|
on Transition Economics |
| By: | Wendy Carlin (University College London and CEPR); Mark Schaffer (Heriot-Watt University); Paul Seabright (Toulouse School of Economics and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | <div style="text-align: justify;">Two decades after the end of central planning, we investigate the extent to which the advantages bequeathed by planning in terms of high investment in physical infrastructure and human capital compensated for the costs in allocative inefficiency and weak incentives for innovation. We assemble and analyse three separate types of evidence. First, we find that countries that were initially relatively poor prior to planning benefited more, as measured by long-run GDP per capita levels, from infrastructure and human capital than they suffered from weak market incentives. For initially relatively rich countries the opposite is true. Second, using various measures of physical stocks of infrastructure and human capital we show that at the end of planning, transition countries had substantially different endowments from their contemporaneous non-transition counterparts. However, these differences were much more important for poor than for rich countries. Finally, we use firm-level data to measure the cost of a wide range of constraints on firm performance, and we show that after more than a decade of transition in 2002–05, poor transition economies differ much more from their non-transition counterparts, in respect to both good and bad aspects of the planning legacy, than do relatively rich transition countries. However, the persistent beneficial legacy effects disappeared under the pressure of strong growth in transition economies in the run-up to the global financial crisis.</div> |
| Keywords: | business environment,transition,institutions,infrastructure,planned economy |
| JEL: | O43 P21 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcr:wpaper:wpaper00043&r=tra |
| By: | Surafel Girma; Yundan Gong; Holger Görg; Sandra Lancheros |
| Abstract: | We examine the role of foreign ownership structure in stimulating technology and skill upgrading, and exporting in Chinese manufacturing firms that were taken over by foreign owners. The analysis considers the period 2001 to 2007. We use a propensity score reweighted least squares estimation to control for the possible endogeneity of the acquisition decision. Our results indicate that there are strong effects on export activity post-acquisition for all types of ownership share. We also find that targets that are taken over with a less than 100 per cent foreign ownership share experience increases in new product development and R&D upgrading due to the acquisition. Overall, our results suggest that joint ventures between foreign owners and Chinese firms can contribute positively to China’s “science and technology take-off” |
| Keywords: | Chinese manufacturing |
| JEL: | O14 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1793&r=tra |
| By: | Zhouying Gang; Chen Shiyuan |
| Abstract: | This paper will review the development process of China's government bond market, analyze the current situation and problems as well as the status of economic reform in China and for And make policy recommendations on the development of the government bond market in China from a strategic height, including the issuance of special treasury bonds to the implementation of the national economy Third of debt restructuring, further play the role of the government bond market in the interest rate market, to form a unified government bond market System, and based on the development of the internationalization of RMB treasury bonds offshore market. |
| Keywords: | Government bonds, bond market, internationalization of the RMB offshore market economic reforms |
| JEL: | E G O |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bbv:wpaper:1219&r=tra |
| By: | Heberer, Thomas |
| Abstract: | The paper examines recent political and social developments in the People's Republic of China. It highlights some of the principle features in current Chinese politics: fragmentation of both the system and its actors; the role of the Chinese state as a developmental state; the issue of whether the party state exhibits stability and legitimacy. Furthermore, the discourses on political change within Chinese politics and intellectuals are addressed, the preconditions for a stable democracy are discussed and finally the function of the current Chinese state will be assessed. -- |
| Keywords: | China,food security,food safety,agriculture,environmental pollution,NGOs,civil society,consumer protection,grain self-sufficiency,global food trade,waste management |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:udedao:902012&r=tra |
| By: | Bhattacharya, Jay (Stanford University); Gathmann, Christina (University of Heidelberg); Miller, Grant (Stanford University) |
| Abstract: | Political and economic transition is often blamed for Russia's 40% surge in deaths between 1990 and 1994 (the "Russian Mortality Crisis"). Highlighting that increases in mortality occurred primarily among alcohol related causes and among working-age men (the heaviest drinkers), this paper investigates an alternative explanation: the demise of the 1985-1988 Gorbachev Anti-Alcohol Campaign. We use archival sources to build a new oblast-year data set spanning 1970-2000 and find that: (1) The campaign was associated with substantially fewer campaign year deaths, (2) Oblasts with larger reductions in alcohol consumption and mortality during the campaign experienced larger transition era increases, and (3) Other former Soviet states and Eastern European countries exhibit similar mortality patterns commensurate with their campaign exposure. The campaign's end explains a large share of the mortality crisis, suggesting that Russia's transition to capitalism and democracy was not as lethal as commonly suggested. |
| Keywords: | mortality, transition, alcohol, Russia |
| JEL: | I18 I15 P35 P36 P37 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6783&r=tra |
| By: | Zhong Qin; Vinod Mishra; Russell Smyth |
| Abstract: | There is debate over the relationship between ownership structure and firm performance. Most existing studies look at established listed companies in developed countries, in which the market mechanism is well developed. Meanwhile, the relationship between ownership structure and firm performance in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in transition countries has been largely ignored. Drawing on endogenous ownership theory, this paper explores the impact of ownership structure on firm performance in SMEs in the context of an embryonic market environment. Using survey data for private firms in Shantou City, China, we find that ownership variables do not have a statistically significant relationship with firm performance. We examine the determinants of changing ownership shares and find that firm size and business instability are related to changes in ownership shares. Our findings support the central tenets of endogenous ownership theory and reveal factors that may lead to the change of ownership structure among SMEs in an emerging market. |
| Keywords: | ownership structure, endogenous ownership, corporate governance, firm performance, SMEs, private enterprises in China |
| JEL: | G30 G32 L20 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2012-38&r=tra |
| By: | FUKAO Kyoji; Tangjun YUAN |
| Abstract: | In a country such as China, which maintains strict controls on foreign exchange and frequently intervenes in the currency market, it is not surprising that the local currency is persistently undervalued in nominal terms. Normally, one would expect such a policy of deliberate currency undervaluation to result in a sharp rise in domestic prices, with abnormally low prices reversed not through an appreciation of the nominal exchange rate but through a rise in domestic prices. Why is this not occurring in China? A possible explanation is that, due to certain structural reasons, the equilibrium real exchange rate for China is considerably lower than that of other developing countries.<br />Taking this hypothesis as our point of departure, we examine how undervalued the Chinese yuan is in terms of purchasing power parity by comparing China's experience with other developing countries and the development process of developed countries in the past. In addition, we construct an open economy growth model with three sectors, where - similar to the Lewis growth model - there is surplus labor in the primary sector. Using this model, we analyze the relationship between the economic growth process and the level of absolute prices (real exchange rate). We show that the absolute price level will not increase until the economy reaches the Lewisian turning point. In addition, we show that in an economy like China, where there are strong barriers to the migration of labor to the manufacturing sector and where the ratio of net exports of goods and services to GDP is high, the economy will not reach the turning point until GDP per worker reaches a certain level. |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:12056&r=tra |
| By: | Zheng Song (Department of Economics, University of Chicago Booth, Chicago, Illinois, United States); Kjetil Storesletten (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States); Yikai Wang (Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Switzerland); Fabrizio Zilibotti (CEPRA, Institute of Economics, Universita' della Svizzera Italiana) |
| Abstract: | Intergenerational inequality and old-age poverty are salient isuues in contemporary China. China's aging population threatens the fiscal sustainability of its pension system, a key vehicle for intergenerational redistribution. We analyze the positive and normative effects of alternative pension reforms, using a dynamic general equilibrium model that incorporates population dynamics and productivity growth. Although a reform is necessary, delaying its implementation implies large welfare gains for the (poorer) current generations, imposing only small costs on (richer) future generations. In contrast, a fully funded reform harms current generations, with small gains to future generations. High wage growth is key for these results. |
| Keywords: | China, credit market imperfections, demographic transition, economic growth, fully funded system, inequality, intergenerational redistribution, labor supply, migration, pensions, poverty, rural-urban reallocation, total fertility rate, wage growth |
| JEL: | E21 E24 G23 H55 J11 J13 O43 R23 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lug:wcepra:1203&r=tra |
| By: | Yongheng Deng; Joseph Gyourko; Jing Wu |
| Abstract: | We provide the first multi-city, constant quality land price index for 35 major markets in China. While there is meaningful heterogeneity in land price growth across cities, on average the last nine years have seen land values skyrocket in many markets, not just those on or near the coast. The typical market has experienced double-digit compound average annual growth in real, constant-quality land values. The 2009-2010 stimulus period typically saw large surges in prices. Three notable characteristics about the land value appreciation series are their strong mean reversion at annual frequencies, the strong common factor in their movement, and their very high volatility. Quantities, not just prices, have been sharply increasing in recent years. The typical amount of space supplied via land auctions in our 35 city sample has doubled since 2008. Some local political economy traits such as the time the local Chinese Communist Party leader has been in office are correlated with land supply volume. We also investigate the quality of the two most prominent house price indexes in China, and conclude that a traditional hedonic index more accurately reflects how house prices have changed over time in eight major markets in China. Repeat sales indexes have become standard in many countries, but they are not as useful in emerging markets such as China because the bulk of the housing stock is relatively new and has not traded multiple times. A hedonic index shows much higher house price growth over time that do officially published series for the eight markets examined. |
| JEL: | R0 R14 R3 R31 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18403&r=tra |
| By: | Mu, Ren (Texas A&M University); Du, Yang (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) |
| Abstract: | When social security is established to provide pensions to parents, their reliance upon children for future financial support decreases; and their need to save for retirement also falls. We use the expansion of pension coverage from the state sector to the non-state sector in urban China as a quasi-experiment to analyze the intergenerational impact of social security on educational investments in children. With a difference-in-differences framework, we find a significant increase in the total education expenditure attributable to pension expansion. The results are unlikely to be driven by trends in medical insurance, wages, bonus income, and housing values. They are robust to the inclusion of a large set of control variables and to different specifications, including one based on the instrumental variable method. |
| Keywords: | pension, education expenditure, gender difference, urban, China |
| JEL: | J26 J24 O15 D13 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6797&r=tra |
| By: | Liu, Hong (Central University of Finance and Economics); Zhao, Zhong (Renmin University of China) |
| Abstract: | In 2007, China launched a subsidized voluntary public health insurance program, the Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance, for urban residents without formal employment, including children, the elderly, and other unemployed urban residents. We estimate the impact of this program on health care utilization and expenditure using 2006 and 2009 waves of the China Health and Nutrition Survey. We find that this program has significantly increased the utilization of formal medical services. This result is robust to various specifications and multiple estimation strategies. However, there is no evidence that it has reduced out-of-pocket expenditure and some evidence suggesting that it has increased the total health care expenditure. We also find that this program has improved medical care utilization more for the elderly, for the low- and middle-income families, and for the residents in the relatively poor western region. |
| Keywords: | urban China, health insurance, health care utilization, health expenditure |
| JEL: | G22 H43 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6768&r=tra |
| By: | Gilli, Mario (Department of Economics, University of Milan-Bicocca); Li, Yuan (China Economic Research Center) |
| Abstract: | Do citizens have a role in constraining the policies of autocratic governments? Usually political and economic literature models autocracy as if citizens have no role in constraining a leader's behavior, when in fact autocratic governments are afraid of potential citizen revolts. In this paper we build a three player political agency model to study citizenry accountability in autocracies. We show that the citizens can effectively discipline the leader due to the threat of revolution notwithstanding the size of the selectorate, though this may result in a failed state when the costs of revolution and the size of the selectorate are small. Our model and results provide a useful framework for interpreting the political logic of the China's economic reform after the "Tiananmen incident". |
| Keywords: | Autocracy; Accountability; Revolt; Chinese Economic Reform |
| JEL: | D02 D74 H11 P30 |
| Date: | 2012–09–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:hacerc:2012-023&r=tra |
| By: | de Brauw, Alan (International Food Policy Research Institute); Giles, John T. (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine the impact of reductions in barriers to migration on the consumption of households in rural China. We find that increased migration from rural villages leads to significant increases in consumption per capita, and that this effect is stronger for poorer households within villages. Household income per capita and non-durable consumption per capita both increase with out-migration, and this increase is greater for poorer households. We also establish a causal relationship between increased out-migration and investment in housing and durable goods assets, and these effects are also stronger for poorer households. We do not find robust evidence, however, to support a connection between increased migration and investment in productive activity. Instead, increased migration is associated with two significant changes for poorer households: increases both in the total labor supplied to productive activities and in the land per capita managed by the household. In examining the effect of migration, we pay considerable attention to motivating, developing and evaluating our identification strategy. |
| Keywords: | migration, migrant networks, consumption, poverty, wealth, rural China |
| JEL: | O12 O15 J22 J24 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6765&r=tra |
| By: | Belke, Ansgar (University of Duisburg-Essen); Vogel, Lukas (European Commission) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the contemporaneous relationship between the exchange rate regime and structural economic reforms for a sample of CEEC/CIS transition countries. We investigate empirically whether structural reforms are complements or substitutes for monetary commitment in the attempt to improve macroeconomic performance. Both EBRD and EFW data suggest a negative relationship between flexible exchange rate arrangements and external liberalization. Another finding from the EFW sample is that economic liberalisation has tended to be stronger under better macroeconomic fundamentals, suggesting that the impact of good macroeconomic conditions as facilitating structural reforms outweighs countervailing effects in the sense of lower reform pressure. |
| Keywords: | political economy of reform, panel data, structural reform, exchange rate regime, transition countries |
| JEL: | D78 E52 E61 F36 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6775&r=tra |
| By: | Vinod Mishra; Russell Smyth |
| Abstract: | We estimate the returns to schooling using matched employer-employee data from Shanghai. To do so, we use a novel identification strategy, proposed by Lewbel (2012), which utilizes a heteroscedastic covariance restriction to construct an internal instrumental variable (IV). We find that, for the full sample, the Lewbel (2012) IV estimation suggests returns to schooling generally in the range 25-30 per cent, which is higher than extant studies using conventional IVs. The findings in this study underpin the need for the Chinese government to continue to invest in education and help explain why private demand for education remains strong, despite rising cost. |
| Keywords: | China; Schooling; Income; Lewbel |
| JEL: | I25 J31 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2012-33&r=tra |
| By: | Oprean, Victor-Bogdan |
| Abstract: | Sustainability of the Social Security Systems is dependant on a large variety of factors of which, directly connected with the general economic growth, the human capital proved to have a decisive and direct influence. Internationally synchronized Education should, in this context, normally be the engine behind the social security system’s vehicle. In the conditions of the international mobility of the labor forces, there is a complex set of incentives to provide an international applicability of a given type of education. However, there is a specific cost of providing such education for the countries that face an education outsourcing. In such a scenario, education may show more attributes of breaks instead of an engine pushing forward the system as a whole, giving new perspectives to the “brain-drain brain-gain” conundrum. In the conditions of the international mobility of the labor forces, there is a complex set of incentives to provide an international applicability of a given type of education. But there is a specific cost of providing such education for the countries that face an education outsourcing. The objective of this study is to provide an assessment of such cost for an emerging economy like the Romanian one. We are adopting a modified version of the analytical framework proposed by Poutvaara (2005). This framework describes the link between public education and migration, and can be used to test the migration incentives from Romania to EU15 countries. Further, we estimate the loss of Romanian economy as a result of such a process using a dataset for a 7 year period prior and post- Romanian accession to EU in 2007. Our results suggest that the case of Romanian emigration falls within the frame model’s variant of an asymmetric federation. Since the primary and secondary education has no particular country specific orientation and the tertiary public education is organized according to Bologna provisions and requirements, the education provided by the Romanian public system can be considered as being internationally applicable with respect to EU15 countries. The cost of emigration is estimated as a function of public education expenses, wage taxes and the taxes on final consumption per capita not recovered from or lost due to emigration. An interpretation of the figures is provided and further research directions are suggested. The outcome of the proposed analysis can serve to a better-structured design of the public policies for education considering the societal characteristics of Romania in the context of European Union integration. |
| Keywords: | Public education; migration; public expenses; Romania; European Union |
| JEL: | F22 H75 I28 H52 |
| Date: | 2012–09–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:41432&r=tra |
| By: | Johansson, Anders C. (China Economic Research Center); Wang, Xun (China Economic Research Center) |
| Abstract: | While finance has been shown to influence the distribution of income, little research has been devoted to the potential impact of financial sector policies on inequality. This study analyzes the relationship between financial repression and inequality across countries and across China's provinces. Using several alternative estimation procedures including fixed effect, dynamic panel and instrumental variable regressions, we find that financial repression is positively associated with inequality across countries. Moreover, we find that this relationship is stronger in less developed economies and that interest rate controls, capital account controls, poor banking supervision and a concentrated banking sector are the most important financial policies influencing inequality. Furthermore, financial repression is associated with a higher fraction of the population living in poverty. Focusing on China, financial repression again acts as a driver for inequality and its effect is stronger in less developed provinces. These results have important policy implications, not the least so for China, where rising inequality poses a significant problem for the government. |
| Keywords: | Income distribution; Poverty; Financial repression; Capital markets; China |
| JEL: | D31 G00 O11 O16 |
| Date: | 2012–09–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:hacerc:2012-024&r=tra |
| By: | Charles R. Hulten; Janet X. Hao |
| Abstract: | Investment in a broad array of intangible capital – R&D, organizational capital, worker training, and brand equity – has occurred in many of the most advanced world economies and has been found to be an important source of economic growth. This evidence suggests that intangible capital formation may play an important role in China’s reform-driven transformation to a more market-oriented open economy. Though the literature on intangible capital is expanding, there has as yet been no general assessment of its role in China’s rapid economic growth. This paper seeks to fill this gap by estimating how much intangible investment has taken place there over the last two decades. The importance of this capital as a driver of China’s recent growth is then assessed using a growth accounting framework, and the results compared to similar findings for the U.S., Japan, the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, as well as Japan during its high growth period. The paper also looks beyond the growth accounting framework to the role of saving rates and long-run convergence in shaping longer-term growth prospects. It also focuses on the problem of accurate economic measurement in an economy undergoing rapid transformation. |
| JEL: | O11 O30 O47 O53 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18405&r=tra |
| By: | Elsner, Benjamin (IZA) |
| Abstract: | Around 9% of the Lithuanian workforce emigrated to Western Europe after the enlargement of the European Union in 2004. I exploit this emigration wave to study the effect of emigration on wages in the sending country. Using household data from Lithuania and work permit and census data from the UK and Ireland, I demonstrate that emigration had a significant positive effect on the wages of stayers. A one percentage-point increase in the emigration rate predicts a 0.67% increase in real wages. This effect, however, is only statistically significant for men. |
| Keywords: | emigration, labor mobility, EU enlargement |
| JEL: | F22 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6843&r=tra |
| By: | Ming, Xiao |
| Abstract: | With the supreme political authority’s endorsement, an e-participation movement, namely “online enquiry politics” is developing vigorously in China. Among the variety of local e-participation experimental practices in China, the study deals with the Guangdong e-participation system as a microcosm of this regime in China to explore what actually happens in e-participation practices and its dynamics. This system has developed an advanced online e-participation platform and a suite of official supporting mechanisms, e.g. the cyber-spokesman and the assignment conference. These mechanisms organically integrate the system’s functions of voice, replies and handling. Citizens on this system do take full advantage of the flexibility and anonymity of the Internet to enjoy a free low-risk space. Besides the immediate functions above, e-participation fosters policy debate, plays a supervisory role for government agencies, and creates a variety of ad hoc virtual communities focusing on specific policy-making issues. As the state has to increasingly adopt a series of soft and proactive adaptive strategies to make the Internet serve its purpose, e-participation has a special survival status in China. |
| Keywords: | e-participation, government-decision-making, democracy, china, guangdong-province |
| Date: | 2012–01–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ita:itaman:12_01&r=tra |
| By: | Allison, Graham (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | Twenty years ago Russia and fourteen other newly-independent states emerged from the ruins of the Soviet empire, many as nations for the first time in history. As is typical in the aftermath of the collapse of an empire, this was followed by a period of chaos, confusion, and corruption. As the saying went at the time, "everything is for sale." At that same moment, as the Soviet state imploded, 35,000 nuclear weapons remained at thousands of sites across a vast Eurasian landmass that stretched across eleven time zones. Today, fourteen of the fifteen successor states to the Soviet Union are nuclear weapons-free. When the U.S.S.R. disappeared, 3,200 strategic nuclear warheads remained in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus, most of them atop intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that stood on alert, ready to be fired at targets in the U.S. Today, every one of the nuclear weapons in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus has been deactivated and returned to Russia, where they were dismantled and the nuclear material in the warheads blended down to produce fuel for civilian reactors. Strategic nuclear weapons are nuclear warheads aimed at an adversary's nuclear weapons, cities and military infrastructure. Typically, they are large in yield and heavy. Of greater interest to terrorists, however, were the former U.S.S.R's 22,000 tactical nuclear weapons with smaller yields and shorter ranges. These were designed primarily for battlefield use, with some small enough to fit into a duffel bag. Today, all of these have also been returned to Russia, leaving zero nuclear weapons in any other state of the former Soviet Union. Former Czech president Vaclav Havel observed about the rush of events in the 1990s: "things have changed so fast we have not yet taken time to be astonished." Perhaps the most astonishing fact about the past twenty years is something that did not happen. Despite the risk realistically estimated by former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney in 3 What Happened to the Soviet Superpower's Nuclear Arsenal? Clues for the Nuclear Security Summit December 1991, two decades have passed without the discovery of a single nuclear weapon outside Russia. This paper will address the question: how did this happen? Looking ahead, it will consider what clues we can extract from the success in denuclearizing fourteen post-Soviet states that can inform our non-proliferation and nuclear security efforts in the future. These clues may inform leaders of the U.S., Russia, and other responsible nations attending the Seoul Nuclear Security Summit on March 26-27, 2012. The paper will conclude with specific recommendations, some exceedingly ambitious that world leaders could follow to build on the Seoul summit's achievements against nuclear terrorism in the period before the next summit in 2014. One of these would be to establish a Global Alliance Against Nuclear Terrorism. |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp12-038&r=tra |
| By: | Vinod Mishra; Russell Smyth |
| Abstract: | We examine the relationship between research and development (R&D) intensity and wages, using a unique matched employer-employee dataset. The dataset has the advantage that it links firm-level investment in R&D to individual employee wages and allows us to control for both employee and employer characteristics. Our main finding is that a one standard deviation increase in R&D intensity is associated with an increase in the hourly wage rate between 3.4 per cent and 6.9 per cent for the full sample, depending on the exact specification. We find that the wage elasticity with respect to R&D intensity is higher in larger firms as well as for better educated workers and workers with technical certification/skills. We also find, consistent with the rent-sharing hypothesis, that the wage elasticity with respect to R&D intensity is higher for workers who belong to the Communist Party or trade union. |
| Keywords: | R&D, China, Wages, Shanghai |
| JEL: | J31 O31 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2012-28&r=tra |
| By: | Debra Mountford; Greg Clark; Peter Dupej; Mateu Hernández; Joe Huxley |
| Abstract: | This project aims to support the Slovak Republic as it seeks to create a clear rationale for the Regional Development Agencies Integrated Network which currently comprises 38 agencies. The project considers the efficiency of the network and evaluates the appropriateness of the agencies’ functions, competencies and remit for delivery of effective local economic development. The project is part of series of reforms which have been taking place in the Slovak Republic to realise the aims and objectives of The Act No. 539/2008 coll. on regional development (539 Act) on the Support of Regional Development which provides the a general framework for regional development policy and delivery in accordance with the 2004 Ministerial Guidelines on PHSR – Economic and Social Development Programme of Higher Territorial Unit. |
| Date: | 2012–09–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:cfeaaa:2012/16-en&r=tra |
| By: | Vinod Mishra; Russell Smyth |
| Abstract: | This study examines the extent to which high performance work practices (HPWP) are correlated with participation in, and frequency and duration of, workplace training, controlling for worker and workplace characteristics. To do so, the study uses a unique matched employee-employer dataset from Shanghai. The findings suggest that about half of the HPWP considered are positively correlated with the incidence and breadth of workplace training. There is also some support for the view that bundling of HPWP is positively correlated with the provision of workplace training. There is, however, no evidence that the adoption of HPWP polarizes skills through resulting in more training for professional/technical staff over others. |
| Keywords: | China, Training, High performance work practices, Shanghai |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2012-30&r=tra |