Context Of Structural Transformation Research Articles

Labor Market Regulations in the Context of Structural Transformation

This paper constructs a theoretical model to study labor market regulations in developing countries within the context of structural transformation. When workers are risk averse and the market for insurance against labor income risk is missing, regulations that provide insurance to workers (such as severance payments) are efficiency enhancing and promote structural transformation. However, regulations that simply create barriers to the dismissal of workers not only impede structural transformation, they also end up reducing the welfare of workers. The implications of some other issues like general regulatory burden, weak state capacity, and minimum wage regulations are analyzed as well. The paper provides some empirical evidence broadly consistent with the theoretical results using cross-country data. While dismissal regulations increase the share of informal employment, severance payments to workers do not.

Structural Change, Land Use and the State in China: Making Sense of Three Divergent Processes

This article uses the case of Chinese economic growth to interrogate the implications of changes in land-use patterns within the context of structural transformation. It argues that although land-use change is an important underlying dimension of the structural transformation accompanying economic growth the dominant theoretical literature on structural change is not cognizant of this fact. It does so by looking at arable land conversion in coastal provinces, the ‘Grain for Green’ program and ‘wasteland’ reclamation. It also argues for an integrated analysis that recognizes that land has a type of scarcity that arises from its location and not just its total availability at the national level. This article shows that the transition of land in China between its uses defies the dominant linear and unidirectional narrative. The processes discussed show that land moves in different directions and purposes as determined by state vision of progress and development.