Efficient Allocation Of Labor Research Articles

Recycled and non-recycled exhaustible resource: an optimal control strategy for input allocation

The United Nations aim to perform a transition toward a sustainable environment where people can live by decoupling economic growth from resource use. Through the definition of the Agenda 2030 and the corresponding sustainable development goals, this transition asks for a lower dependence on non-renewable resources and for the use of recycled materials in a finite term perspective. In this respect, we provide an optimal control model which searches for an efficient allocation of labor between non-recycling and recycling sectors exploiting a given non-renewable resource. The optimization process is carried out over a finite time horizon in accordance with the need of rapidly achieving the targets imposed by the ecological transition. By employing the classical tools of optimal control theory, a complete theoretical analysis of the model well-posedness is developed under the assumption of linear production in both sectors. The approach is applied in order to simulate a hypothetical test case.

Optimal Fiscal Policy in a Model with Uninsurable Idiosyncratic Income Risk

AbstractWe study optimal fiscal policy in a standard incomplete-markets model with uninsurable idiosyncratic income risk, where a Ramsey planner chooses time-varying paths of proportional capital and labour income taxes, lump-sum transfers (or taxes), and government debt. We find that (1) short-run capital income taxes are effective in providing redistribution since the tax base is relatively unequal and inelastic; (2) an increasing pattern of labour income taxes over time mitigates intertemporal distortions from capital income taxes; (3) the optimal policy increases overall transfers, calibrated initially to the US welfare system, by roughly $50\%$; (4) two-thirds of the welfare gains come from redistribution and the remaining third come mostly from insurance; and (5) redistribution also leads to a more efficient allocation of labour via wealth effects on labour supply—lower productivity households can afford to work relatively less.

Efficient Allocation of Labor Maximizes Brood Development and Explains Why Intermediate-Sized Groups Perform Best During Colony-Founding in the Ant, Pogonomyrmex californicus

Cooperation in nature is usually between relatives, but unrelated individuals can also cooperate, requiring significant benefits to outweigh the costs of helping non-kin. Unrelated queens of the ant, Pogonomyrmex californicus, work together to found a new colony, a phenomenon known as pleometrosis. While previous studies have shown that pleometrosis improves queen survival and worker production, little is known of the behavioral interactions within nests that explain these advantages. We aimed to determine how the optimal group size for a small, simple social group is related to group productivity and the organization of work. Collecting queens from a known pleometrotic population, we established nests with either one, three, six, or nine foundresses and observed the resulting nascent colonies for 50 days. We found that queens in social founding groups survived longer and had higher productivity. While all social groups were equally successful in producing workers, intermediate-sized groups were most successful in terms of per capita production. Inactivity increased with group size. In addition, the proportion of essential colony growth tasks performed (such as foraging and brood care) was lowest in both solitary-founded groups and in groups of nine queens. As a result, intermediate sized groups outperformed both solitary queens and groups of nine in the efficiency with which they converted eggs into workers. These results emphasize the benefits of cooperation and the ways in which group size can influence fitness and the allocation of labor in social groups.

Adverse consequences of economic policy in combating global climate change in the Czech Republic

AbstractThe main aim of the article is to identify unintended consequences of economic policies to combat climate change, in the short and long run, using the example of the Czech economy. The short term impacts are assessed by world input-output analysis in order to capture direct and indirect channels affecting the Czech automotive industry. Optimistic, realistic and pessimistic scenarios of decrease in demand for cars due to the imposition of environmental taxes in the European Union and the rest of the world are presented. The results show adverse impacts on Czech gross domestic product from 1.6 to 4.9 percentage points. The economy is expected to change its structure and reallocate factors of production to an alternative use, but there is a risk of suboptimal allocation, which might reveal losses from less efficient allocation of labor and capital. Therefore, the analysis of the relationship between economic welfare and the quality of the environment is conducted. Data on the Czech economy confirm the hypothesis of an environmental Kuznets curve and point to unintended consequences of overly ambitious policies to mitigate global climate change. If economic welfare excessively declines, there would be a significant risk of undermining people's will to invest into environmental protection.

A gravity analysis of refugee mobility using mobile phone data

The objective of this study consists in analyzing the determinants of the internal mobility of refugees in Turkey. We track down this mobility relying on geolocalized mobile phone calls data and bring these measures to a micro-founded gravity model in order to estimate the main drivers of refugee mobility across 26 regions in 2017. Our results show that the movements of refugees are sensitive to income differentials and contribute therefore to a more efficient allocation of labor across space. Comparing these findings with those of individuals with a non-refugee status, we find that refugees are more sensitive to variations of income at origin and to distance, while less responsive to changes in income at destination. These findings are robust to the way mobility is inferred from phone data and to the choice of the geographical unit of investigation. Further, we provide evidence against some alternative explanations of mobility such as the propensity to leave refugee camps, transit through Turkey, social magnet effects and sensitivity to agricultural business cycles.

Do international remittances accelerate out-farm labor migration in developing countries? A dynamic panel time-series analysis

PurposeA major policy issue facing leaders in the developing world is whether international migration, through remittances, contributes to the development process in migrant-sending communities or impedes the efficient allocation of labor and human capital at the origin countries. This study examines the impact of remittance inflows on out-farm migration of farm labor toward the nonfarm sector. Specifically, this study shows how international migrant remittances may alter the predictions of out-farm migration models by Harris–Todaro.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use unbalanced panel time-series data on 77 developing countries between 1991 and 2010 within a dynamic panel time-series framework to estimate the impact of remittances on the out-farm migration rate.FindingsThe authors find two competing effects of remittances on out-farm migration of labor in developing countries. First, remittances decelerate the out-farm migration rates by supplementing farm income and consumption expenditures. Second, remittances provide a source of investment in nonfarm activities that increase the rate of migration out of agriculture over time. Combining these effects, on average, our elasticity estimates indicate that a 10% increase in remittances reduces the migration out of agriculture, on average, by 0.5% in developing countries over time.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors findings align with the “developmentalist” or “optimistic” views of international migration. International migration, through remittances, help make the inevitable transition out of the farm sector smoother for developing countries.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to extend the empirical literature on macro-level determinants of out-farm migration within the Harris–Todaro framework to explicitly account for the impacts of remittances inflows into developing countries that the new economics of labor migration (NELM) theory hypothesizes.

Cross‐border commuters: How to segment Them? A Framework of Analysis

AbstractThe removal of barriers to labour mobility and the enhancement of cross‐border mobility are expected to reduce regional disparities by contributing to a more efficient allocation of labour. For some time now, however, researchers have considered borders and cross‐border regions to be marginal zones. Therefore, we contribute to the discussion by providing a qualitative framework for the segmentation of the cross‐border job market, capable of addressing some questions relevant to the management of cross‐border commuting regarding the nature of imbalances that characterize the cross‐border job market and the main factors underpinning the phenomenon. To do so, we focused specifically on the Euroregion “Regio Insubrica”, a cross‐boundary cooperation community between Italy and Switzerland. Nevertheless, the proposed framework may be easily applied to all the existing cross‐border regions across the world in order to help explain the imbalances that exist, and support decision‐makers regarding educational and labour market policies.

Vertical organization of the division of labor within nests of the Florida harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex badius.

In the Florida harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex badius, foragers occur only in the top 15 cm of the nest, whereas brood and brood-care workers reside mostly in the deepest regions, yet the food and seeds foragers collect must be transported downward 30 to 80 cm to seed chambers and up to 2 m to brood chambers. Using mark-recapture techniques with fluorescent printer's ink, we identified a class of workers that ranges widely within the vertical structure of the nest, rapidly moving materials dropped by foragers in the upper regions downward, and excavated soil from deeper upward. Within the nest, only 5% of foragers were recovered below 20 cm depth, but about 30% of transfer workers and 82% of unmarked workers were found there. Below 70 cm depth, 90% of workers were unmarked, and were probably involved mostly in brood care. During the summer, the transfer workers comprise about a quarter of the nest population, while foragers make up about 40%. Workers marked as transfer workers later appear as foragers, while those marked as foragers die and disappear from the foraging population, suggesting that transfer workers are younger, and age into foraging. The importance of these findings for laboratory studies of division of labor are discussed. The efficient allocation of labor is a key component of superorganismal fitness.

Labour mobility in the Euroregion Galicia–Norte de Portugal: constraints faced by cross-border commuters

ABSTRACTRemoving barriers to labour mobility is expected to contribute to processes of spatial integration in cross-border regions, by an efficient allocation of labour and consequently a convergence between territories separated by a common border. Nevertheless, despite the de-bordering process within the European Union, administrative, legal and language barriers still hamper cross-border labour mobility, preventing the process of labour market integration. The aim of this paper is to identify obstacles to the mobility of cross-border workers commuting within the Euroregion Galicia–Norte de Portugal. The methodology employed combines the analysis of official data on labour mobility with qualitative data gathered from interviews with cross-border commuters, aimed at finding explanations for the different attitudes towards cross-border mobility inside this Euroregion. While traditional push and pull factors remain relevant in explaining cross-border labour flows, the qualitative information offers new insights into different levels of indifference from cross-border workers. The result is a fragmented labour market where Norte de Portugal is providing low-qualified, low-wage labour, whereas Galicia is contributing with well-paid, qualified labour.

The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money.

Mobile money, a service that allows monetary value to be stored on a mobile phone and sent to other users via text messages, has been adopted by the vast majority of Kenyan households. We estimate that access to the Kenyan mobile money system M-PESA increased per capita consumption levels and lifted 194,000 households, or 2% of Kenyan households, out of poverty. The impacts, which are more pronounced for female-headed households, appear to be driven by changes in financial behavior-in particular, increased financial resilience and saving-and labor market outcomes, such as occupational choice, especially for women, who moved out of agriculture and into business. Mobile money has therefore increased the efficiency of the allocation of consumption over time while allowing a more efficient allocation of labor, resulting in a meaningful reduction of poverty in Kenya.

Portability of Supplementary Pension Rights in Europe: A Lowest Common Denominator Solution

In its effort to guarantee the free movement of workers, the European Union devised an advanced system of coordination of social security rights. Since 1958, statutory pensions are being aggregated for workers moving across the Member States. However, until mid‐2014, the portability of supplementary pension rights was not assured, there by undermining the freedom to labor mobility. This impaired the efficient allocation of labor, prevented sound family planning, infringed the fundamental right to social protection and during the Great Recession, hindered the employability of workers across a slowly recovering Europe. After nine years of negotiations, the EU has finally passed a Portability Directive, which is, however, a watered down version of the 2005 original proposal. Given such state of affairs, this study has three aims. First, it explains why portability of supplementary pensions, as opposed to the coordination of statutory ones, has been neglected and contested for a long time. Second, it illustrates the shortcomings of a patchy coordination‐without‐portability regime. Third, it enumerates the characteristics of the Portability Directive passed by the European Parliament in April 2014, and the strategic steps undertaken to secure its final adoption.

Entrepreneurship and the consequences of healthcare policy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the long-run impact of federal government healthcare subsidies on the level of entrepreneurship as measured by self-employment. Design/methodology/approach – Using annual healthcare and employment data from 1948 through 1999, the paper empirically examines the relationship between the growth in employer-provided healthcare and the rate of self-employment as a share of the non-agriculture, civilian labor force. Findings – The regression results imply that there is a consistent effect that has appeared over time – where federal healthcare subsidies have disproportionately benefitted larger firms, contributing to the decline in the rate of self-employment, within-firm innovation, and factor mobility over time. Research limitations/implications – The research in this study is limited by the examination of self-employment only and a constant institutional structure across all states, only varying across time for the entire USA. In addition, an empirical study looking at how the value of healthcare benefits have changed over time – vs the sole question in this study that depends upon whether or not an individual is covered or not would be very useful in determining the true effect on an entrepreneur. Social implications – Reducing or removing the layers of healthcare subsidies would bring about an increase in the transparency of the wage-productivity relationship and a more efficient allocation of labor and entrepreneurial ability across firm sizes. Originality/value – This paper presents empirical evidence supporting specific improvements to national healthcare policy at a time when such policy is undergoing significant change with consequences for entrepreneurial decision making.

The Spatial Aspects of Transformation of the Manufacturing Sector in the Russian Regions in the 2000s

The rapid economic recovery of Russia between the economic crises of 1998 and 2008-2009 in terms of GDP per capita and standards of living was accompanied by a loss of ca. 25 percent of manufacturing jobs in the whole economy. On the one hand, it was associated with adjustment of large and often overstaffed manufacturing plants created within the planned economy to the market economy with presumably more efficient allocation of labor. On the other hand, the transition to the market economy was accompanied by the dramatic decline in a number of manufacturing industries and relocation of labor to the services sector due to disruption of once well-established relations between enterprises-suppliers and enterprises-buyers in neighboring Soviet republics that became independent states. Finally, the changing patterns in the federal government policy towards different manufacturing industries also contributed to the transformation of the manufacturing sector in the 1990s and the 2000s. This paper seeks to find answers to the following questions, namely, (1) how employment changed in manufacturing industries over 2002-2009, (2) how regions performed in manufacturing industries in comparison to the national average, (3) whether the specialization of regions in manufacturing has changed or not, (4) whether manufacturing industries have become more concentrated or not, (5) what the degree of industrial concentration of manufacturing industries in Russia is, compared with such advanced market economies as the USA and France? We study redistribution of 97 manufacturing activities across 81 Russian regions over 2002-2009 using employment at both three-digit level of the Russian Classification of Economic Activities (OKVED) and enterprise level. To reveal spatial patterns of manufacturing transformation we apply the location quotient, the shift-share analysis, and several indices of spatial and industrial concentration such as the Isard index, the Theil index, and the Ellison-Glaeser index.

Dynamics of social, political, and economic institutions

Dynamics of social, political, and economic institutions

ALLOCATION UNDER INCREASING AND DECREASING RETURNS

Abstract. Efficient Allocation of labour among a set of machines (say) operating under initially increasing and then decreasing returns is studied first for identical machines and then for the case when machines can be ranked by their productivity. Essentially it is a question of the number of machines to be operated. At critical input levels this number jumps and the intensity of machine use is reduced discontinuously.

Efficiency properties of labor taxation in a spatial model of restricted labor mobility

We examine the efficiency properties of labor taxation. A spatial model of an economy is introduced whose key feature is a new approach to restricted labor mobility. We characterize the efficient allocation of labor and properties of a decentralized equilibrium. An efficient allocation of labor can be compatible with marginal productivity differentials stemming from binding mobility restrictions. We investigate two scenarios of labor taxation (firm-specific taxes and country-specific taxes) and in both setups we give a complete characterization of the cases for which there is scope for redistribution without affecting efficiency. Finally, we discuss the applicability of our model in the context of the place of employment and place of residence principle of taxation.

Efficiency Properties of Labor Taxation in a Spatial Model of Restricted Labor Mobility

We examine the efficiency properties of labor taxation. A spatial model of an economy is introduced whose key feature is a new approach to restricted labor mobility. We characterize the efficient allocation of labor and properties of a decentralized equilibrium. An efficient allocation of labor can be compatible with marginal productivity differentials stemming from binding mobility restrictions. We investigate two scenarios of labor taxation (firm-specific taxes and country-specific taxes) and in both setups we give a complete characterization of the cases for which there is scope for redistribution without affecting efficiency. Finally, we discuss the applicability of our model in the context of the place of employment and place of residence principle of taxation.

Incentives, allocation and labour-market reforms during transition: the case of urban China, 1986-1990

Has the reform process in China resulted in the introduction of incentives directed at a more efficient allocation of resources? Using data on individual earnings in urban Liaoning province for the period 1986–1990 and a wage-equation approach, we address this issue in the context of labour-market reforms, focusing specifically on returns to education. Our results indicate that failure to address the issue of endogenous selection of more ‘able’ individuals into state-owned enterprises (SOEs) can severely bias returns downwards. Unlike in SOEs, returns in collective-owned enterprises (COEs) increased, the latter having been allowed to ‘grow out of the plan’ more quickly and subject to more competition in factor and product markets. We conclude that decentralization without competition is unlikely to result in the introduction of an efficient incentive mechanism. The more administratively determined regular wages are one avenue for increased returns. We find evidence of ‘differentiated bonuses’ in COEs, but we cannot reject the hypothesis of ‘bonus sharing’ in SOEs. Reforms which face SOEs with more competitive markets (e.g. reform of in-kind benefits such as housing) should have substantial benefits in terms of a more efficient allocation of labour both within and across enterprises.

Urban Labour Markets in LDCs: Segmented or Competitive? - A Note

In a competitive labour market, demand and supply forces determine an equilibrium wage which clears the market. Wage movements in the short run and labour movements plus technology changes (facilitating factor substitution) in the long run bring about an equilibrium which reflects an efficient allocation of labour.

Unemployment Insurance: Risk Sharing Versus Efficiency

Two models of spot labor markets are presented in which labor suppliers have heterogeneous attitudes towards effort and in which uncertainty prevails on labor productivity and growth. The problem of selecting efficient rules to manage unemployment insurance (UI) systems is considered. We show that there does not exist any system which combines an efficient allocation of labor with an efficient allocation of risks among employees, unemployed workers and capital-owners. Pareto-efficient policy rules are a best compromise between these two conflicting objectives. It implies that productive efficiency could be improved in periods of mass unemployment by reducing UI benefits. That would be at the expense of more inefficiencies in the sharing of macroeconomic risks. At the optimum, the UI benefit is positively correlated to growth and it is negatively correlated to labor productivity.