Good Quality Jobs Research Articles

Longer school schedules, childcare and the quality of mothers’ employment

Summary Better employment quality can improve personal well-being, social cohesion, and inclusive growth and development. Yet good quality jobs – associated with greater well-being – are less accessible to women than men. While it is understood that policies balancing family and work lead to greater female labour participation, this paper investigates whether one such policy – increased childcare – improves the quality of jobs where mothers are employed. The context we analyse is a nationwide school reform in Chile that extended school schedules for primary school-aged children, providing childcare services. We combine administrative data of the phase-in of the policy with panel data of individual mothers’ employment outcomes and socio-economic characteristics. We estimate a fixed-effects model that controls for mothers’ unobserved heterogeneity and identifies the effect of the policy from plausibly exogenous temporal and spatial variations in access to schools with long schedules and exogenous exposure to the policy. We find a positive effect of childcare on several measures of employment quality and gender gaps within the couple. Our evidence suggests that the mechanism driving the impact is the implicit subsidy to the cost of childcare, affecting the opportunity cost of mothers’ time. In addition, we find heterogeneous results by mothers’ education level. Access to childcare through longer primary school schedules can increase household welfare and can play a role in reducing income and gender inequalities.

Entrepreneurship skills framework for fostering the employability of industrial technology students

<span lang="EN-US">The rising rate of youth unemployment and its attendant consequences on the general populace in Nigeria has assumed a frightening dimension. The academia and other relevant stakeholders have gradually come to realize that the possession of academic qualifications alone cannot guarantee a good quality job. Nigerian higher intuitions are now introducing entrepreneurship studies in their school curriculum without a clear framework. Research has shown that this does not guarantee total graduates unless we have an entrepreneurship skills framework that is functional and discipline-based. Noting that entrepreneurship is classified into two folds; entrepreneurship specific and entrepreneurship mindset, this study intends to develop an entrepreneurship skills framework that will promote the employability of the students of Electrical Technology in Colleges of Education in Nigeria. The survey research that employs the sequential exploratory mixed methods was used for the study. The population for this phase consists of entrepreneurs and academics in Nigeria. The use of the partial credit model in the Rasch analysis model guaranteed the consensus of the experts on each of the items being measured. The outcome of the study will contribute to the social-economic peace and sustainability in Nigeria and the body of knowledge in entrepreneurship regarding electrical technology.</span>

Systematic development of entrepreneurship skills framework for students of electrical technology in Nigeria

The rising rate of youth unemployment and the attendant consequences on the general population in Nigeria called for concern. The academia and other relevant stakeholders have gradually come to realize that the possession of academic qualifications alone cannot guarantee a good quality job. Thus, many of Nigerian higher institutions are now introducing entrepreneurship studies into their school curriculum without a clear framework. This study intends to create a topology of skills that will help Electrical Technology students in Nigeria find jobs. To gather information about the different skills needed, the Google Scholar search engine was adopted. The search was between 2018 and 2023. The inclusion criteria involve entrepreneurship studies with a focus on Technical Education, Vocational education, and Electrical Technology. A total of 80 Journal articles were extracted for the study. Data were directly collected from the critical stakeholders. The study was guided by 3 objectives. The participants for the study involved 12 experts from the industry and academics. The sample size was purposive and obtained based on Theoretical saturation. The topology of skills was achieved with the application of the Nvivo12 software and the thematic analysis. A Broad skill suitable for the 21st-century job matching for electrical technology students was generated. The study is recommended for in-depth analysis in order the isolate all the in fits.

Business leaders’ perceptions of how workplace charters can reduce health inequalities for employees in West Yorkshire, England: a qualitative study

BackgroundWorkplace interventions to increase the number of good quality jobs can help reduce widening health inequalities in England and are an important area for public health research. Over the past decade, workplace charters led by local and regional government authorities have become increasingly popular. Charters typically include commitments on workplace practices—such as job security, pay, wellbeing, and employee voice—and an assessment and award process. Still, there is limited knowledge on how this intervention works. We aimed to understand the views of business leaders on how workplace charters can reduce health inequalities for employees. MethodsIn this qualitative study, 12 business leaders in West Yorkshire were purposively recruited (seven [58%] female, and five [42%] male) through the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, covering different business sizes and sectors. Business leaders were recruited, as key stakeholders who decide whether to engage with charters. Semi-structured interviews were conducted between Aug 3, and Sept 7, 2022. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis to identify perceived charter mechanisms to reduce health inequalities, alongside emergent barriers to charter implementation. Ethics approval was granted by the University of Sheffield Research Ethics Committee. Participants gave written informed consent. FindingsBusiness leaders perceived multiple charter mechanisms to reduce health inequalities: the charter to benchmark workplace practices, facilitate a business community, act as a credible badge for fair employers, and open a dialogue with partners. Three key emergent barriers to charter implementation were also identified, including different perceptions of fair work among business leaders, concern about significant charter demands for smaller businesses, and perceived external constraints from the political, social, and economic environment. InterpretationBusiness leaders’ views affirmed that workplace charters are collectively perceived as a potential tool to address differential workplace practices and reduce health inequalities. However, due to substantial barriers identified, this study suggested that workplace charters could also exclude particular organisations and generate health inequalities. Charter providers must reconcile the tension between the collective aspiration, and practical reality of workplace charters. If reconciled, workplace charters could potentially be a timely and meaningful intervention to help reduce health inequalities in England. FundingNone.

Job market polarization and American poverty

The article posits that the puzzles of stagnating poverty rates amidst high growth and declining unemployment in the United States can be substantially explained by polarized job markets characterized by job quality and job distribution. In recent decades, there has been an increased number of poor-quality jobs and an unequal distribution of jobs in the developed world, particularly in the United States. I have calculated measures of uneven job distribution indices that account for the distribution of jobs across households. A higher value of the uneven job distribution indices implies that there are relatively large numbers of households with multiple employed people and households with no employed people. Similarly, poor-quality jobs are those jobs that do not offer full-time work. Two-way fixed-effect models estimate that higher uneven job distribution across households worsens aggregated poverty at the state level. Similarly, good-quality jobs help households escape poverty, whereas poor-quality jobs do not. This paper suggests that eradicating poverty requires the government to direct labor market policies to be tailored more toward distributing jobs from individuals to households and altering bad jobs into good jobs, rather than merely creating more jobs in the economy. This paper contributes by elaborating on relations of employment and poverty, addressing employment quality and distribution, and providing empirical evidence.

COVID-19 AND ITS IMPACT ON MSMES IN KARNATAKA : A STUDY WITH VIJAYAPURA DISTRICT

In modern era, entrepreneurship is one of the main pathways to achieve gender equality and women’s economic empowerment- as set out in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), which can in turn have a multiplier effect on family well-being, poverty reduction and sustainable economic growth. MSMEs are central - not only in promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment, and decent work for all; MSMEs also promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation and can help reduce income inequalities if they receive support to provide good quality jobs. Finally, they can support achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment through female entrepreneurship. While the rates of infection and death as a result of this pandemic appear to be higher for men than women so far, it is envisaged that women and girls will bear a disproportionate burden of the primary, concurrent, secondary and tertiary impacts of the disease, in terms of economic, social and health risks.

Why employer inflexibility matters for the recruitment, retention and progression of disabled workers

This article outlines recent debates in the UK on the requirement to enhance all employees’ rights to request Flexible Working by making it the default position. I consider if, and how, this change could be beneficial for disabled people when competing against non-disabled people for good quality jobs.

Students' self-determination in Azerbaijan

PurposeIt has been suggested that social impacts on young people are stronger in collectivistic societies than in individualistic societies due to stronger social norms. Therefore, the satisfaction of psychological needs might be more challenging for students in collectivistic societies. As Azerbaijani society is collectivistic, the purpose of this study was to explore the ways in which the need for the self-determination of Azerbaijani master's students is met in relation to their social circles.Design/methodology/approachForty-four Azerbaijani master's students were interviewed for this study, and their answers were analyzed from the perspective of basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness within self-determination theory (SDT).FindingsThe findings of the current study suggest that Azerbaijani students' social environment is not supportive of furthering higher education through achieving a master's degree, and in some cases, this negatively affects students' well-being. Families in Azerbaijan mainly view higher education as being employment focused due to experiences of employment insecurity in the country.Research limitations/implicationsThe participants of the current study were from middle- and low-income families in Azerbaijan, as the interviewer obtained basic information on the educational and occupational situations of participants' families in addition to the interviewees' own states. Perhaps due to financial needs, it was mainly found that families valued making money over long-term self-development aspirations in their children. Reaching larger numbers of participants, future studies may purposefully sample individuals from higher-income families to reveal whether families with fewer financial concerns were more autonomy-supportive in the aspirations by young people to further their education or how the pattern of their support varied due to socioeconomic status.Practical implicationsIt is hoped that the presented results may guide the relevant authorities in the regulation of the employment strategies of youth in Azerbaijan, as high levels of youth unemployment and massive shifts to self-employment and low-skilled occupations create few opportunities to realize self-development aspirations in Azerbaijan. More efficient policies should be implemented to improve recruitment to good-quality jobs and increase the value of skills and knowledge in employment.Social implicationsInterconnected cultural factors determine families' views of furthering education and affect how they satisfy the psychological needs of students in their education lives. It is anticipated that the present study will be useful for students mainly from developing countries in coping with their social environments in pursuing their self-development aspirations.Originality/valueUnlike previous studies, the authors suggest that through “gained autonomy”, Azerbaijani youth who comply with their elders when less experienced tend to gain control over their personal decisions by providing positive information about overseas experiences. The concept of “gained autonomy” also contributes to SDT in illustrating how members of collectivistic societies can attempt to satisfy their basic psychological needs.

What matters more for employees’ mental health: job quality or job quantity?

Abstract Recent debates about whether the standard full-time working week (35–40 h) can be replaced by a shorter working week have received extensive attention. Using 2015 European Working Conditions Survey data, this study contributes to these debates by exploring the relationships between job quantity, job quality and employees’ mental health. Overall, we find that a job’s quality matters more than its quantity as measured in hours per week. The results show that actual working hours are hardly related to employees’ mental health but job quality, especially intrinsically meaningful work, less intensified work and having a favourable social environment, has positive effects on employee mental health, even in jobs with short working hours. Moreover, although working less than one prefers (under-employment) has negative effects, these negative effects become much smaller in size and non-significant in good quality jobs, especially in jobs with skill discretion and good job prospects. These findings develop the debates about a shorter standard working week by emphasising the continued and crucial importance of job quality in debates on the future of work. These results also suggest that policymakers should pay particular attention to job quality when addressing the dramatic reduction in total hours of employment in Europe following the COVID-19 crisis.

What Contributes to Gendered Work Time Inequality? An Australian Case Study

Women’s employment equality remains compromised by wage and work hour gaps, despite decades of policy action. Shorter work hours are a key to persisting disadvantage because they lock women out of high paying, good quality jobs. Such hour gaps are observed across all countries, and this paper quantifies the reasons behind them. We applied the Oaxaca decomposition method to a sample of employed adults from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA). The method can show how the work hour gap would change if (a) women had the same sort of jobs (industry, occupation, work conditions, contract type) as men have and (b) if men lowered their work hours and/or increased their domestic unpaid work. We find that men’s allocation of time in and out of the home and the jobs women typically work in are central to explaining unequal paid hours. Women’s hours would increase (all else being equal) if they worked in the same industries and had the same job security as men have, accounting for 74% of the explained work hour difference. Women’s hours would also increase if they did the same (lower) domestic work as men, or if men worked the same (shorter) hours women typically do (33.4% of the explained gap). Our study, using Australian data, underscores the need to prioritize men’s time use (shorter paid hours, longer unpaid hours) alongside improvement in jobs and work conditions to progress gender equality in employment.

Introduction to the Special Issue “Parental work and family/child well-being”

The "new economy" is characterized by increasing levels of nonstandard employment. A significant proportion of employees work very long hours, work with high intensity, or have long commutes to work. Also, many workers struggle to secure adequate, stable employment or good quality jobs, and work evening and night shifts or work multiple jobs in order to make ends meet. This special issue examines the consequences of the new economy for the wellbeing of family and children. The studies included in this special issue address the impact of parents’ nonstandard work schedules (shift work), long work hours, temporary employment, and long commutes to work on parental and child health and wellbeing, relationship satisfaction, work-family balance, and the division of labour.

Education, Caste and Women’s Work in India

Based on the Periodic Labour Force Survey (2017–2018), this paper explores women’s labour market participation and employment patterns mediated by education and caste, with a focus on highly educated women. We find that women’s workforce participation follows a clear caste pattern, with the upper castes having the lowest work participation rates and this increases as we go down the caste hierarchy. These differences narrow down among highly educated women (graduate and above), particularly in urban areas. Considering the workforce participation rate (WPR) by education, female WPR by education class follows a U-shape and this holds across castes. Caste patterns persist in work status; in the female labour force in urban areas, general-caste women are more likely to be in regular employment characterised by employment stability than the other social groups. Among regular workers, Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) women are more likely to work in the public sector—a likely result of affirmative action policies of the state. However, while the policy of reservations may have worked in favour of SC/ST communities in terms of accessing public employment, it has not translated to access to good-quality jobs as caste patterns permeate into industry and occupation. Regression results show that caste and education emerge as important variables that explain women’s workforce participation, and the interaction effect of caste and education is critical in understanding women’s work participation. That accessing education even at the highest levels does not level the gap between social groups in terms of WPR implying that policies aimed towards increasing female employment therefore need to be nuanced to take into account the hetegeneous nature of the women workers, even for the highly educated segment.

Putting employers to work in economic development in the Atlantic provinces of Canada

The Atlantic provinces of Canada – New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador – face persistent social and economic challenges, including low labour productivity, high levels of public debt and a declining workforce. There are persistent issues of low wages and high levels of underemployment and seasonal/part-time work. The policy responses proposed to tackle these challenges have focused on innovation clusters in science and technology fields, the attraction and retention of skills and unskilled immigrants to the region, and some upskilling of the local workforce. Absent is a consideration of the role of employers and businesses, and the quality of jobs available in addressing these challenges. Decent jobs have implications for individual, societal and organizational outcomes, including innovative work behaviours. This article argues that there is a need to consider job quality and how good quality jobs can support organizational and business innovation outcomes, as part of these policy debates for local economic development.

\u2018Everything was just getting worse and worse\u2019: deteriorating job quality as a driver of doctor emigration from Ireland

BackgroundMedicine is a high-status, high-skill occupation which has traditionally provided access to good quality jobs and relatively high salaries. In Ireland, historic underfunding combined with austerity-related cutbacks has negatively impacted job quality to the extent that hospital medical jobs have begun to resemble extreme jobs. Extreme jobs combine components of a good quality job—high pay, high job control, challenging demands, with those of a low-quality job—long working hours, heavy workloads. Deteriorating job quality and the normalisation of extreme working is driving doctor emigration from Ireland and deterring return.MethodsSemi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 40 Irish emigrant doctors in Australia who had emigrated from Ireland since 2008. Interviews were held in July–August 2018.ResultsRespondents reflected on their experiences of working in the Irish health system, describing hospital workplaces that were understaffed, overstretched and within which extreme working had become normalised, particularly in relation to long working hours, fast working pace, doing more with less and fighting a climate of negativity. Drawing on Hirschman’s work on exit, voice and loyalty (1970), the authors consider doctor emigration as exit and present respondent experiences of voice prior to emigration. Only 14/40 respondent emigrant doctors intend to return to work in Ireland.DiscussionThe deterioration in medical job quality and the normalisation of extreme working is a key driver of doctor emigration from Ireland, and deterring return. Irish trained hospital doctors emigrate to access good quality jobs in Australia and are increasingly likely to remain abroad once they have secured them. To improve doctor retention, health systems and employers must mitigate a gainst the emergence of extreme work in healthcare. Employee voice (about working conditions, about patient safety, etc.) should be encouraged and used to inform health system improvement and to mitigate exit.

Is Being Employed Always Better for Mental Wellbeing Than Being Unemployed? Exploring the Role of Gender and Welfare State Regimes during the Economic Crisis.

The growth of poor jobs related to economic crisis adds to its increase since the mid-1970s as a result of new forms of flexible employment. In Europe, there is no clear evidence on whether working in a poor-quality job is better for mental wellbeing than being unemployed. The objectives of this study were to compare mental wellbeing between the unemployed and those working in jobs with different quality levels and to examine gender and welfare state differences in Europe. We selected 8324 men and 7496 women from the European Social Survey, 2010. Hierarchical multiple logistic regression models were fitted, separated by sex and country group. No significant differences in mental wellbeing were shown between unemployed-non-active, unemployed-active, and those working in low-quality jobs in either sex. Only men from Conservative countries in low-quality jobs had better mental wellbeing than unemployed (non-active) men. Only having a good-quality job reduced the likelihood of poor mental wellbeing compared with being unemployed (non-active) among men in all countries (except Social-Democratic) and among women in Eastern and Southern European countries. No differences were observed among men or women in Social-Democratic countries, while strong gender differences were found in Conservative and Liberal countries. Our study indicates the need to take job quality into account, in addition to creating jobs during economic crises. The main mechanisms to explain the strong gender and welfare state differences identified could be social protection for unemployed, labor market regulations, and family models.

El impacto del nivel educativo alcanzado en el índice de calidad del empleo en el Perú, 2016

El presente estudio de investigación tiene como objetivo medir el impacto de un mayor nivel educativo alcanzado en el índice de calidad de empleo teniendo en cuenta las brechas de género y de área. El estudio es de tipo cuantitativo con datos de corte transversal obtenidos de la Encuesta Nacional de Hogares elaborado por el INEI, la metodología a usar es un modelo logit ordinal generalizado para cuatro categorías del índice de empleo. Entre los principales resultados se encontró que en el Perú la categoría de mala calidad de empleo fue la que tuvo mayor probabilidad (41,5%), donde a su vez un mayor nivel educativo alcanzado redujo en 1,1% la probabilidad de pertenecer a dicha categoría. También se encontró que los trabajadores con educación básica tienen mayores probabilidades de tener un empleo de mala y muy mala calidad, y comparado con un trabajador con educación superior no universitaria, tienen tres veces menos de probabilidad de pertenecer a un empleo de muy buena calidad en el área urbana. Otro resultado importante es que mayores niveles educativos no presentaron menores brechas. Si bien la probabilidad de tener buena calidad de empleo de hombres y mujeres aumentó en cada nivel educativo, la diferencia entre probabilidades también lo hizo. Lo mismo ocurrió entre las zonas urbanas y rurales, donde estos últimos tuvieron niveles educativos donde llegaron a tener la mitad de probabilidades de pertenecer a buenos empleos en comparación con las áreas urbanas.

Young people school-to-work transition in the aftermath of the Arab Spring

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the school-to-work transition of young people from subsequent school exit cohorts between 2001 and 2012 in Egypt, thus, presenting an early evidence on the adjustments of the labor market in terms of patterns of youth transition to a first job following the 2011 Egyptian uprising.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis compares the early employment outcomes of those who left school after the January 25, 2011 uprising to that of those who left before 2011. The authors also separately control for the cohorts who left school in 2008 and 2009, in an attempt to disentangle any labor market adjustments that might have happened following the financial crisis, and before the revolution. Using novel and unexploited representative data from the 2014 Survey of Young People in Egypt (SYPE), the authors estimate the probability of transition to any first job within 18 months from leaving education and that of the transition to a good-quality job, controlling for the year of school exit. The authors also estimate the hazard of finding a first job and a good-quality job using survival analysis.FindingsSchool exit cohorts of 2008–2009 (following the financial crisis) and those of 2011–2012 (in the aftermath of the 2011 uprisings) experienced a significantly higher likelihood of finding a first job within 18 months than that of the cohorts of 2001–2007. However, this came at the expense of the quality of job, conditional on having found a first job. The results of the hazard model show that school leavers after 2008 who were not able to transition to a job shortly after leaving school experienced longer unemployment spells than their peers who left school before 2007. The odds of finding a good-quality job appears to decline with time spent in non-employment or in a bad-quality first job.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to a limited, yet growing, literature on how school-to-work transition evolved during the global financial crisis and the Egyptian 2011 revolution. Using data from SYPE 2014, the most recent representative survey conducted in Egypt on youth and not previously exploited to study youth school-to-work transition, the paper investigates the short-term adjustments of the youth labor market opportunities during that critical period of Egypt and the region’s history.

India's Economic Reforms: Achievements and Next Steps

This paper reviews the impact of India's reforms since 1991 on the performance of the Indian economy. It shows that the reforms definitely achieved a significant acceleration in growth and they also succeeded in reducing poverty. However, they have been less successful in generating good quality jobs. There was progress in providing better access to education, health services ,and clean drinking water and sanitation, but less than was hoped. The area where performance has been most disappointing is environmental sustainability. The paper concludes by identifying some of the critical policy challenges in the years ahead.

Re-employment, job quality, health and allostatic load biomarkers: prospective evidence from the UK Household Longitudinal Study.

BackgroundThere is little evidence on whether becoming re-employed in poor quality work is better for health and well-being than remaining unemployed. We examined associations of job transition with health and chronic stress-related biomarkers among a population-representative cohort of unemployed British adults.MethodsA prospective cohort of 1116 eligible participants aged 35 to 75 years, who were unemployed at wave 1 (2009/10) of the UK Household Longitudinal Study, were followed up at waves 2 (2010/11) and 3 (2011/12) for allostatic load biomarkers and self-reported health. Negative binomial and multiple regression models estimated the association between job adversity and these outcomes.ResultsCompared with adults who remained unemployed, formerly unemployed adults who transitioned into poor quality jobs had higher levels of overall allostatic load (0.51, 0.32–0.71), log HbA1c (0.06, <0.001–0.12), log triglycerides (0.39, 0.22–0.56), log C-reactive protein (0.45, 0.16–0.75), log fibrinogen (0.09, 0.01–0.17) and total cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein (HDL) ratio (1.38, 0.88–1.88). Moreover, physically healthier respondents at wave 1 were more likely to transition into good quality and poor quality jobs after 1 year than those who remained unemployed.ConclusionsFormerly unemployed adults who transitioned into poor quality work had greater adverse levels of biomarkers compared with their peers who remained unemployed. The selection of healthier unemployed adults into these poor quality or stressful jobs was unlikely to explain their elevated levels of chronic stress-related biomarkers. Job quality cannot be disregarded from the employment success of the unemployed, and may have important implications for their health and well-being.

The Study on Determinants of Job Creation in Korean ME: Listed Firms

본 연구는 2012년부터 2014년까지 3개년 간 상장 중견기업의 패널자료를 이용하여 중견기업의 고용창출 결정요인에 대해 분석하였다. 실증분석 결과, 기업규모와 성장성이 중견기업의 고용창출효과와 유의적인 정(+)의 관계를 가지고 있음을 발견하였다. 하지만 중소기업과는 달리 중견기업에서 가젤효과는 존재하지 않는 것으로 나타났다. 중견기업에 대한 기업규모 및 성장성과 고용창출효과와의 유의적 관계는 설립 후 상당한 기간이 경과하여 일정 수준 이상의 기업규모를 가진 중견기업이라도 성장성이 높은 기업이면 여전히 높은 고용창출효과를 보인다는 것을 의미한다. 따라서 중견기업의 고용창출은 무엇보다 성장 동력의 확보가 중요하며, 고용창출을 위해서는 중소기업 뿐 아니라 중견기업에 대해서도 정책적 관심을 가져야 함을 시사한다. 이런 관점에서 정책당국은 중견기업이 연구개발이나 성장자금조달 등의 활성화를 통해 지속적인 성장을 도모할 수 있는 제반 여건을 조성함으로써 양질의 일자리 창출을 이끌어내고 중소기업과 중견기업 모두 성장할 수 있는 건전한 기업생태계를 구축하도록 노력해야 할 것이다.The purpose of this proposal is to search for determinants of job creation on listed ME (medium enterprises) between 2012-2014 in South Korea. Based on our empirical analysis, we found that the size of the company and its growth potentials had a positive relationship on companies’ ability to create new jobs. But we couldn’t find the Gazelle effects in midsize companies. The significant relationship between the size, the growth of the company and its capacity to create new jobs means that even a midsize company with a sizeable scale retains the ability to create more jobs if the firm has a high growth rate. This means that it is important to secure the growth momentum above anything else. This also suggests that, in order to create new jobs, the government needs to focus on devising policy measures that support mid-sized companies as well as small businesses. In this light, the authorities should create an environment in which midsize companies could pursue sustained growth through R&D or by getting enough funds to help them grow. By doing so, they should create good quality jobs and set up a sound corporate ecosystem.