market rigidities and labour market flexibility an international comparison the effects of product and labour market rigidities on labour market dynamics are analysed using a panel of two digit isic level data for seven oecd countries as expected employment protection was found to slacken labour market flows centralized wage bargaining also reduced the degree of job turnover although a priori the effect of centralized wage bargaining on labour market flexibility is not clear industry subsidies have a positive impact on job reallocation by increasing job creation the labour market dynamics are also compared in detail for two economies regarded as extremes in terms of regulations the u s and norway

an international cohort comparison of size effects on job growth the contribution of different sized businesses to job creation continues to attract policymakers attention however it has recently been recognised that conclusions about size were confounded with the effect of age we probe the role of size controlling for age by comparing the cohorts of firms born in 1998 over their first decade of life using variation across half a dozen northern european countries austria finland germany norway sweden and the uk to pin down size effects we find that a very small proportion of the smallest firms play a crucial role in accounting for cross country differences in job growth a closer analysis reveals that the initial size distribution and survival rates do not seem to explain job growth differences between countries rather it is a small number of rapidly growing firms that are driving this result

labor flows across firm size age and economic sector in colombia vs the united states this paper compares labor market flows between a developing economy colombia and a developed one the united states us in a comparative framework we explore measures of labor market flows across dimensions such as firm size age and economic sector this comparison allows us testing for both countries a series of interesting hypothesis suggested in the literature namely the negative systematic relationship between firm size age and employment growth rate we find that labor market fluidity in the us labor market is substantially higher than in colombia and that the churning rate is twice as high for the us market as it is for the colombian one we argue that this fluidity gap between the two economies can be explained by among other factors the rigid nature of colombian labour market institutions

law and employment lessons from latin america and the caribbean analyzing the effects of regulation and deregulation on latin american labor markets law and employment joins the ongoing debate about the virtues and costs of legislating mandatory benefits for workers of the numerous labor regulations that were altered or created in latin america during the last thirty years many have had unintended and far reaching results nobel prize winning economist james j heckman and carmen pages document the behavior of firms attempting to stay in business and be competitive while facing the high costs of complying with these labor laws they challenge the prevailing view that labor market regulations affect only the distribution of labor incomes and have little or no impact on efficiency or the performance of labor markets this volume shows that mandated benefits reduce employment have a disruptive impact on turnover rates and labor market flexibility promote inequality and discriminate against marginal workers along with in depth studies of colombia peru brazil argentina chile and uruguay law and employment provides comparative analysis from a range of european countries and the united states while also covering important changes in reg

age or size contributions to job creation small firms have been identified as drivers of job creation although the evidence on their contribution to net employment growth has been disputed this article shows that job turnover and firm growth vary systematically across firm size groups and that smaller firms do indeed make an important contribution to new job creation there is a significant caveat however we find that it is not firm size per se that is driving these results but rather firm age we show that younger firms are consistently more dynamic than older firms we also find a strong inverse relationship between employment growth and size for young firms but this declines very markedly for older age groups this provides some support for the gibrat s law prediction that size and growth are independent but only once the firm has moved beyond the start up stage

who creates jobs econometric modeling and evidence for austrian firm level data abstract this paper provides evidence on the role of firm size and firm age for firm level net job creation in the austrian economy between 1993 and 2013 and during the great recession we propose a new estimation strategy based on a two part model to decompose behavioral differences between exiting and surviving firms young firms contribute most to net job creation despite high relative exit rates due to high growth rates among young surviving firms small firms have similar job creation rates conditional on survival as large firms small firms contribution to job creation is however smaller due to higher exit rates the up or out dynamics characterizing less regulated economies such as the us also apply to the more regulated austrian economy during the great recession both the relative net job creation rate conditional on survival and the relative survival probability of young firms decreased the relative contribution of small firms to net job creation by contrast increased due to increased relative job creation rates of small firms conditional on survival

peer effects on a fertility decision an application for medellin colombia abstract the paper provides historical perspectives on spatial economic inequalities in brazil making use of a database on brazilian municipalities from 1872 to 2000 a suit of maps and graphs describe the geographic factors shaping the historical development of the brazilian economy highlighting the role of transport costs and its consequences for the spatial dynamics of income per capita and labor productivity the remaining of the paper estimates econometric models of growth convergence for municipal income per capita and labor productivity from 1920 onwards analyses are refined firstly by disaggregating the models for urban and rural activities secondly by assuming spatial correlation among variables of the model and thirdly by enlarging the model to take account of the long run determinants of spatial growth convergence empirical results endorse the historical preeminence of geographic factors in particular accessibility and transport conditions as opposed to institutional conditions the conclusion summarizes the results and proposes research extensions

job creation process in a transition economy in many european countries sme policy is close to being a synonym for job creation most empirical research on the job generation potential of small firms over the last decade has been done in the stable and favorable economic conditions of market economies the paper investigates the role of small firms in more difficult circumstances on an empirical data set for slovenia the paper tries to show that small firms have been the most important employer during the transition period a finding that very likely can be extrapolated for other european transition economies over the last decade slovenia has transformed from a labor managed economic system to a market oriented economy if we compare the firm size structure in a socialist like economy to the firm size structure in a mature market economy close to equilibrium we notice a typical absence of small and medium sized firms with the exception of craft shops that was how slovenia appeared in the early nineties charac terized by the removal of administrative barriers transition encouraged a spontaneous entrepreneurial wave through an expanding small business sector the ensuing changes in employment distribution changed the firm size structure

demand learning and firm dynamics evidence from exporters abstract this paper provides direct evidence that learning about demand is an important driver of firms dynamics we present a model of bayesian learning in which firms are uncertain about idiosyncratic demand in each market and update their beliefs as noisy information arrives firms update their beliefs to a given demand shock more the younger they are we test and empirically confirm this prediction using the structure of the model together with exporter level data to identify demand shocks and the firms beliefs about future demand consistent with theory we also find the learning process to be weakened in more uncertain environments

industrial districts old wine in new bottles harrison b 1992 industrial districts old wine in new bottles reg studies 26 469 483 according to the theory of industrial districts a new wave of economic growth is being led in a number of regions in europe north america and east asia by spatially concentrated networks of mostly small and medium sized enterprises often using flexible production technology and characterized by extensive local interfirm linkages does this amount to a re emergence of the dominance of what urban and regional economists call agglomeration economies over the well known pressures on business to spatially disperse its operations neoclassical economic theorizing from marshall to perroux provides one perspective on the contemporary industrial district phenomenon another is afforded by granovetter s more recent elaboration of the ideas of embedding under and over socialization confronting each of these theoretical approaches with the other leads me to conclude that the industrial district prototypes involv

toward an economic model of the japanese firm i owe a great deal to professor moses abramovitz who suggested that i write this article i appreciate his constant encouragement and guidance which aided me throughout its preparation i am also indebted to three anonymous referees of the journal and to professors ryutaro komiya and michael riordan for their critical comments and helpful suggestions needless to say i am solely responsible for the views expressed in this paper

the origins and dynamics of production networks in silicon valley abstract computer systems firms in silicon valley are responding to rising costs of product development shorter product cycles and rapid technological change by focusing and building partnerships with suppliers both within and outside of the region well known firms like hewlett packard and apple computers and lesser known ones like silicon graphics and pyramid technology are organized to combine the components and sub systems made by specialist suppliers into new computer systems as these firms collaborate to both define and manufacture new systems they are institutionalizing their capacity to learn from one another three cases a contract manufacturer a silicon foundry and the joint development of a microprocessor illustrate how inter firm networks help account for the sustained technological dynamism of the regional economy

some aspects of japanese corporate finance in this paper we attempt to blend economic theory with an understanding of the historical context and regulation of japanese financial markets particularly during the 1950s and 1960s the historical and regulatory context is critical since it represents the framework within which the economic forces operated that is we are interested in examining how a particular structure characterized by controlled interest rates segmentation of markets and functions and limited entry gave rise in understandable ways to distinctive corporate financial practices there have been a number of recent publications that attempt to describe and explain the japanese corporate financial system 1 perhaps the most discussed topics are the relatively high degree of financial leverage for the typical japa nese firm and the predominance of bank financing for the external funding of large corporations there also has been discussion of such apparent peculiarities in the equity markets as the issue of shares at a par value of 50 yen when their market value is 1 000 yen or more as well as the extensive cross holdings of shares between corporations the role of a firm s main bank as not only len der and financial advisor but in some cases exercising management control also has received attention before we address these issues we wish to make two points first the structure of the japanese financial system changed radically after world war ii as a consequence of legislation introduced by the occupation authorities and the need to rebuild for example with respect to high debt to equity ratios and heavy dependence on bank loans nakamura 26 cites evidence that equity comprised 67 percent of gross capital total assets for manufacturing industries in 1935 in a related vein kurosawa 22 provides figures that external funding by japanese corporations during the 1931 1936 period was only 4 percent from bank loans with 96 percent through stocks and industrial bonds

firm size wage differentials in the netherlands an unsolved problem in modern labor economics is the positive relation between the size of the firm in which a worker is employed and his wage one line of research that has been developed quite recently in this field is the application of endogenous switching regression models in this paper we utilize such a model to investigate firm size wage differentials in the netherlands the principal findings are that larger firms pay higher returns on schooling whereas smaller firms tend to reward iq combined with the finding that high iq workers are sorted into the largest firms the results are consistent with a model of job screening furthermore we find that employed sons of self employed fathers are more likely to work in small firms and that wage prospects for all types of workers are indeed most favorable in larger firms

recombinant property in east european capitalism recombinant property is a form of organizational hedging in which actors respond to uncertainty by deversifying assets redefining and recombining resources it is an attempt to hold resources that can be justified by more than one legitimating principle property tansformation in postsocialist hungary involves the decentralized reorganization of assets and the centralized management of liabilities together they blur the boundaries of public and private the boundaries of enterprises and the boundedness of justificatory principles enterprise level field research data on the ownership structure of hungary s 220 largest enterprises and banks and an examination of the government s recent debt consolidation programs suggest the emergence of a distinctively east european capitalism that will differ as much from west european capitalism as do contemporary east asian variants

the impact of minimum wages in mexico and colombia there are diverging views about how minimum wages affect labor markets in developing countries advocates of minimum wages hold that they redistribute resources in a welfare enhancing way and can thus reduce poverty improve productivity and foster growth opponents on the other hand contend that minimum wage interventions result in a misallocation of labor and lead to depressed wages in the very sectors the rural and informal urban sectors where most of the poor are found with the effect of wasting resources and reducing the growth rate data from colombia and mexico for the 1980s provide an opportunity to evaluate the impact of minimum wages in mexico in the 1980s the minimum wage fell in real terms roughly 45 percent by 1990 mexico s minimum wage was about 13 percent of the average unskilled manufacturing wage during the same period the minimum wage in colombia increased at nearly the same rate reaching roughly 53 percent of the average unskilled wage the author charts how the mandated minimum wage affected the demand for skilled and unskilled labor in both countries during that decade findings are as follows in mexico minimum wages have had virtually no effect on wages or employment in the formal sector the main reason the minimum wage is not an effective wage for most firms or workers in the informal sector in turn there is considerable noncompliance with the mandated minimum wage especially among part time and female workers as a result significant numbers of workers are paid at or below minimum wages in colombia minimum wages have a much stronger impact on wages judging from their proximity to the average wage and both cross section and time series estimates the estimates imply that the elasticity of low paid unskilled employment with respect to minimum wages is in the range of 2 to 12 percent

the rise in the disability rolls and the decline in unemployment between 1984 and 2001 the share of nonelderly adults receiving social security disability insurance income di rose by 60 percent to 5 3 million beneficiaries rapid program growth despite improving aggregate health appears to be explained by reduced screening stringency declining demand for less skilled workers and an unforeseen increase in the earnings replacement rate we estimate that the sum of these forces doubled the labor force exit propensity of displaced high school dropouts after 1984 lowering measured u s unemployment by one half a percentage point steady state calculations augur a further 40 percent increase in the rate of di receipt

top executive rewards and firm performance a comparison of japan and the united states this paper studies top executive turnover and compensation and their relation to firm performance in the largest japanese and u s companies japanese executive turnover and compensation are related to earnings stock returns and to a lesser extent sales performance measures the fortunes of japanese top executives therefore are positively correlated with stock performance and current cash flows or with factors contributing to such performance the relations for the japanese executives are generally economically and statistically similar to those for their u s counterparts there is some evidence however that the fortunes of japanese executives are more sensitive to low income but less sensitive to stock returns than those of u s executives

culture meaning and institutions executive rationale in germany and japan this paper contributes rare primary empirical evidence to one of the major research questions in the social sciences today namely the linkage between national cultures and institutional structures of national business systems drawing on the work of redding we explore the thinking or rationale of senior executives of leading german and japanese firms about the ideal structure of the economy we find considerable variation in rationale across the two countries and in comparison with the shape of the business system of the united states our study has implications for our understanding of the meaning of economic activity in different countries and of the evolutionary trajectories of national business systems

diversity between and within varieties of capitalism transnational survey evidence one of the central debates in contemporary socio economics concerns the relationship between institutions and firm level practices and the persistence of a number of alternative viable models for economic development we examine diversity within and between specific types of capitalism using data from a transnational survey incorporating 14 organizational level practices in a sample of six capitalist archetypes constituting 27 countries and some 6503 firms we focus on one of the key defining features of different varieties of capitalism the interdependence of employers and employees we find that there are clustering tendencies consistent with the literature but also considerable diversity within as well as between the varieties although we did not find diffuse diversity or homogeneity the analysis supports a complex and nuanced relationship within and between varieties of capitalism that has not been previously captured in the literature

who creates jobs and who creates productivity small versus large versus young versus old we propose a new method to analyze employment and productivity dynamics in a consistent way using swedish data we find that net jobs were mainly created in young small firms and productivity gains were mainly created in large old firms

measuring market power in the ready to eat cereal industry the ready to eat cereal industry is characterized by high concentration high price cost margins large advertising to sales ratios and numerous introductions of new products previous researchers have concluded that the ready to eat cereal industry is a classic example of an industry with nearly collusive pricing behavior and intense nonprice competition this paper empirically examines this conclusion in particular i estimate price cost margins but more importantly i am able empirically to separate these margins into three sources i that which is due to product differentiation ii that which is due to multi product firm pricing and iii that due to potential price collusion the results suggest that given the demand for different brands of cereal the first two effects explain most of the observed price cost margins i conclude that prices in the industry are consistent with noncollusive pricing behavior despite the high price cost margins leading firms are able to maintain a portfolio of differentiated products and influence the perceived product quality it is these two factors that lead to high price cost margins

switching from payroll taxes to corporate income taxes firms employment and wages after the 2012 colombian tax reform the 2012 colombian tax reform reduced payroll taxes and employer contributions to health insurance by 13 5 percent while also increasing corporate income taxes and leaving untouched the benefits to workers financed through these taxes shifting taxation from formal employment to other business activities is a policy recipe under heated discussion in latin america the reform offers an ideal laboratory for studying empirically the potential distortions against formal employment associated with payroll taxes in contrast to other taxes on firms we analyze the impact of the reform on employment and wages using monthly firm level data on all formal employment in nonpublic firms in the country and a difference in differences approach that takes advantage of the fact that a few sectors were exempt from the 2012 tax reform we find a positive average effect of 4 3 percent on employment and 2 7 percent on average firm wages for the average firm the employment effect is found only for micro and small firms whereas the bulk of the employment is concentrated in medium and large firms which show no significant effect according to these estimates about 145 000 new jobs were created between january and may of 2015 by virtue of the reform these results are generally supportive of efforts to reduce payroll taxes though our findings on employment are less robust than those on wages and large firms do not seem to have benefitted the apparent lack of effect for medium and large employers is also a source of concern we speculate that it may be due to these firms being more sensitive to the increase in corporate taxation that financed the reduction in payroll taxes but lack of access to the relevant data prevents us from offering solid evidence regarding this hypothesis

international corporate governance a review and opportunities for future research we review four decades of research about the corporate governance of multinational corporations mncs which we label international corporate governance icg we identify and discuss three main streams of research that draw on different conceptualizations and theoretical lenses of corporate governance after synthesizing their respective findings we propose several avenues for future research that integrate these three streams of research with the goal of developing a more nuanced understanding of icg we hope this review article will inspire international business scholars to continue examining how corporate governance can be an effective tool for mnc success

innovation and firm growth does firm age play a role this paper explores the relationship between innovation and firm growth for firms of different ages we hypothesize that young firms undertake riskier innovation activities which may have greater performance benefits if successful or greater losses if unsuccessful using an extensive spanish community innovation survey sample for the period 2004 2012 we apply panel quantile regressions to study the effect of r d activities on firm growth i e sales growth productivity growth and employment growth our results show that young firms face larger performance benefits from r d at the upper quantiles of the growth rate distribution but face larger decline at the lower quantiles r d investment by young firms therefore appears to significantly riskier than r d investment by more mature firms which suggests some policy implications

the costs of wrongful discharge laws we estimate the effects on employment and wages of wrongful discharge protections adopted by u s state courts during the last three decades we find robust evidence that one wrongful discharge doctrine the implied contract exception reduced state employment rates by 0 8 to 1 7 the initial impact is largest for female and less educated workers those who change jobs frequently while the longer term effect is greater for older and more educated workers those most likely to litigate by contrast we find no robust employment or wage effects of two other widely recognized wrongful discharge laws the public policy and good faith exceptions i introduction w hat is the price of protection this paper estimates the social costs in possibly lower employment and wages of common law protections designed to protect american workers from wrongful discharge economic the ory suggests that employment protection is a double edged sword it provides employment security to incumbent work ers but makes employers reluctant to hire leading to a less flexible labor market with potentially lower employment and wages it is frequently argued that the stagnant employment performance of many european economies during the 1980s and 1990s eurosclerosis can be attributed in part to the significant employment protection given european workers see lazear 1990 and blanchard and wolfers 1999 krueger and pischke 1998 provide a contrasting view among the obstacles to testing this hypothesis is the difficulty of making reliable inferences using cross country comparisons in this paper we study the effects of employment protec tion in the united states numerous scholars have examined the effects of american federal employment laws on em ployment and unemployment acemoglu and angrist 2001 deleire 2000 and jolls and prescott 2004 present evidence that the americans with disabilities act ada decreased employment of disabled persons oyer and schaefer 2000 2002 conclude that the federal civil rights act of 1991 increased the frequency of mass layoffs and raised the returns to experience for workers who have a downward sloping age litigation profile hahn todd and van der klaauw 2001 also evaluate the costs of federal antidiscrimination laws a major hurdle for each of these studies is that these federal statutes apply all at once to the entire country this makes it difficult to separate the effects of the statute from all other changes occurring simulta neously cf donohue 1998 donohue and heckman

capital market development and firm restructuring during an economic shock we conceptualize capital markets in terms of resource access and governance and argue that more developed capital markets facilitate firm restructuring through more effective provision of capital and governance of transactions we then develop a contingency model that specifies that the effects of capital market development on restructuring vary by 1 types of restructuring 2 the nature of the economic environments and 3 firms access to resources we evaluate a broad range of restructuring actions among independent firms and business group affiliates in singapore and south korea before and during the economic shock of 1998 1999 results support our predictions of the impact of capital market development and of contingencies and highlight the value of incorporating an external capital markets perspective to complement internally focused theoretical explanations for firm restructuring

a comparative analysis of layoff announcements and stock price reactions in the united states and japan downsizing and layoffs are an important mechanism for u s firms to cope with their strategic and economic environment in contrast the japanese tradition of lifetime employment limits the ability of firms to employ layoffs as a strategic measure relegating its use to conditions of financial distress this paper provides the first comparison of layoffs in japan and the united states and examines stock price reactions to layoff announcements in each country from 1990 to 1994 agency theory and aoki s cooperative game theory are employed to discuss differences in the governance structures of u s and japanese firms and their implication for stock price reactions results show that layoff announcements trigger negative returns for both u s and japanese firms specifically layoff announcements of u s firms are associated with a negative 1 78 percent abnormal return while layoff announcements for japanese firms are associated with a negative 0 56 percent abnormal return to better understand the impact of layoffs this study examines the relationships between stock price reactions and various layoff characteristics such as whether the layoff is proactive or reactive or whether the layoff is the first in the industry implications of the findings are discussed 1997 john wiley sons ltd

productivity growth and the structure of the business cycle abstract over the recent years opportunity cost oc models of growth have argued that recessions are times when firms engage in productivity improving activities because of intertemporal substitu tion this paper tests whether this approach is correct the technique used to disentangle the trend from the cycle is semi structural vector autoregression the results are mildly supportive of the oc theory there tends to be a negative impact of demand shocks on productivity both in the short run and in the long run and the short run impact is stronger in those countries where fluctuations are more transitory however there is no significant response of r d to demand shocks

careers in foreign owned firms in japan this article examines how organizational environments affect labor market processes in japan i hypothesize that labor market inequality is generated through workers being positioned in either domestic or in foreign firms i apply the concept of social versus economic exchange to distinguish the nature of transactions between domestic and foreign firms i argue that foreign firms operate under an institutional context that is conducive to the economic mode of exchange which has enormous consequences for their personnel practices and reward systems using a dataset of japanese workers collected in 2000 i examine the extent to which employment practices in foreign firms deviate from the benchmark features observed in the japanese labor market my results confirm that employment in foreign firms significantly affects career outcomes the highcommitment culture commonly associated with the japanese workforce is an outcome of the organizational environment i find little evidence of japanese employment pra

minimum wage effects on employment substitution and the teenage labor supply evidence from personnel data using personnel data from a large us retail firm i examine the firm s response to the 1996 federal minimum wage increase compulsory increases in average wages had negative but statistically insignificant effects on overall employment however increases in the relative wages of teenagers led to significant increases in the relative employment of teenagers especially younger and more affluent teenagers further analysis suggests a pattern consistent with noncompetitive models where the legislation affected mainly the wages of teenagers and so was only moderately binding it led both to higher teenage labor market participation and to higher absolute employment of teenagers

the effects of the minimum wage in brazil on the distribution of family incomes 1996 2001 abstract the brazilian economy has long relied on the minimum wage having first implemented a minimum in 1940 shortly after taking office in 2003 brazil s president raised the minimum wage by 20 and promised to double the value of the minimum wage before his term ends in 2006 the usual rationale for minimum wage increases is to bring about beneficial changes in the income distribution by raising incomes of poor and low income families the goal of this paper is to evaluate the efficacy of the minimum wage in brazil in bringing about these changes in the income distribution we examine data drawn from brazil s major metropolitan areas studying the years after brazil s hyper inflation ended the estimates provide no evidence that minimum wages in brazil lift family incomes at the lower points of the income distribution if anything some of the evidence points to adverse effects on lower income families

new firm survival new results using a hazard function a limitation of audretsch s 1991 study of new firm survival was the level of aggregation to industries this precluded linking establishment specific characteristics such as organizational structure and size to post entry performance the purpose of this paper is to relate the post entry performance of individual establishments not only to their technological and market structure environments but also to establishment specific characteristics we do this by estimating a hazard duration function for more than 12 000 individual establishments in u s manufacturing started in 1976 by tracking their subsequent performance over a ten year period we conclude that establishment specific characteristics which audretsch was not able to capture in his earlier study play an important role in shaping the exposure to risk confronting new establishments copyright 1995 by mit press

assessing the effect of payroll taxes on formal employment the case of the 2012 tax reform in colombia in 2013 colombia implemented a tax reform that reduced payroll taxes by a total of 13 5 percentage points of wages this paper evaluates the effects of this component of the 2012 colombian tax reform on firms formal employment and average wages we construct a panel of firms based on their employees administrative records to account for the endogeneity of the treatment we use an instrumental variables technique that exploits the exogenous variation from the decisions of firms that are similar to each other in several dimensions but belong to different economic sectors based on our preferred specification we estimate a positive and significant increase in formal employment as a result of the implementation of the reform of approximately 213 000 jobs in existing pre reform firms in the long run these effects will increase to more than 600 000 jobs the effect of the reform on the average wages paid by firms was also found to be positive for some sizes of firms but the overall effect in the short run is rather small

the impact of lowering the payroll tax on informality in colombia in 2012 the colombian government reduced employer payroll contributions from 29 5 to 16 0 percent two years later the informality rate had diminished by about 4 0 percentage points this paper attempts to estimate how much of this reduction was due to the tax reform isolating the impact of other macroeconomic variables a natural approach to performing this task is to apply a difference in differences methodology using a household survey panel since the colombian survey does not have a panel structure we simulated one using a matching difference in differences methodology according to the results the tax reform is associated with a 4 8 percentage point decrease in the informality of workers affected by the reform in the thirteen main metropolitan areas this represents approximately half the reduction of the relevant informality rate during that period affecting mostly salaried men and workers in general with low levels of education

the incidence of mandated maternity benefits i consider the labor market effects of mandates which raise the costs of employing a demographically identifiable group the efficiency of these policies will be largely dependent on the extent to which their costs are shifted to group specific wages i study several state and federal mandates which stipulated that childbirth be covered comprehensively in health insurance plans raising the relative cost of insuring women of childbearing age i find substantial shifting of the costs of these mandates to the wages of the targeted group correspondingly i find little effect on total labor input for that group jel 118 j32 h51 in an era of tight fiscal budget constraints mandating employer provision of workplace benefits to employees is an attractive means for a government to finance its policy agenda consequently in recent years there has been a growth of interest in mandated benefits as a tool of social policy for example the centerpiece of president bill clinton s health care proposal is mandated employer provision of health insurance and more than 20 states have man

the incidence of payroll taxation evidence from chile i provide new evidence on the incidence of payroll taxation by examining the experience of chile before and after the privatization of its social security system this policy change led to a sharp exogenous reduction in the payroll tax burden on chilean firms on average payroll tax rates fell by 25 over 6 years using data from a census of manufacturing firms i estimate that the incidence of payroll taxation is fully on wages with no effect on employment this finding is robust to a variety of empirical approaches to the problem of measurement error in firm level measures of taxes worker

how do corporate governance model differences affect foreign direct investment in emerging economies this study examines the impact of national corporate governance models on inward foreign direct investment fdi in emerging economies we consider three potential mechanisms and conduct an empirical test of how family ownership and control in large group affiliated firms in taiwan affect joint venture investment from us and japanese firms during the period 1988 1998 results support the neo institutional perspective of fdi developed in this study the home country corporate governance models are likely to shape foreign firms choice of local partners

financial structure and diversification of european firms small and medium enterprises have been shown to rely mainly on banks for funding and unlike larger firms rarely have direct access to capital markets this article looks at the extent to which smes avail of a wider range of funding options and how their use differs across firms and countries across all countries we find that firms are currently using two or three sources of finance to fund their operations and have had previous experience of other types of funding there are some noticeable differences across countries with peripheral economies generally being less diversified differences across firm size and age groups are more marked than cross country variation with smaller and younger firms significantly more reliant on a limited set of finance types and older larger firms having more diversified financial structures looking at individual sources of financing we find that trade credit and informal sources of finance are extremely prevalent across all countries with irish firms being particul

the impact of young workers on the aggregate labor market an increase in the share of youth in the working age population of one state or region relative to the rest of the united states causes a sharp reduction in that state s relative unemployment rate and a modest increase in its labor force participation rate this is inconsistent with many theories of the labor market but can be easily explained by a model of frictional unemployment with on the job search the theory makes strong predictions regarding the behavior of wages which are shown to be consistent with the data the paper also reconciles its findings with an existing body of apparently contradictory empirical evidence

a clash of capitalisms foreign shareholders and corporate restructuring in 1990s japan this article examines the clash between stakeholder and shareholder based business systems resulting from an increase in foreign portfolio investment in the japanese economy during the 1990s an analysis of 1 108 firms between 1991 and 2000 shows that as foreign institutional investors who were more interested in investment returns than in long term relationships replaced domestic shareholders one fundamental pillar of japan s stakeholder capitalism began to crack japanese firms began to adopt downsizing and asset divestiture practices more characteristic of anglo american shareholder economies the influence of foreigners however was weaker in firms more deeply embedded in the local system through close ties to domestic financial institutions and corporate groups thus foreign investors were influential primarily in firms less embedded in the existing stakeholder system this research contributes to debates on globalization and convergence of business systems institutional change and corporate

market culture and authority a comparative analysis of management and organization in the far east three frameworks purport to explain industrial arrangements and practices a market approach that emphasizes economic characteristics a cultural approach that sees organization as the expression of patterned values and an authority approach that explains organization as a historically developed structure of domination the efficacy of each approach is tested in explaining the organizational structures of three rapidly growing east asian economies japan south korea and taiwan the paper argues through comparative analysis that organizational growth is best explained by market and cultural factors but that authority patterns and legitimation strategies best explain organizational structure

on the timing and efficiency of creative destruction we analyze the timing pace and efficiency of ongoing job reallocation that results from product and process innovation there are strong reasons why an efficient economy ought to concentrate both job creation and destruction during recessions when the opportunity cost of reallocation is lowest incomplete contracting between labor and capital can disrupt this synchronized pattern and decouple creation and destruction transactional difficulties also lead to technological sclerosis characterized by excessively slow renovation government incentives to production may alleviate high unemployment but exacerbate sclerosis in contrast creation incentives increase the pace of reallocation an optimal combination of both policies restores economic efficiency

poverty and worklessness in britain relative poverty in the uk has risen massively since 1979 mainly because of increasing worklessness rising earnings dispersion and benefits indexed to prices not wages the economic force underlying this is the significant shift in demand against the unskilled this has substantially weakened the low skill labour market which has increased both pay dispersion and worklessness particularly among low skilled men practical policies discussed include improving education and overall well being for children in the lower part of the ability range raising wage floors new deal policies tax credits and benefits for the workless

inter firm collaboration and technology development partnerships within us manufacturing industries the paper examines the conditions under which firms enter into technology development partnerships with customers suppliers and other firms three conceptual approaches to inter firm collaboration are examined namely transactions costs theory resource strategy theories of the firm and network theory drawing upon data collected in a mailed questionnaire survey of us manufacturing establishments in the chemical electronics and instruments industries i assess empirically various determinants of inter firm collaboration in technology development the empirical work suggests that large firms and firms located in major urban centres are more likely to enter into technology development partnerships firms located in a specialized industrial agglomeration do not demonstrate a greater propensity toward entering into technology development partnerships with customers suppliers or other firms cet article cherche a examiner les conditions sous lesquelles les entreprises concluent des partenariats technolo

do payroll tax breaks stimulate formality evidence from colombia s reform alternative work arrangements have grown rapidly around the world in latin america these alternative work arrangements have long been part of the labor market and have continued to grow the informal sector grew rapidly in latin america over the past few decades comprising up to half of the working population in many countries some attribute the growth in alternative work arrangements and informality to regulations and taxes while others argue that it is precisely the lack of enforcement of regulations that allows unprotected employment arrangements to flourish we examine whether reducing taxes associated with employment stimulates formal sector employment we exploit the fact that the tax reform introduced in colombia in 2012 affected only certain types of workers and not others in particular workers earning less than ten times the minimum wage and self employed workers with more than two employees experienced a reduction of payroll taxes of 13 5 percent between 2013 and 2014 we use the colombian household surveys social security records and the monthly manufacturing sample to conduct difference in differences analyses of the reform we find evidence of increased formal employment for the affected groups after the reform using all three data sets we find that the probability of formal employment and the likelihood of transitioning into registered employment increased for the affected groups after the reform we also find that the level and share of permanent employment relative to temporary employment grew after the reform for those earnings less than ten times the minimum wage the results are greatest for those in smaller firms and for those earnings close to the minimum wage

predicting stakeholder orientation in the multinational enterprise a mid range theory as the reach of corporations increasingly extends across borders a key research question is whether overseas subsidiaries adopt a shareholder centric orientation centered on maximizing shareholder wealth or a stakeholder centric orientation centered on creating value for a broader range of stakeholders existing theories addressing the corporate level of analysis focus on forces exogenous to the firm local resource pressures and institutional norms using a combination of induction and fuzzy set analysis i draw on documentary evidence and 298 interviews with managers and stakeholders to build theory about the conditions that shape subsidiaries stakeholder orientations two major findings emerge first although theory emphasizes external stakeholders control over resources internal control through the corporate parent can crowd out the voices of local stakeholders second although institutional theory proposes isomorphism with local norms and standards some corporations are subject to scrutiny by global stakeholders and their subsidiaries face higher requirements for social engagement than their peers these findings are the foundation of a mid range theory that combines conventional explanations focused on environmental factors and an internal stakeholder perspective based around the roles of the parent corporation as owner and resource provider to predict stakeholder orientation

determinants of hourly earnings in ecuador the role of labor market regulations ecuadorian labor costs are said to be high because of the existence of many mandated benefits using the 1994 living standards measurement survey we show that the effect of these benefits is actually mitigated by a reduction of base earnings that is of the foundation on which they are paid the reduction is larger in the private than in the public sector and is negligible for unionized workers we also show that in spite of mandated benefits interindustry wage differentials are comparable to those of bolivia a country characterized by flexible labor markets but otherwise similar to ecuador

labor market effects of payroll taxes in developing countries evidence from colombia abstract we use a panel of manufacturing plants from colombia to analyze how the rise in payroll tax rates over the 1980s and 1990s affected the labor market our estimates indicate that formal wages fall by between 1 4 and 2 3 as a result of a 10 rise in payroll taxes this less than full shifting is likely to be the result of weak linkages between benefits and taxes and the presence of downward wage rigidities in colombia because the costs of taxation are only partly shifted from employers to employees employment also falls our results indicate that a 10 increase in payroll taxes lowered formal employment by between 4 and 5 in addition we find some evidence of less shifting and larger disemployment effects for production than for nonproduction workers these results suggest that policies aimed at boosting the relative demand of less skilled workers by reducing social security taxes may be effective in latin american countries where minimum wages bind and benefits are often not directly lin

tighter bonds customer supplier linkages in semiconductors angel d p 1994 tighter bonds customer supplier linkages in semiconductors reg studies 28 187 200 this paper examines changing linkage relations between high technology firms and their semiconductor suppliers in an effort to improve manufacturing performance and accelerate the pace of technology development high technology firms are establishing closer ties with semiconductor suppliers to date the restructuring of supplier relations has focused primarily upon increasing the flow of information among firms stronger forms of collaboration such as the co development of manufacturing and technological capability are less common the locational effects of tight supplier linkages are weaker than anticipated differing markedly from the intensified regionalization of manufacturing associated with just in time production in the automobile industry angel d p 1994 s agit il des liens plus etroits les relations client fournisseur dans l industrie des semi conducteurs reg studies 28 187 200 c

job creation and job destruction by small firms an empirical investigation for the dutch manufacturing sector this paper studies the differences in behaviour of small and large firms concerning job creation and job destruction in the dutch manufacturing sector over the period 1978 1991 we find that both job creation and job destruction rates are higher in small firms than in large ones in addition we found that the persistence of jobs created in slumps are much higher for small firms than for large firms persistence rates of job destruction are however less connected to the state of the business cycle and increase with firm size more importantly small firms seem to reallocate their jobs in a continuous way as job turnover moves independent of the business cycle large firms on the other hand reallocate counter cyclically an obvious explanation for this phenomenon is that small firms are better equipped to adjust to shifts in economic circumstances large firms adjust only slowly and for them reallocating jobs in a recession is more advantageous than in a boom

worker turnover and job reallocation in taiwanese manufacturing the paper examines time series patterns of job and worker flows in a newly industrializing economy nie using plant level data from the taiwan manufacturing sector the cyclical behaviour of job reallocation and its relation with worker turnover is analysed it is found that job reallocation and labour turnover are procyclical at both the aggregate and two digit industry levels the share of worker turnover caused by gross job reallocation is 17 suggesting the majority of observed worker turnover reflects rotations of positions that are neither created or destroyed there is substantial heterogeneity in plant specific job and worker turnover patterns job creation and job destruction rates are higher among small plants and private sector plants the private plants are more dynamic than public plants in terms of worker turnover controlling for year and industry effects it is found that job creation and worker turnover are both higher in export oriented industries

through the contested terrain implementation of downsizing announcements by large u s firms 1984 to 2005 since the 1980s leading u s firms have announced massive downsizing plans in the name of maximizing shareholder value but some observers are skeptical about how serious firms are in implementing

the governance impact of a changing investor landscape within the backdrop of comparative corporate governance research we draw on the managerial reporting and impression management literatures to examine how the type level and nature of foreign shareholders infused with their own governance logic influence initial managerial earnings optimism and how foreign ownership shapes earnings guidance in a stakeholder oriented setting drawing on japanese data and addressing endogeneity concerns our results show that under the presence of foreign owners managers are more optimistic in their initial earnings forecasts but that in subsequent revisions they are more likely to provide timely adjustments of their earnings forecast and avoid making last minute adjustments this research illustrates how foreign practices travel across borders and contributes to understanding triggers to governance and strategic changes

the cleansing effect of recessions the authors investigate industry response to cyclical variations in demand production units that embody the newest process and product innovations are continuously being created and outdated units are being destroyed although outdated units are the most likely to turn unprofitable and be scrapped in a recession they can be insulated from the fall in demand by a reduction in creation the structure of adjustment costs plays a determinant role in the responsiveness of those two margins the calibrated model matches the relative volatilities of the observed manufacturing job creation and destruction series and their asymmetries over the cycle copyright 1994 by american economic association

keiretsu governance and learning case studies in change from the japanese automotive industry thekeiretsu structuring of assembler supplier relations historically enabled japanese auto assemblers to remain lean and flexible while enjoying a level of control over supply akin to that of vertical integration yet currently there is much talk of breakdowns inkeiretsu networks this paper examines some recent developments in japanese parts supplykeiretsu we argue thatkeiretsu relationships are drifting from hybrid or network i e keiretsu governance modes toward the extremes of arms length contracting and top down administration these changes are best understood through a combination of transaction cost and learning perspectives on alliance consistent with transaction cost economics the shift in purchase supply relationships can be traced to changes in the nature of parts transactions andkeiretsu governance structures a learning perspective on alliance complements and extends transaction cost theory providing additional explanation of the sources of change and the specific governance choices being made our first two cases document a drift in toyota skeiretsu supply network toward a hierarchical form in the management of parts supply transactions toyota has effectively internalized its transactions with daihatsu by taking a controlling interest toyota s strategy toward long term partner denso on the other hand was very different toyota built from the ground up an in house capability in electronic components thus scaling down its dependence on denso a third case considers a general trend in the japanese auto industry toward greater standardization of parts with the routinization of quality reliability and speed in supply management the need forkeiretsu style governance has declined the withering ofkeiretsu obligations is also traceable to globalization and the continuing weakness of the japanese economy which have prompted japanese firms to question received business practice