scholarly journals The Missing Food Problem: Trade, Agriculture, and International Productivity Differences

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 226-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor Tombe

Agriculture in poor countries has low productivity, high employment, and negligible trade flows relative to other sectors. These facts motivate a multisector, open-economy view of international productivity differences. With a quantitative multicountry model featuring nonhomothetic preferences, multiple interrelated sectors, distorted labor markets, and costly trade, I find: trade amplifies the negative effect of labor market distortions; trade costs—large for poor countries, especially in agriculture—significantly contribute to international productivity differences; and explicitly modeling agriculture reveals additional channels through which poor countries may gain from trade. (JEL F41, J24, J43, O13, O19, Q11, Q17)

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Lyhne Ibsen

The Danish concept of flexicurity in a `Golden Triangle´ of low job protection, high income security and high employment security is not only about a balance between labor market flexibility and social security. Arguably, it is also a series of more or less stable underlying compromises between social partners about the main mechanisms and aims of labor market regulation which - supposedly - should be focused on employment rather than jobs, and competition on quality rather than on labor costs. However, the `Golden Triangle´ - this article argues - seems in need of complementary concepts. The article therefore introduces, `centralized decentralization´ - a concept that directs our attention to forms of flexibility and security primarily for people in work. Most studies on Danish flexicurity have been carried out under favorable economic conditions. In light of the economic slump hitting Denmark in 2008, this article investigates if and how the recession challenged these compromises by comparing two rounds of case-based interviews in three metalworking companies in 2007 and 2009. It is shown that practice has indeed changed - albeit modestly - due to worsened economic circumstances. For example the case studies show that the hypothesized preference for external numerical flexibility is perhaps too crude as employers use different ways to restructure employment. Especially the examples of de facto concessionary bargaining to save jobs are important here - although the extent of concessions is modest. The evidence thus suggests that the `Golden Triangle´ flexicurity compromises are indeed strained by the economic cycle and that responses to impetus for restructuring are far more nuanced than sometimes portrayed. It is argues that more company studies across national labor markets and industrial relations institutions will enhance our understanding of the dynamics during times of restructuring.


2004 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 691-751 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E Anderson ◽  
Eric van Wincoop

This paper surveys the measurement of trade costs: what we know and don't know but may usefully attempt to learn. Partial and incomplete data on direct measures of costs go with inference on implicit costs from trade flows and prices. Total trade costs in rich countries are large. The ad valorem tax equivalent is about 170 percent when pushing the data hard. Poor countries face even higher trade costs. There is a lot of variation across countries and across goods within countries, much of which makes economic sense. In our survey, theory provides interpretation and perspective and suggests improvements for the future. Some new results are presented to properly apply and interpret gravity theory and handle aggregation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (18) ◽  
Author(s):  
Camilo Contreras Delgado

Resumen:Este artículo examina los fa c t o res internos y externos a una localidad que son copartícipes en la estructuración y reestructuración de su mercado de trabajo local. A partir de la revisión de la historia social y económica del lugar, se destaca su tránsito de enclave minero a lugar de residencia de mineros y trabajadores de maquiladoras. En este caso, se presenta la constitución de los mercados de trabajo locales como un resultado del encuentro de las condiciones del lugar de residencia de los trabajadores y el lugar donde se encuentra el centro de trabajo. De aquí que la movilidad laboral geográfica aparezca como una de las tácticas de los sujetos ante una situación de desempleo.Palabras clave: Mercado de trabajo, Minería, Maquiladoras, Mineros, Movilidad laboral, Desempleo.Abstract:This article examines the internal and external local factors shaping the structuring and restructuring of a local labor market. By reviewing the social and economic history of the community, this article underlines its transition from a mining setting to a residence place for miners and maquila workers. In this case, the constitution of local labor markets is presented as a result of the condition encounter of both workers residence place and the location of the work place. This is a reason explaining why geographical labor mobility comes to be an actor tactic to face unemployment.Key words: Labor market, Mining, Export-oriented industry, Miners, Labor mobility, Unemployment.


2021 ◽  
pp. 107755872110129
Author(s):  
Mark K. Meiselbach ◽  
Matthew D. Eisenberg ◽  
Ge Bai ◽  
Aditi Sen ◽  
Gerard F. Anderson

In concentrated labor markets, where workers have fewer employers to choose from, employers may exploit their monopsony power by contributing less to workers’ health benefits. This study examined if labor market concentration was associated with higher worker contributions to health plan premiums. We combined publicly available data from the Census to calculate labor market concentration and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Insurance/Employer Component to determine premium contributions from 2010 to 2016 for metropolitan areas. After controlling for year fixed-effects and market characteristics, we found that higher labor market concentration was associated with higher worker contributions to health plan premiums, lower take-home income, and no change in employer contributions to premiums, consistent with the hypothesis that greater labor market concentration is associated with less generous health benefits. When evaluating the effects of mergers and acquisitions on labor markets, regulatory agencies should critically assess worker contributions to health insurance premiums.


SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824402110360
Author(s):  
Imran Ur Rahman ◽  
Mohsin Shafi ◽  
Liu Junrong ◽  
Enitilina Tatiani M.K. Fetuu ◽  
Shah Fahad ◽  
...  

We empirically determine the role of different forms of infrastructure on a country’s trade. We use an augmented gravity model that incorporates infrastructure in the estimation of merchandise trade flows. We take panel data, including China and 21 selected Asian economies, from 1999 to 2018. We find that the panel ordinary least squares (OLS) and poisson pseudo maximum likelihood (PPML) model estimations prove to be significant. Proxies for Transport Infrastructure including roads, railways, and sea transport, and Proxies for information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure consisting of mobile, electricity, and internet connections show a strong and positive impact on trade while air transport and landline phone connection have an unexpected negative effect on trade. The positive estimates for quality of infrastructure signify that high standards of Transport and ICT infrastructures lead to increased trade flows of the exporting and importing countries. Results also show that cultural similarity leads to increased trade flows between China and its trading partners in Asia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7926
Author(s):  
Bharman Gulati ◽  
Stephan Weiler

This paper explores the role of local labor market dynamics on the survival of new businesses. The characteristics of the local labor market are likely to influence the survival of new businesses, the level of entrepreneurship, and the resilience of the regional economy. We apply portfolio theory to evaluate employment-based and income-based measures of risk-and-return trade-offs in local labor markets on new business survival in the United States. Our results show that volatility in local labor markets has a positive impact on new business survival, especially in Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The results are robust across different timeframes, including during economic downturns, thus highlighting the contribution of new businesses in developing the resilience of the local economy, and further promoting sustainable regional economic development.


Author(s):  
Katja Schuster ◽  
Anne Margarian

AbstractMotivated by discussions of skill mismatches on local German vocational educational and training (VET) markets, this paper analyses how occupational segments of VET entry of individuals with lower and intermediate secondary school degree relate to local labor market characteristics. The econometric analysis applies data from a survey conducted with 9th graders within the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). Considering opportunity structures and the local competition for training positions, we find that the match between occupations' skill demands and individuals' abilities tends to be specifically close in diverse and competitive urban labor markets. In non-competitive peripheral labor markets, in contrast, graduates with lower school certificates seem to have a higher likelihood of entering VET in segments that are specifically attractive for graduates with upper secondary school degree. The results on the allocation of abilities and the weight of preferences under different labor market conditions have different welfare implications from an individual, regional and general economic perspective.


1998 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
James J Heckman

The evidence on discrimination produced from the audit method is examined. Audits survey the average firm and not the marginal firm which determines the level of market discrimination. Taken on its own terms, there is little evidence of labor market discrimination from audit methods. The validity of audit methods is critically dependent on unverified assumptions about equality across race/gender groups of the distributions of unobserved (by audit designers) productivity components acted on by firms and about the way labor markets work. Audits can find discrimination when none exists and can disguise it when it does.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 1147-1167
Author(s):  
Ensar Yılmaz

Abstract This paper aims to search links between market imperfections and functional income distribution. For this purpose we construct a two-sector model – wage goods and luxury goods producing sectors – incorporating imperfections of the product and labor markets under income inequality. In a structure with interdependent and partially monopolistic and competitive markets, we analytically trace up the effects of the changes in power relations proxied by the degree of mark-ups in the product and labor market. The model shows that price and wage mark-ups in two sectors have crucial income distribution implications for the agents in the economy to varying extents. It also demonstrates the effect of the existence of the differentiated consumption patterns arising from income inequality on income distribution. Furthermore, it seems that unemployment level creates externalities on wage rate and on corporate taxes of firms.


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