Labor Flows Research Articles

Global Economic Mechanisms and Szeklerland

This paper identifies the opportunities for development and take-off points by taking into account the operation, processes and basic principles of the global economy. The current economic situation of the region mentioned will be detailed using macroeconomic indicators such as GDP, foreign direct investment, the HDI index and infrastructural networks. It becomes evident that the focus of this paper is a semi-periphery region of a semi-periphery country, which, in addition to the stagnation of the current situation, is inching towards the periphery. It is essential to explore the main routes through which the future development of the region might be reoriented towards a modern and competitive economy in the current global environment. It is therefore not specific solutions, but development paths that this paper outlines. The obvious handicaps are, however, coupled with unique opportunities, such as natural resources, biodiversity, traditions and a strategic geographic location. The free flow of labour, goods and capital has become a cross-border and intertwined reality, and significantly influence the economies of all countries and regions. The migration of capital and the division of labour it results in assign roles to states and global regions. In this capacity, they connect to networks whose micro-interactions outline the entirety of the global economic landscape. The Szeklerland is not an administratively recognised region; it is surrounded by psychological borders, and represents a cultural, ethnic, historical entity based on tradition. Although the push for its recognition is still ongoing, as evidenced by the efforts of representative bodies such as the Minority SafePack initiative for the protection of minorities, global processes and laws still apply to it, influencing both its present and expected future path. Despite the unfavourable historical background that has left its mark on its economic state to a significant extent, thus also shaping the ways in which it attained its current level of development, the region examined possesses significant potential, and with the appropriate measures, the possible future evolution of its economy may give cause for optimism. This, however, may only be accomplished if there is an appropriate infrastructural network underpinning the region, with the aim of ensuring the rapid movement of products, services, high volumes of data, information, the workforce and money. Digitisation plays an important part in this process, yet at the same time, technology transfer and innovation are both indispensable for increasing efficiency.

The impact of urban housing prices on labour mobility: evidence from cities in China

Urban development relies heavily on labour, while the change in urban housing prices, in turn, has a crucial impact on labour. Therefore, the regulatory policies of housing prices have become a critical content of urban management worldwide for a long time. Based on the theoretical analysis of urban housing prices and labour mobility, we use fixed-effect panel model with the panel data of 281 cities in China from 2002 to 2018. We study the impact of rising urban housing prices on labour and identify the housing price jump as an instrumental variable in solving the endogenous problem. The results are as follows. First, the increase in urban housing prices has a crowding-out effect on labour mobility. Second, there is a moderating effect on different levels of education, urban construction, and income under the impact of urban housing prices on labour mobility. Third, the heterogeneity of the impact is reflected in the housing price-to-income ratios and industrial structures. These conclusions are supposed to have significant enlightenment for controlling the urban housing prices during high-quality economic growth and guiding labour flow more rationally.

The Gender Wage Gap in EU Countries and its Relation to the Educational Attainment and Type od Employment

The issue of wage inequality between men and women is widely discussed today. Different developments in individual EU countries characterize different wage values between men and women. As the empirical literature shows, the causes of the gender pay gap are not clear. The paper aimed to examine whether the level of education attained and the type of working hours can affect the value of the gender pay gap in EU countries from 2006 to 2020. Using the GMM method and Granger's causality test, it was possible to find that the selected variables focused on educational attainment and type of employment did not explain any part of the gender pay gap in most cases. These results could be related to the fact that education is available for both sexes practically without significant restrictions. In some workplaces, a minimum percentage of women may be required. The quality of parental leave policy, the daycare system, and the legislative protection of women on parental or maternity leave, which have affected the labor market situation, may be important. These findings indicate that there may be other variables that may affect the values of the gender pay gap in the analyzed regions of the European Union. Granger causality in the opposite direction is attributed to significant labor flows.

Does High-Speed Rail Promote Agglomeration in China?

This paper constructs the agglomeration model of crossregional labor flow and market accessibility based on the new economic geography model. Using panel data in 2000-2013, this paper examines the impact of high-speed railways on industrial agglomeration. The results show that high-speed railway significantly promotes the spatial agglomeration of industrial firms. The high-speed railway promotes industrial agglomeration by promoting crossregional mobility of industrial labor and improving market accessibility. We also construct the instrument variable based on HSR construction cost and apply the TSLS model to solve the potential endogenous problems. At the same time, PSM results also get the net effect caused by the repair of a high-speed railway, which verifies the robustness of the results.

Extended exergy analysis of a photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) module based desiccant air cooling system for buildings

In this paper, a photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) module based desiccant air-cooling system for buildings is analyzed by extended exergy analysis. Extended exergy analysis contains all information about material, energy, capital, labor, and environmental flows. The results show that the extended exergy analysis gives different results from conventional exergy analysis in terms of exergy destruction and exergy efficiency. The maximum exergy efficiencies of the system are 0.84 and 0.18 by considering the conventional and extended exergy analyses, respectively. Another important change is shown in the exergy destruction owing to the increase from 5085.50 kJ to 98029.50 kJ in maximum values for conventional and extended exergy analyses, respectively. When extended exergy items are taken into account, it is seen that exergy equivalent of the capital has the biggest portion. This is mostly resulted from the great expenses of the electricity consumption. That’s why, either electricity consumption needs to be decreases by using efficient systems or electricity should be generated via renewable energy. These methods would be useful to increase in exergy efficiency and decrease in exergy destruction.

Does a Polycentric Spatial Structure Help to Reduce Industry Emissions?

City planners are increasingly drawn to ways of transforming urban spatial structure as an important strategy for reducing pollutant emissions. As its main contribution, this paper uses firm-level emissions data to quantify impact mechanisms related to factor flow, firm size, and division of labour. We examine the effects of spatial polycentricity on firm-level industrial emissions, using a pooled cross-sectional model, based on emissions data from individual firms in China. We show that, all else being equal, polycentric spatial structures help to reduce the emissions of industrial firms. This finding is not affected by index measures, changes in industrial structure, or city-sample selection. A mechanism analysis shows that polycentric structures not only enhance the emission-reduction effects of factor flow and firm size, but also reduce firm-level emissions by strengthening the urban division of labour. Our findings support the emission-reduction performance of polycentric spatial structures, promoting the integration of city planning and industrial policies that jointly contribute to reducing firm-level emissions and preventing and controlling air pollution.

Localized labor flow networks in knowledge‐intensive industries

AbstractThis study examines the relationship between agglomeration and labor market matching by investigating the small‐scale sociospatial determinants of a network created by the within‐region mobility of employees across organizations. The local labor flow network is constructed on the basis of an establishment‐level matched employer–employee database covering selected knowledge‐intensive industries in the Helsinki–Uusimaa Region in Finland during the period 2001–2015. The results from the analysis of various tie formation processes reveal that the formation of a link by interorganizational employee mobility within an integrated labor market area is more likely between organizations geographically closer to each other, all else being equal. The findings highlight the importance of local density for the job search process.

Does Lockdown Reduce Employment in Major Developing Countries? An Assessment Based on Multiregional Input–Output Model and Scenario Analysis

With the development of global value chains, more and more countries are involved in global trade, which has brought an extensive social impact. Past studies on the employment impact of trade have pointed out that free trade has significantly boosted employment in developing economies, with large populations working in export-related jobs along the value chains. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused global trade protectionism to become more rampant. This study aims to establish a trade employment effect accounting model, based on the comparison of multiple scenarios, to discuss the employment impact of trade lockdown on major developing and developed countries. Specifically, based on a multi-regional input–output model, we map the flow network of trade-induced employment in 15 major global economies, and the scenarios of free trade and restricted trade are simulated to determine the employment impact of protectionism across multiple trade patterns. The results show that the current labor flow induced by global trade mainly flows from developing countries such as China and India to developed countries such as the EU and the United States. In the total employment induced by trade, the proportion of final products trade reached 42.82%. Trade protection would cut 19.86 million jobs worldwide. Under the trade restriction scenario, employment in developing countries would be reduced, with China and India losing 45.24 million and 10.10 million jobs, respectively. People working in the final product processing trade face the greatest risk of unemployment, especially in manufacturing and services. Among developed countries, the EU and the US would add 5.52 and 2.23 million jobs due to industrial repatriation.

Experts in Action: Transnational Hong Kong–Style Stunt Work and Performance by Lauren Steimer

Reviewed by: Experts in Action: Transnational Hong Kong–Style Stunt Work and Performance by Lauren Steimer Karen Fang (bio) Experts in Action: Transnational Hong Kong–Style Stunt Work and Performance by Lauren Steimer. Duke University Press. 2021. 240 pages. $99.95 hardcover; $25.95 paper; also available in e-book. Chief among the many appeals of Quentin Tarantino's 2019 alternative history fable, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is the film's centering of a stuntman. "You're too pretty to be a stuntman," snarks the movie's cartoonishly bombastic Bruce Lee (Mike Moh) of the protagonist, played by Brad Pitt. In a typically Tarantino-ish mélange of film nerd and fan boy humor, the line reminds us that stunt workers, by definition, are never stars. By contrast, Lauren Steimer's new book, Experts in Action: Transnational Hong Kong–Style Stunt Work and Performance, is a scholarly exploration of the underlying premise that Tarantino (who is a recurring reference throughout her book) presents with such cheek. Situated between cinema and performance studies, and contributing to production culture, fan, and media industry studies, Steimer's work shines a spotlight on the "stunting stars" whose physical feats are a main attraction of contemporary action-centered film and television.1 Her specific interest is in how Hong Kong cinema's transnational influence has offered industrial and professional opportunities that might [End Page 207] not otherwise have been possible outside of Hollywood. Through case studies that include Thai action stars Tony Jaa and Jeeja Yanin, the international production of popular television series Xena: Warrior Princess (syndication, 1995–2001), and celebrated stunt doubles and action choreographers such as Dayna Grant, Chad Stahelski, and Zoë Bell, Steimer shows how global media and entertainment have assimilated Hong Kong production practices such as frontal performance, uncut action sequences, and a full-time second unit that enjoys a high degree of independent agency.2 These developments are part of the longer transnational flow of labor that has empowered Hollywood since the mid-1990s and whose effects have irrevocably transformed the look and feel of global media. Steimer analyzes the flexible, diffuse, truly global media landscape of the first decades of the twenty-first century, which scarcely resembles the unilateral, predominately transatlantic poaching of Anglo-European talent that enabled US global media dominance throughout the twentieth century. As Steimer puts it, adapting a phrase originally used by Xena director Doug Lefler to describe how he intentionally borrowed from Hong Kong action and production practice, Hong Kong is now a "reservoir of technique" whose impact on global media exceeds mainstream Hollywood cinema, spilling out from movies to television, documentary, and other content heavily influenced by fan fiction. This ripple effect is geographic as well as transmedial: while Hollywood lifts, in typically unabashed fashion, from Hong Kong, Hong Kong's global influence is further augmented by its Hollywood aura, fostering lateral connections with other non-Hollywood production sites—such as New Zealand—that benefit from their proximity to Hong Kong.3 Students and scholars of Hong Kong cinema, global media, performance, and industry studies will find much of value in Experts in Action. As a behind-the-scenes look into the specialized labor of contemporary stunts and physical performance, Steimer's book offers a fascinating glimpse into how the human spectacle of modern action cinema straddles both cutting-edge motion capture technologies and low-tech paraphernalia such as cardboard boxes to break falls. The book opens with a sustained discussion of practice theory and the scholarship on expertise, including Malcolm Gladwell's wellknown and oft-cited assertion of 10,000 hours as the minimum training time necessary to achieve mastery in any discipline. As example and model of such expertise, Steimer cites Jackie Chan's Peking opera training and Hong Kong stunt crew, whose influence and standard is evident throughout all the other performers and choreographers studied in Steimer's subsequent chapters.4 This paradigm of expert performance frames Steimer's overall goal of according attention and due credit to individual performers, action choreographers, and the "collective effort necessary to produce phenomenal body [End Page 208] effects."5 As Steimer wryly notes, "while, in the course of my research, I...

Revealing Spatial Spillover Effect in High-Tech Industry Agglomeration from a High-Skilled Labor Flow Network Perspective

Understanding the high-tech industrial agglomeration from a spatial-spillover perspective is essential for cities to gain economic and technological competitive advantages. Along with rapid urbanization and the development of fast transportation networks, socioeconomic interactions between cities have been ever-increasing, traditional spatial metrics are not enough to describe actual inter-city connections. High-skilled labor flow between cities strongly influences the high-tech industrial agglomeration, yet receives less attention. By exploiting unique large-scale datasets and tools from complex network and data mining, the authors construct an inter-city high-skilled labor flow network, which was integrated into spatial econometric models. The regression results indicate that spatial-spillover effects exist in the development of high-tech industries in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration region. Moreover, the spatial-spillover effects are stronger among cities with a higher volume of high-skilled labor flows than among cities with just stronger geographic connections. Additionally, the authors investigate the channels for the spillover effects and discover that inadequate local government expenses on science and technology likely hamper the high-tech industrial agglomeration, so does the inadequate local educational provision. The increasing foreign direct investments in one city likely encourages the high-tech industrial agglomeration in other cities because of the policy inertia toward traditional industries.

Air pollution, migration costs, and urban residents’ welfare: A spatial general equilibrium analysis from China

Air pollution and its effects are important issues of human society. However, few literatures on the effect of air pollution on urban residents' welfare considered the cost of migration. This paper constructs a novel spatial general equilibrium model and studies the impact of air pollution on urban residents' welfare in 274 cities at and above the prefectural level in China from 2007 to 2017, and investigates the role of migration costs. The theoretical analysis and empirical research show that air pollution has a significant negative impact on the welfare of residents. Further, the simulation results indicate that the reduction of migration cost and the improvement of air quality accounts for roughly 24.65% improvement of resident's welfare from 2007 to 2017 in China. Another conclusion is that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between resident's welfare and air pollution. On another side, migration costs play a moderating role in the impact path of air pollution on residents' welfare. When the migration costs fall, it will help residents to move out of cities with poor air quality and improve the resident's welfare. The policy suggestions are as follows: (1) In the process of sustainable development, local governments need to coordinate the phased characteristics between air pollution and residents' welfare, effectively improve the livable degree of city and urban economic sustainability, and prevent the brain drain caused by excessive migration of residents. (2) Local governments should lower the migration costs between cities by deepening the reform of the household registration system, so as to promote the free flow of labor and ultimately improve the welfare of residents.

Spillover and Re-Spillover in China’s Collaborative Innovation

The spillover effect serves as the basis of regional collaborative innovation. Existing research on innovation spillover focuses on the overall impact of a region's innovation factors on local and other regions' innovation activities. However, re-spillover may occur since the flow of innovation factors between any two regions may influence the innovation in third-party regions. This study quantifies labor flow, capital flow, and institutional learning between regions in China using a gravity model and a social network analysis model, and then applies a spatial econometric model to investigate innovation spillover and re-spillover. The results show that re-spillover can better explain levels of regional innovation. Capital, government support, labour flow, capital flow, and institutional learning have a positive spillover effect on local innovation, while labour flow also has positive spillover effects to other regions.

Sensitive Subjects: The Political Aesthetics of Contemporary German and Austrian Cinema by Leila Mukhida

Reviewed by: Sensitive Subjects: The Political Aesthetics of Contemporary German and Austrian Cinema by Leila Mukhida Simone Pfleger Sensitive Subjects: The Political Aesthetics of Contemporary German and Austrian Cinema. By Leila Mukhida. New York: Berghahn Books, 2020. Pp. 218. Paper $120.00. ISBN 978-1-78920-630-2. In Sensitive Subjects: The Political Aesthetics of Contemporary German and Austrian Cinema, Leila Mukhida engages with theory by German Jewish intellectuals Walter Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer, and Alexander Kluge, emphasizing "points of intersection and divergence in their writing, points that emerge from their shared disenchantment with the domestic output of the German film industry" (8) in order to examine the political aesthetics of postunification German and Austrian cinema. The book foregrounds the importance of medium-specific devices like lighting, [End Page 394] sound, and mise-en-scène for close readings of contemporary film. In dialogue with a number of works by these neo-Marxist thinkers, who have interrogated notions of precarity, temporality, and contingency, Mukhida argues that post-1989 films by directors such as Valeska Grisebach, Michael Haneke, Andreas Dresen, and Elke Hauck engender a political sensitivity in viewers. Mukhida insists that the political aesthetic of contemporary German-language cinema, when read through the writings of Benjamin, Kracauer, and Kluge, allows for a unique understanding of contemporary films that departs from Eric Rentschler's analysis of German post-Wall cinema as one of consensus. While Rentschler suggests that the political value of contemporary films becomes legible when compared to the aesthetic and stylistic choices and production strategies of the New German Cinema of the 1960s and 70s, Mukhida's readings seek to undo the dichotomy between "consensus" and "interference." After a brief introduction to set the stage for the project, chapter 1 foregrounds filmic content, or plot, and context as opposed to form. Mukhida interrogates representations of the working class and asks whether such a category is applicable to twenty-first-century German and Austrian films. Emphasizing that films such as Toni Erdmann (2016) by Maren Ade and Western (2017) by Valeska Grisebach visualize changes to the flow of capital and labor, they insist that films such as Michael Glawogger's Workingman's Death (2004) and Elke Hauck's Karger (2007) "do not allow viewers to choose to remain ignorant of the human cost in the current global economic system" (63) and foreground the precarious conditions of workers. Leaning on Kracauer's understanding of film as "uniquely equipped to record and reveal physical reality" (Kracauer in Mukhida 68) in chapter 2, Mukhida turns their sights to the possibilities of representation. They offer readings of Angela Schanelec's Marseille (2004), Gerhard Friedl's Hat Wolff von Amerongen Konkursdelikte begangen? (2004), and Andreas Dresen's Halt auf freier Strecke (2011), films that pay close attention to the "real." Mukhida foregrounds how the three films "disrupt the viewing experience, yet at the same time there is a commitment to authenticity" (102). Thus, they understand the films discussed in this chapter as linked to documentary-style filmmaking. Chapter 3 argues that Benjamin, Kracauer, and Kluge encourage active viewer participation instead of the passive consumption of the films' storylines. Indeed, the theorists "demand a transformation from a passive viewer . . . to an active collaborator"(107). Analyzing Michael Haneke's 71 Fragmente einer Chronologie des Zufalls (1994) and Code Inconnu: Récit incomplete de divers voyages (2000), Mukhida claims that the filmmaker seeks to "challenge viewers' imagination rather than to numb them" (108), but these films still exhibit a sense of optimism that is tied to the filmmaker's impetus to engage his audience. The fourth chapter turns to the notion of alienation and argues that Benjamin's theory of the shock effect functions as a means to generate alertness and critical awareness in the audience. Viewers' heightened awareness of their life worlds enables [End Page 395] them to become more sensitive and develop a sense of ethical responsibility. Both Ulrich Seidl's Hundstage (2001) and Valeska Grisebach's Sehnsucht (2006) generate feelings of discomfort and withhold the possibility for viewers to make sense of the images on-screen (such as the portrayal of accidents and suicide attempts). Mostly summarizing the main arguments of the book's four chapters...

To migrate or not to migrate: the effect of institutional reforms on immigration decisions of Ottoman citizens to the US

ABSTRACT In the age of mass migration, the US became economically crucial with the development of Atlantic trade and attracted labour flows from the rest of the world. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Empire was suffering severe economic and political problems. The Ottoman citizens of various ethnic origins, such as Turks, Jews, Armenians and Arabs, moved to different countries, including the US, for economic and political reasons. This paper examines the effect of institutional reforms in the Ottoman Empire during the Second Constitutional Era on immigration decisions of different ethnic groups to the US. Data come from the US census data of IPUMS (the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series) for 1910. The empirical results show that the institutional reforms could reduce emigration from the Ottoman Empire through granting additional civil liberties. However, this effect works heterogeneously for different ethnic groups. This result points out the importance of institutional improvements in home countries on reducing migration outflows.

Approaching to Social Security of Immigrant Workers Through Research in Vietnam and Other Countries

In most cases, migrant workers, with their lifestyle, communication, occupation, income, accommodation, etc. have a difficult time accessing social security policies. By studying existing documents and research works on accessing social security policies of migrant workers, the article aimed to clarify the status and grades of being excluded from the social security system of both international and domestic migrant labour flows. Especially, the article has analyzed and pointed out the main barriers which hinder this access of international migrant labour such as: nationality barrier, the scale of application of social security laws, barriers related to lack of coordination among countries, illegal immigration, etc. Domestic migrant workers face barriers that are associated with the coverage of social security policies and institutional and social barriers, which are directly related to the problem of household registration, as well as barriers related to their weaknesses in cognition, information, and capacity.

Double-edged migration policies and transnational rent-seeking interests

There have been contradictory trends in migration policies in advanced countries since the 1990s: states have actively recruited desirable immigrants while they continued to deter and exclude unwanted migrants. The case of Japanese state not only represents this trend, but also shows a profoundly paradoxical case in the sense that it officially negated incorporation of “immigrants” consistently though it has built up multiple channels of transnational labor supply for their urgent needs. It is particularly so because Japan has maintained the divergent policies in the middle of well-known demographic crisis with aging population. These bifurcated policies can be understood partially by the growing role of “migration industry” in the neoliberal era as recent research showed. However, simultaneous development of migration control machines and building migration pipelines urges us to make a further conceptual breakthrough. This paper introduces the concept of “rent-seeking” activities of stake holders of migration policies to explain persistent gaps between rigid state control of labor flows and active opening of diverse gates for supply of necessary labor by state initiatives. Emerging neo-liberal elites are seeking extra profit through institutional framework which creates oligopolistic market structure by new side door policies such as National Strategic Special Zones for domestic workers and most recent new visa for middle skilled workers. This analysis of rent-seeking of contemporary migrant policies will open fresh eyes on contemporary immigration policies in different national contexts.

Skill‐Relatedness and Regional Economic Development in Spain during the International Crisis and the Post‐Crisis Period

AbstractThe aim of this research was to study the influence of related variety on the economic performance of Spanish provinces during the international crisis (2009–2013) and the post‐crisis period (2014–2018), with the goal of contributing to assess the validity of the skill‐relatedness approach. The research is based on labor flows in a sample of more than one million affiliated workers. Our results confirmed the influence of related variety on the growth of GDP and employment in knowledge‐based industries, in protecting against unemployment, as well as on the creation of new firms, although with marked differences according to the economic cycle. Robustness issues and possible lines of progress using this novel methodology are also discussed.

Distributed order model of labor migration

Abstract In this study, we present a mathematical model of socio-economic process of labor force migration. We present our model in the terms of distributed order fractional partial differential equation. The proposed model involves time varying diffusion coefficient. To solve this model we propose an implicit discrete scheme by using graded meshes, and study numerically labor migration flow data from Turkey along with other countries throughout the period of 1966–2014.

Fiscal competition and state pension reforms

AbstractFiscal competition literature emphasizes the need to consider fiscal implications of the flow of labor and capital across jurisdictional boundaries. This open‐economy consideration raises issues for the analysis of fiscal policies, ranging from taxation and expenditure policies to the structure of intergovernmental relations and interjurisdictional competition. Using data on state population movement and pension reforms (2002−2015), this study examines whether the adoption of pension reforms was motivated by state government competition for the mobile tax base. The findings suggest that interstate migration has an influence on states’ enactment of pension reform, and the effect differs by state population density.

Coastal housing recovery in a postdisaster environment: A supply chain perspective

In coastal cities, the damage stemming from hurricanes and severe tropical storms may reduce housing stock. Accelerating the reconstruction of housing stock becomes crucial in minimizing the time that residents are displaced. It is critical to understand how to better coordinate all available resources for an effective and balanced reconstruction where nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), government agencies, volunteers, and many other complex resources converge. This study combines Monte Carlo and beta models to assess supply, costs, and recovery times. The models capture the immediate and long-term costs of reconstruction activities under highly uncertain conditions using embedded stochastic components on projected materials, labor, and equipment flows. The model identifies possible hurdles in acquiring likely material and labor and prospective thresholds that might affect the housing recovery process. This research addresses gaps in strategic humanitarian recovery decision-making by modeling housing damage costs through granular-level housing reconstruction activities. In addition, these models provide constructive insight into how cost and completion time are dependent upon supply uncertainties.