labor costs low. |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12541&r=ltv |
| By: | Jeffrey G. Williamson |
| Abstract: | Within-country ethnic diversity in high-wage immigrant nations is driven by long distance migration. This paper documents the migration-diversity connection for the first global century before 1914 and the second global century after 1950. It distinguishes between ethnic diversity among the foreign-born, between the foreign-born and native-born and for total populations using country-of-birth data. It exploits the polarization index made popular in the recent diversity-growth debate and exploits an emigration life cycle model to predict the connection. It also shows how policy matters. |
| JEL: | J6 N3 |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12549&r=ltv |
| By: | Jeffrey G. Williamson |
| Abstract: | In the first global century before 1914, trade and especially migration had profound effects on both low-wage, labor abundant Europe and the high-wage, labor scarce New World. Those global forces contributed to a reduction in unskilled labor scarcity in the New World and to a rise in unskilled labor scarcity in Europe. Thus, it contributed to rising inequality in overseas countries, like the United States, and falling inequality in most of Europe. Falling unskilled labor scarcity and rising skill scarcity contributed to the high school revolution in the US. Rising unskilled scarcity also contributed to the primary schooling and literacy revolution in Europe. Under what conditions would we expect the same responses to globalization in today’s world? This paper argues that modern debates about inequality and schooling responses to globalization should pay more attention to history. |
| JEL: | D3 F1 I2 J6 N3 |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12553&r=ltv |