Labor Demand Research Articles

Intensity of labor shocks behind the changes in Brazilian hours worked during the pandemic

COVID-19 has impacted the labor market in multiple ways, including by reducing the number of hours effectively worked. A study on the US economy found that two-thirds of the drop in the aggregate growth rate of hours worked was due to a labor supply shock. This paper quantifies the role of labor supply and labor demand shocks in Brazil’s labor market behavior during the COVID-19 period by estimating a Bayesian Structural Vector Autoregression (BVAR) with sign restrictions on the slopes of the labor supply and labor demand curves. Our results show that labor demand shocks were more important than labor supply shocks in explaining the decline in hours effectively worked. The prominence of labor demand shocks in Brazil is an exciting result that demonstrates the heterogeneous impacts of similar shocks on high- and middle-income economies.

Water management and irrigation for bulb onion (Allium cepa L.) growth and development in the Papua New Guinea Highlands

Water is crucial for nutrient intake, transportation, temperature regulation, and photosynthesis in bulb onion (Allium cepa L.) growth and development. Water scarcity, caused by climate variability and particularly during prolonged dry periods, has proved to be an obstacle to cultivating bulb onions in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Highlands. Farmers have a limited grasp of the interdependence of soil, water, and plants. They have traditionally depended on precipitation, and water from streams and rivers, to irrigate their bulb onion crops. The main method for providing irrigation support is manual irrigation, with agricultural organisations assisting with basic irrigation technologies. Despite farmers and organisations efforts to improve irrigation practices, the prolonged dry season still raises labour demands for bulb onion farms. Farmers’ lack of knowledge about irrigation technology and soil water conservation contributes to this issue. Moreover, the lack of irrigation suppliers worsens the issue of limited soil water in onion farms. This paper gives an overview of onion production in PNG, focusing on irrigation practices and constraints in the Highlands region. It aims to stress irrigation’s importance in crop growth and explore PNG’s irrigation methods and soil moisture conservation practices. There is a need for a sustainable irrigation and soil water conservation system that is easy to use and incorporates crop water requirements. This system is vital for watering onions and conserving soil moisture, promoting their growth and yield. In this context, the use of mulch and irrigation systems can preserve and enhance soil moisture during prolonged dry phases.

Research Progress on the Wear Resistance of Key Components in Agricultural Machinery.

Agricultural mechanization is crucial in enhancing production efficiency, alleviating labor demands, reducing costs, improving agricultural product quality, and promoting sustainable development. However, wear and tear are inevitable when using agricultural machinery. The failure of critical wear-resistant parts is responsible for over 50% of rural machinery breakdowns. For instance, a domestic combine harvester typically only operates trouble-free for 20 to 30 h, and the service life of a rotary plow knife is approximately 80 h. Investigating the wear performance of key farm machinery components reinforces machinery design and maintenance strategies, extends machinery lifespans, enhances agricultural production efficiency, and advances agrarian sustainability. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the latest research on the wear resistance of crucial agricultural machinery components. It delves into the factors influencing the wear resistance of these components and explores current effective measures to address wear-related issues. Additionally, it also summarizes the challenges and opportunities in researching the wear performance of key components in agricultural machinery and future development directions.

Perception of agroforestry practices and factors influencing adoption among shifting cultivators in Tripura, India

ABSTRACT Agroforestry, with benefits including resource diversity, improved nutrition, climate change mitigation, and increased income, can ensure financial stability for small farmers by diversifying yields. However, its widespread adoption in traditional farming communities encounters challenges. Focusing on two districts in Tripura with resettled former shifting cultivation-dependent communities, the study used a mixed methods approach, collecting data from 221 households, assessing socio-economic status, farming practices, and agroforestry adoption. Statistical analyses revealed that most common commercial species were Arecanut, Rubber, Jackfruit, and Pineapple, and households practicing agroforestry had notably higher annual farm incomes over other systems. Over 80% households recognized agroforestry's self-sufficiency, with 50% noting improved financial security, diversity, and coping capacity. Socio-economic benefits were better understood than environmental benefits. Plot diversity variations were influenced by seed procurement source, system type, and tribe. Challenges in adopting scientific agroforestry, such as long maturation, land insufficiency and labor demands, were identified. Suggested solutions included increased seed availability, more land for agroforestry, and skill training. This study emphasizes the potential of agroforestry in offering sustainable livelihoods to traditional smallholders and promoting agroecological sustainability in the North-eastern Region of India.

A simple theory of Pareto-distributed earnings

I introduce a simple model which endogenously generates a Pareto distribution in top earnings. Workers inhabit different niches, and the earnings of a worker is determined by the niche-specific supply of labor and a downward-sloping labor demand curve. The highest paid workers are the ones that inhabit a niche with few other workers. A Pareto tail in earnings emerges as long as the labor demand curve has a limit elasticity and the distribution of workers over niches satisfies a regularity condition from extreme-value theory, satisfied by virtually all continuous distributions in economics.

Labor trafficking in marijuana production: a hidden epidemic in the shadows of the cannabis industry.

Labor trafficking in marijuana production remains a concealed epidemic within the expanding cannabis industry. This abstract brings attention to the systemic exploitation of vulnerable individuals engaged in cultivating, harvesting, and processing cannabis. It explores the factors contributing to labor trafficking, including demand for cheap labor, inadequate regulation, and the vulnerability of the workforce. By compiling published cases, both in peer-reviewed literature and the media, this perspective piece investigates the extent of health issues experienced by labor-trafficked victims. These include chronic pain from repetitive tasks, respiratory problems due to exposure to pesticides and other toxic substances, musculoskeletal injuries, malnutrition, and mental health disorders stemming from trauma and extreme stress. Additionally, this perspective article examines the factors contributing to poor health outcomes of labor-trafficked victims, including hazardous working conditions, lack of access to healthcare, and physical and psychological abuse. Addressing the health challenges faced by labor-trafficked victims in the cannabis industry requires multidimensional solutions: awareness among healthcare providers, comprehensive medical services, and mental health support. Furthermore, collaborative efforts among government agencies, healthcare providers, labor organizations, and the cannabis industry are essential in preventing trafficking and addressing the health disparities faced by labor-trafficked victims.

Migration, Informality, and Unequal Exchange in the Context of the Mexico–US Regional Integration Process

This paper analyzes the complex relationship between migration and informality in the context of the Mexico–US asymmetric and subordinated regional integration process under neoliberalism. It argues that one of the main drivers of contemporary Mexican migration is the uneven distribution of the informal sector—and more precisely, the industrial reserve army of labor—among both countries. In this regard, Mexico operates as a strategic zone of reserve and social reproduction of workforce to satisfy the growing labor demand in the United States through migration. This reveals that the reproduction of the reserve labor army is essentially transnational in nature. The main link between migration and informality from below is through remittances: they serve as a fundamental component for family reproduction and for the procreation of a transnational core labor force that exerts pressure on wages on both sides of the border. Within the framework of the dynamics of informality from above, a growing flow of skilled and highly skilled Mexican migration to the United States has been unleashed, accompanied by aggressive government policies to attract talent in synchronization with the strengthening of innovation and knowledge-intensive activities in that country. We conclude that a critical aspect of informality from above, which reinforces informality from below, is the dismantling and disarticulation of Mexico’s productive apparatus in order to rearticulate it to the United States economy through the installation of export-oriented platforms that operate under an enclave logic, with imported components and under tax exemption regimes.

The race between education and technology in Chile and its impact on the skill premium

While studies using pre-2000 data for Chile implied that technological change drives the skill premium evolution, post-2000 data suggests that the supply of skilled labour expansion has reduced this premium. In contrast, literature shows a consistent link between technology and the growing demand for skilled labour, despite educational improvements, leading to skill premium increases. We examine these interactions under the race between education and technology model (RBET) for Chile between 1980 and 2018 considering the inconsistent findings (e.g., negative elasticities) reported by past studies. We also find inconsistencies using cointegration techniques. Alternatively, we apply an Unobserved Component Model using a Bayesian estimation that enforces the required economic and theoretical conditions. We find that, before the 2000s, the technological change dominated. However, in the 2000s, the demand was surpassed by educational supply increases, reducing the premium. The estimated elasticity of substitution between skilled and unskilled labour is 6.5, implying that both are more substitutable than commonly thought.

Shifting the Balance: Examining the Impact of Local Labor Market Opportunities on Female Household Bargaining Power in India

There has been considerable interest in studying the effect of female labor market outcomes on intrahousehold bargaining. This paper examines the effects of local labor market opportunities in India on a variety of female bargaining characteristics, including domestic violence and intrahousehold discussion of important issues. Specifically, I utilize district-level data on employment in various occupations to calculate an employment shift-share index that proxies gender-specific labor demand. I find that improvements in labor market conditions for women lead to a decrease in perceptions of domestic violence, whereas improvements in predicted demand for male employment have little or negative effects on women’s household bargaining power. When disaggregated by indicators of initial bargaining power, women that have lower levels of initial bargaining power either see no effect on bargaining or experience a backlash effect.

Quality of Life and Social Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees Attending an Elderly Care Training in Four Mediterranean Countries: Results from the HERO Project

The progressive population ageing observed in Western countries determines a growing need for long-term care for older people. At the same time, migrants and refugees often have integration difficulties in regards to the hosting country society and labour market, with one reason being the lack of EU recognition of the educational degrees obtained in their native country. Creating educational opportunities in elderly care for migrants may facilitate their social inclusion, increase their employability, and constitute a response to the growing labor demand. The HERO project moved in this direction by planning, designing, and carrying out an original training curriculum targeted to migrants and refugees from African and Middle Eastern countries, piloted in four Mediterranean countries (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and Portugal). The impact of the training on migrants and refugees’ quality of life was assessed through the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire, while social inclusion was assessed through semistructured interviews and participant observation carried out during the internship in elderly care facilities. Eighty-two migrants (70.7 percent women) were involved in the study. The results showed that despite the fact that the training did not have an impact on the trainees’ quality of life, it was associated with social inclusion. Four ideal types of migrant learners were drawn: “ex-professional trainees,” “fall-back trainees,” “care-oriented trainees,” and “nonprofessional care workers,” based on which as many possible educational pathways were drawn to optimise the trainees’ learning process. The study results shaped the formulation of suggestions on migrants’ education in elderly care.

Does environmental regulation limit the income growth of Chinese migrant population? Empirical evidence from the CHIPS

It is a controversial question of whether environmental regulation can achieve the double dividend of improving environmental quality and increasing employment and income. This paper takes Chinese migrant population as the main research object and uses the Chinese Household Income Projects data (CHIPS) and the emission data of major pollutants at the prefecture-level city jointly. Based on the classic Mincer wage equation, we investigate the impact and mechanisms of environmental regulation on the income of Chinese migrant population. The results show that: (1) The intensity of environmental regulation significantly improves the income level of the migrant population, and for every 1% increase in the intensity of environmental regulation, the wage income of the mobile population will rise by 4.96%. (2) The documented positive effect of environmental regulation is more significant in non-public firms, the eastern regions and high-skilled workers. Conversely, for the female and elderly group, 1% increase in environmental regulations will restrain their income growth by 4.95% and 0.37%, respectively. (3) The influencing mechanisms include both the direct effect of labor demand and the indirect effects of firm performance and technological innovation. (4) we find that 1% increase in environmental regulations respectively raise the income of the low- and moderate-income migrant population by 10.834% and 3.579%, while having no significant impact on the high-income group, thus reducing the income gap of the migrant population. The findings of this paper provide theoretical support and practical evidence for achieving a coordinated development of ecological environmental protection and income improvement for socially disadvantaged groups in China.

Struggling with inequality and the uncertain reterritorialization of migrants: A case study of Guangzhou

The citizenization of migrants has become a challenging practical issue and a significant research topic within the realm of social justice. Nowadays, with a large number of studies concerning the unjust lives of migrants, few researches probe their struggle with inequality. This struggling is reflected in space, in the reterritorialization of the migrants. Reterritorialization involves the reconstruction of the meaning and function of a territory. Deterritorialization meaning the weakening of territoriality. This paper concentrates on the reterritorialization of migrants, and attempts to fill the research gap through an in-depth case study of a representative urban village located in Guangzhou. The data for this study were collected through three rounds of questionnaire surveys conducted with migrants in 2016, 2020, and 2023. Government statistics and semi-structured interviews with local government officials and original villagers are also used in the research. It has been found the initial territorialization of KL Village was driven by the city’s development and the demand for industries and migrant labor. Subsequently, the concentration of migrants led to the transformation of the village into an urban village that caters to professional markets. The distinctive characteristics of the industry and the lifestyles of migrants resulted in the departure of local villagers, making migrants the sole users of the village and facilitating its reterritorialization. Migrants reterritorialized various systems within the village, including the commercial system, public service system, and transportation system. However, the reterritorialization remains uncertain. The urban villages may undergo deterritorialization when industries decline or when significant events with negative societal impacts occur. This paper further emphasizes the importance of governments recognizing the circumstances faced by migrants and ensuring the provision of stable spaces for them. In general, this paper makes an empirical contribution by offering a fresh perspective to the study of migrants and territorialization in China.

Foreign Direct Investment, Foreign Certification and Firm Performance in Morocco: Evidence from the World Bank Enterprise Survey

Abstract In an increasingly complex international environment, the expansion of global capital flows, particularly foreign direct investment (FDI),has become an important catalyst in developing countries, in part due to a large and significant integration into global value chains (GVCs). Theoretically, the presence of multinationals in the host country is supposed to increase productivity, employment, wages, know-how, and technology of domestic firms. However, so far, the results in the empirical literature have been unclear, mainly due to the limited reliable and detailed enterprise-level data. As a result, in this paper we attempt to examine whether there is a significant difference between multinationals (MNE) and domestic firms in Morocco on a set of economic performance outcomes. To do so, we used firm-level data obtained from the World Bank Enterprise Survey for the year 2019, using a quasi experimental technique called propensity score matching (PSM). The results reveal that the difference between foreign-owned and domestic matched firms leads to a decrease in labor productivity, higher employment and non significant impact on wages. In addition, our findings indicate that the use of foreign certification shows a positive impact on the demand of skilled labor than for foreign ownership indicator.

Effects of increased seeding density on seedling characteristics, mechanical transplantation quality, and yields of rice with crop straw boards for seedling cultivation

The high demand for labor during rice seedling cultivation and transplantation poses a major challenge in advancing machine-transplanted rice cultivation. This problem may be solved by increasing the seeding rate during seedling production while reducing the number of seedling trays. In this study, the commonly used combination of 150 g/tray with a 20-day seedling age in rice production was used as CK. Besides, some field experiments were conducted under seedling age conditions of 10 and 15 days from 2021 to 2022 to explore the effects of 250, 300, and 350 g/tray on the seedling quality, mechanical transplantation quality, yields, and economic benefits of rice. The cultivation of seedlings under a high seeding rate and short seedling age significantly affected seedling characteristics, but there was no significant difference in seedling vitality compared to CK. The minimum number of rice trays used in the experiment was observed in the treatment of 350-10, only 152-155 trays per hectare, resulting in a 62% reduction in the number of trays needed. By increasing the seeding rate of rice, missed holes during mechanical transplantation decreased by 2.8 to 4%. The highest yields and economic gains were achieved by the treatment of 300-15. These results indicated that using crop straw boards can reduce the application of seedling trays. On that basis, the yield of rice can be increased by increasing the seeding rate and shortening the seedling age of rice under the premise of ensuring seedling quality.

Work Will Not Save Us: An Asian American Crip Manifesto

Drawing together disability justice, Asian American studies, and feminist/ queer-of-color labor analysis, this collaboratively authored essay forwards an anti-work manifesto shaped by our lived experiences as sick, disabled and queer Asian American scholars laboring in the academic-industrial complex. This essay offers a two-part intervention: first, it aims to expand nascent conversations on disability politics and its relationship to racial capitalism, and second, it puts forth a critique of the Asian American emphasis on achievement as an instrument of belonging and potential inoculation against racialized violence. It also unfolds in two parts: first, a section on why we refuse work, and second, a section on how to perform this refusal.
 
 As we come to this essay from our respective positionalities in contingent, tenure-stream, and tenured academic loci, as well as from our shared investments in feminist and queer frameworks, the first section mobilizes feminist and queer disability analysis to interrogate the fraught investments in work shared across Asian American and Disability Studies, addressing the complexities of gendered, contingent, care, and service work within the academic landscape (and particularly as we have experienced them). The second section offers a survival guide for navigating the labor demands placed on racialized, queer, and/ or disabled scholars, channeling Asian American rage to move beyond saying “no” and toward saying “fuck off.”

No Use to the State: Phrasing Escape and a Black Radical Epistolary of Disability in Early Twentieth-Century Alabama Prisons

This article explores how Black women experienced and theorized disability from within Alabama’s prisons in the early twentieth century. Early-twentieth-century custodial prisons were a primary place in which disabled, southern Black women encountered the state. Some women entered prison disabled and many left with disabilities they had not had before. Indeed, disability was a condition of incarceration: a function of its punitive labor demands and the violence used to enforce disciplinary measures. Black women intimately understood and resisted this multifaceted violence and attempted to negotiate with the state for their release. Their handwritten letters, an archive that was unintentionally preserved by the state, demonstrate that incarcerated Black women’s articulation of uselessness was a profound critique of racial, carceral capitalism. Through close reading of recursive strategies, this article examines incarcerated Black women’s textual invocations of unproductivity as a disruption of the binary of metaphor and materiality in racial studies of disability.

Initial Design of Free energy magnetic generator (FEMG)

Nowadays, it is essential for some areas that there would be implemented such ways for electricity cost reductions in the areas, equipment durability and minimal technical labour demand maintenance. There are many type of generator that can help to generate the electricity such as steam turbines, gasoline turbines, electrical generators, solar or wind turbines, internal combustion engines, and biogas engines. However, there are many drawbacks of using these generators. One of the major drawbacks of these non-renewable generators are the released of hazardous exhausts into the environment such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, or any other dangerous exhaust. These will produce air pollution, although it imposes environmental costs through manufacture and construction. One of the well-known energy sufficient generator is the permanent magnet generator. The main aim for this project is to design a Free Energy Magnetic Generator (FEMG) using conventional induced voltage generating principle for industrial and residential appliances. The design will be used JMAG Designer Software from designing and observing the generator. It can be concluded that this generator can give a continuous output power supply due to the capability of the generator to produce high output power with low cogging torque which is 2.1Nm. Perhaps, the maximum value of magnetic flux between coil is 2.1066 while the minimum value is 0.0418.

Genetic diversity in creole pigs in south central Peru.

The creole pigs represent 67% of the national population in Peru. They are a source of economic income in rural communities, and due to their rusticity, they are not much labor demanding. However, knowledge about its genetic diversity remains scarce. The objective of this study was to determine the population structure and genetic diversity of creole pigs from rural communities in south central Peru. Thirteen microsatellites were used to characterize 120 creole pigs from the departments of Ayacucho (57) and Apurimac (63). The samples were taken from hair follicles and ear tissue. Nine microsatellites were highly polymorphic and informative (PIC > 0.5) for both departments. The Ayacucho population had a mean number of alleles (MNA) and expected heterozygosity (HE) of 8.8 and 0.68, respectively, while in the Apurimac population, these were 8.9 and 0.71, respectively. Both populations showed in less than 50% of their loci a deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. There was a moderate genetic structure according to the analysis of molecular variance and the FST statistics (0.06), which was corroborated by Bayesian methods. In conclusion, the genetic diversity was mostly due to the intrapopulation variance (91%). Some individuals from Ayacucho shared similar alleles with those from Apurimac. This latter result may be due to their geographic proximity and the introduction of the same new exotic breeds. This is the first research on the genetic diversity of creole pigs in south central Peru. In fact, this study could serve as a basis for conservation strategies and actions in this region.

Heterogeneous environmental policies and employment: evidence from China.

This paper attempts to investigate how the rapid development of China's environmental policy contributes to the changes in China's labour market. We first categorise the environmental regulations into (i) command-and-control policies, (ii) economic incentive policies, and (iii) voluntary environmental agreements (VEAs). Then, we use the provincial panel data over the 2000-2015 period to estimate the effect of alternative environmental regulations on employment in China. The results show that alternative environmental regulations have different impacts on employment. This difference even exists within the same group of environmental policies. Amongst the command-and-control policies, the three simultaneities policy leads to less employment, while the deadline governance systems increase employment. For economic incentive policies, higher environmental tax leads to lower employment, while more funding for environmental research promotes employment. The results also show that more VEAs reduced labour demand. In addition, the dynamic impact and regional heterogeneity of environmental regulations on employment are confirmed by the empirical estimation. Specifically, the economic incentive policies significantly impact employment in Central and Western China, whereas they have a non-significant impact on employment in Eastern China. This finding confirms that economic development impacts the relationship between environmental regulations and employment.

Survey of freshwater mussels using high‐resolution acoustic imaging sonar and deep learning‐based object detection in Lake Izunuma, Japan

Abstract The use of traditional in situ methods for underwater surveys to map freshwater mussel habitats is limited by challenges such as water transparency, depth and high labour demands. In this study, adaptive resolution imaging sonar (ARIS) was applied to monitor mussel distribution and abundance. In contrast to conventional quadrat surveys, this acoustic survey is non‐invasive and enables direct observation of mussels to allow their survival status to be determined in turbid water. ARIS produces high‐quality acoustic images that facilitate the creation of a distribution map for broader‐scale monitoring, especially if paired with deep learning methods such as the YOLOv4 algorithm for automatic mussel detection and classification. ARIS was successfully applied to surveying over 2000 m2 of Lake Izunuma in Miyagi, Japan. In one site, a high mussel abundance of ~0.6 individuals/m2 was detected, while other sites had low densities. The detection model achieved a mean average precision of 0.97. The survey results were used to generate a distribution map of living mussels. This study illustrates the feasibility of using an acoustic video camera with an open‐source deep learning algorithm to monitor mussels and other benthos in turbid water.