Labor Economics Research Articles

DEFINING THE ONTOLOGICAL STATUS OF LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY IN HEALTH CARE

he present research touches upon the problem of comprehension of the concept «labor productivity» as applied to the field of healthcare in comparison with other categories and the corresponding indicators, used in the assessment of the medical organization personnel activity. As methodological basis the ideas in the field of labor economics, conceptual apparatus and theoretical bases of which have proved their efficiency in the solution of the tasks of development of the organizations of different branch affiliation act. The statement that labor productivity in public health services is connected with the transfer of knowledge and technologies from industrial sphere to medicine, requiring the interpretation of concepts and conceptual apparatus in relation to the considered branch is taken as the basis. In modern conditions of high intensity of work of medical organizations at simultaneous necessity of observance of obligatory requirements to quality and safety of medical aid, rational use of resources, the demand for formation of scientifically grounded approaches to labor productivity estimation in healthcare is realized by authors by means of development of an integrated index of labor productivity estimation. The present research can be considered in the development of the theory of labor productivity as applied to the branch of health care taking into account its orientation on rendering qualitative and safe medical aid. The offered by the author approach to the estimation of the given indicator allows to reflect not only quantitative (output, labor input) or cost estimation of labor productivity, but also takes into account complexity, intensity of work of the employees, and also an estimation of a degree of achievement of productivity (quality) of their activity. Its novelty is seen in the mutual conditionality of medical, social and economic evaluation of the effectiveness of the use of labor resources of the employees of medical organizations.

Audit of payroll and ways of its improvement

Relevance of the article. Many countries of the world and Ukraine, during the economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, production fell, productivity fell, the number of workers decreased, and the unemployment rate increased, both in Ukraine and in the world. Therefore, this will affect the change in the structure of production and the system of remuneration. It should be noted that the formation of an effective incentive structure, the organization of its accounting depends on the timeliness and quality of work, production efficiency, production costs and many other aspects. Therefore, there is no doubt about the relevance of audit issues on remuneration and ways of solving them, but on the contrary, this topic requires special attention. Formulation of the problem. Analyzing the methods of auditing payroll accounting by experts, we found that the methodology for auditing payroll at the theoretical and practical levels does not exist, which is explained by different methods of determining the purpose of the audit. In this case, the main thing to consider is the use of continuous verification methods for organizing a payroll audit, as well as the possible use of selective and combined methods. Although the issue of audit of wages is the subject of research by many scientists, the question of the practical application of the method of audit of wages of a Ukrainian enterprise remains relevant. Analysis of recent studies and publications, which began to solve this problem. The works of famous scientists cover research on topical issues related to the accounting and audit of wages, namely: F. F. Butinets, M. D. Vedernikov, Yu. A. Veriga, Ya. D. Krupko, V. N. Goncharov, Z. V. Gutsaylyuk, O. V. Dodonov, Z. V. Zadorozhny, A. M. Kolot, T. A. Kostyshina, T. G. Melnik, M. S. Pushkar, V. V. Sopko, P. L. Suk, I. D. For example, improving employee remuneration, automating payroll, controlling pay, etc. Research assignment. To achieve this goal, the following tasks have been set: study the main practical issues of audit of wages, generalization of practical experience and determine the direction and method of solving this problem in Ukraine. Application area. The results of this study can be used at Ukrainian enterprises for the audit of payroll calculations, as well as in the initial process when teaching the discipline "Labor Economics and Socio-Economic Relations", "Audit". Conclusions. This article notes the nature of a payroll audit. Audit objects. The most important task of checking the calculation of workers' wages has been determined. Based on the results of the audit, typical violations of wage accounting were formulated. The type of liability for non-compliance with the law is indicated. Possible methods for resolving typical accounting violations are listed.

Enterprise Compensation System Statistical Modeling for Decision Support System Development

This article raises the issue of decision support system (DSS) development in enterprises concerning the compensation system (CS). The topic is relevant as the CS is one of the main components in human resource management in business. A key element of such DSSs is CS models that provide predictive analytics. Such models are able to give information about how a particular CS affects output, product quality, employee satisfaction, and wage fund. Thus, the main goal of this article is to obtain a CS statistical model and its formulas for determining the probability densities of resultant indicators. To achieve this goal, the authors conducted several blocks of research. Firstly, mathematical formalization of CS functionality was described. Secondly, a statistical model of CS was built. Thirdly, calculations of CS result indicators were made. Reliable scientific methods were used: black box modeling and statistical modeling. This article proposes a statistical and analytical model. As an example, a piecework-bonus system statistical model is demonstrated. The discussion derives formulas of integral estimations showing the probability density of the resulting CS indicators and the related statistical characteristics. These results can be used to predict the behavior of the workforce. This constitutes the scientific novelty of the study, which will establish significant advances in the development of DSSs in the field of labor economics and HR management.

A possible new direction for employment strategies in rural areas: theoretical foundation for the assessment of employability

Abstract The aim of this study is to develop a theoretical framework for measuring an important segment of labour economics, namely the spatial structure of employability, especially for disadvantaged groups and regions. Based on secondary sources, it summarises the main factors of employability, providing a starting point for researchers working on the econometric branch of social sciences to develop an employability index using this conceptual background. The base of the primary research is the complex questionnaire survey administered to a group of the most disadvantaged job seekers. The study evaluates the factors hindering the employability of human resources that can be activated in the most disadvantaged districts. The research results are useful for those who are interested in increasing employment and reducing the impact of employability-limiting factors.

Signaling versus Auditing

AbstractWe analyze a competitive labor market in which workers signal their productivities through education, and firms have the option of auditing to learn workers' productivities. Audits are costly and non‐contractible. We characterize the trade‐offs between signaling by workers and costly auditing by firms. Auditing is always associated with (partial) pooling of worker types, and education is used as a signal only if relatively few workers have low productivity. Our results feature new auditing patterns and explain empirical observations in labor economics like wage differentials and comparative statics of education choices. Our analysis applies also to other signaling problems, for example, the financial structure of firms, warranties, and initial public offerings.

Answering Causal Questions: Angrist, Imbens and the Nobel Prize

Abstract This year's Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to David Card, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens for their research showing how natural experiments can be used to answer causal questions. Card was cited for his “empirical contributions to labour economics”, while Angrist and Imbens were cited for their “methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships”. Here, Fabrizia Mealli explains the work of Angrist and Imbens, and how it has helped to transform the study of key policy questions in areas including education, immigration and labour markets

What do unions do… for temps? Collective bargaining and the wage penalty

AbstractDoes collective bargaining lift wages for contingent workers? Well‐worn theory suggests that temps at a covered employer earn less than otherwise similar “perms,” but still fare better than they would in a nonunion workplace. Our analysis of a national sample of matched employee–employer data first disposes of the universality of this conventional wisdom. Then, it allows us to test an alternative, contingent theory of the mitigating impact of collective bargaining on the temp wage gap predicated on received research in labor relations and institutional labor economics. We find that just how temps fare relative to perms hinges on the labor relations orientation of the employment relationship. Whereas unions clearly deliver for temps under adversarial conditions, they do not appear to do so where they adopt a more cooperative stance toward their employer counterparts.

The Quasi-experimental Design Approach to Causality and the Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: A Review of Main Contributions by 2021 Nobel Economics Laureates

How to evaluate the causal relationship between economic variables credibly using observational data is a common problem faced by empirical economists. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in economics to David Card for his empirical contributions to labor economics, and Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens for their methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships. This paper reviews how they devise quasi-experimental designs for causality evaluation with the help of natural experiments and the credibility revolution in empirical labor economics with emphasis on the analysis of century-old questions: the employment effects of minimum wage, the labor market impact of immigration and educational investments. The main conclusions are as follows: Firstly, various seemingly different quasi-experimental designs of causality evaluation have the same basic logic. They all use the scene of natural experiments to imitate the way of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), and look for research objects with the same or similar characteristics as the control group that constitutes the counterfactual result of causality evaluation. Moreover, a survey of the classical literature of empirical labor economics shows that the credibility of causality evaluation does not depend on the data and econometric methods themselves, but on the in-depth understanding and thorough analysis of the operation mechanism of social and economic system. Therefore, the in-depth investigation and discussion of natural experiments is essential. Finally, China’s economic reform provides abundant natural experimental resources for quasi-experimental designs. Researchers, who want to tell the Chinese stories with scientific and standardized economic research methods, should pay attention to the in-depth investigation and analysis of the systems behind natural experiments, standardize the quasi-experimental design process to avoid p-hacking, and strengthen the theoretical research of influence mechanism. Policy-makers should pay attention to the limitations and external validity of the research conclusions when learning from quasi-experimental designs to evaluate the effective of policy.

Science economics and sociology of labor in the development of entrepreneurship

Science economics and sociology of labor in the development of entrepreneurship

Too Many Men, Too-Short Lives

Simon Chang*, Kamhon Kan† and Xiaobo Zhang‡⇑ * Simon Chang is a senior lecturer at the University of Western Australia, a research fellow at Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) and a fellow at Global Labor Organization (GLO). † Kamhon Kan is a research fellow at the Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica. ‡ Xiaobo Zhang is a chair professor at Peking University and senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). x.zhang{at}gsm.pku.edu.cn

Productivity and wage effects of firm‐level upstreamness: Evidence from Belgian linked panel data

AbstractThis paper is the first to estimate the impact of a direct measurement of firm‐level upstreamness (i.e. the steps—weighted distance—before the production of a firm meets either domestic or foreign final demand) on productivity and wage costs. To this end, we merged detailed Belgian linked panel data, covering all years from 2002 to 2010, with a unique dataset containing accurate information on the yearly position of each firm in the value chain. We rely on the methodological framework pioneered by Hellerstein et al. (Journal of Labor Economics, 1999, 17, 409) to estimate panel data models at the firm level. Controlling for key worker and firm characteristics, our GMM‐SYS and FE‐IV estimates show that firms positioned more upstream (i.e. further away from the final consumer) create more value. Our results also indicate that the impact of firm‐level upstreamness is stronger on productivity than on wage costs, which implies that profitability is fostered. More precisely, in line with Belgium's strong labour market institutions, our estimates suggest that the productivity gains associated with upstreamness are shared almost equally between wages and profits.

A perspective on treaties, maximum wages, and carbon currencies: Innovative policy instruments for global decarbonization

Innovative policy instruments across the supply side (fossil fuel extraction), demand side (income and behaviour), and mediums of exchange (e.g.,. markets) can accelerate global decarbonization efforts in ways not yet supported by the global community. A fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty, a maximum wage and restrictions on wealth, and a carbon currency could radically alter how we extract, finance, and value fossil fuels and the changes in climate that result. In that vein, this article highlights the role of different and perhaps unacknowledged actors in accelerating decarbonization, notably those of new intergovernmental organizations, labor economists, central banks, insurers, accountants, and taxation specialists. It also discusses the benefits, and anticipated obstacles, to each policy innovation as well as what sorts of “systems transformation” they might achieve if implemented together.

Television Serials as Career Stepping Stones: An Empirical Analysis of Employment Paths of Professional Actors

Guided by cultural labor economics, the paper analyzes the career paths of former actors from popular television soap operas, and addresses in particular, if and under which conditions such serial engagements may function as a stepping stone for a subsequent professional acting career. A novel database of 396 German artists with detailed and long-term biographical information is used for the quantitative empirical analyses. The results indicate that soaps, contrary to popular opinion, function as a stepping stone, especially for younger actors. However, soap engagements should be rather short but long enough to allow artists to play multiple roles in other shows or films besides being in the cast of a soap. While formal acting education does not influence soap actors’ future filmographies, there is evidence that it helps artists to find jobs in arts-related occupations such as voice acting. Finally, publicity and media presence foster a later acting career. Practical implications for artists and their managers are outlined, along with a discussion on the meaning of serials for the creation and commercialization of stars.

Unsatisfying ordinalism: The breach through which happiness (re)entered economics

AbstractThe acceptance of happiness studies within economics was a surprising event. The materialistic and theoretical conception of utility in modern economics deemed any attempt to measure and analyze the subjective dimension of utility unscientific. Nevertheless, some economists were unsatisfied with such preconceptions. In this paper we argue that ordinalism, being an incomplete and inconsistent form of economic analysis of welfare, opened the floor for alternative definitions of welfare and utility. In particular, some economists prone to interdisciplinarity and specialized on topics where welfare issues were more relevant (such as labor or welfare economics), saw in the cardinality of subjective well‐being data an opportunity to remedy those problems. The data availability and scientific analysis of happiness from the 1990s onwards, gave credit to the utilization of subjective well‐being in economics and paved the way for happiness in economics, which is now a dynamic research topic with empirical findings that challenge standard welfare analysis and policy advice. We conclude this paper with some policy implications and with what happiness has yet to contribute to economics.

How the earnings growth of US immigrants was underestimated

Two radically different descriptions of immigrant earnings trajectories in the USA have emerged. One asserts that immigrant men, following the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, have low initial earnings and high earnings growth. Another asserts that the post-1965 immigrants have low initial earnings and low earnings growth. We describe the methodological issues that create this divide and show that low earnings growth becomes high earnings growth when immigrants are followed from their initial years in the USA; earnings growth is allowed to vary with entry earnings; and—when following cohorts instead of individuals—sample restrictions commonly used by labor economists are avoided.

Female Labour Force Participation: What Prevents Sustainable Development Goals from Being Realised in Iran?

Elimination of the gender gap in labour force participation has become one of the main challenges of achieving the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The rapid increase in university education and decrease in fertility rate in Iran over the past decades might affect the achievement of the SDGs. However, the country’s female labour force participation (FLFP) rate stagnates at a superficial level. The stagnating FLFP rate is inconsistent with basic labour economics supply-side explanations while drawing attention to demand-side explanations, namely, female labour demand constraints, such as occupational segregation and labour market discrimination. This study empirically investigates the effect on FLFP of primary labour supply factors along with household conditions and gender norms and attitudes for 2 specific years: 2008 and 2018. The aim is to shed light on the causes of stagnation at the FLFP level by using the Household Expenditure and Income Survey conducted annually by the Statistical Center of Iran. The empirical findings suggest gender norms and attitudes towards working women and gendered division of work associated with family care as the driving forces of stagnation in FLFP in Iran.

Is there a firm size‐wage gap after economic transition? – An examination of for‐profit and not‐for‐profit firms in Estonia

AbstractThe labor economics and industrial organization literature is replete with studies showing a positive relationship between firm size and employees’ wages. However, no work to date has examined, particularly with regard to the inverse probability weighting approach taken in this study, whether this effect is present in a post‐communist country shortly after economic transition. This study fills that void by testing for a firm size‐wage effect in Estonia after it declared independence from the Soviet Union. In doing so, we employ a large micro‐dataset from the Estonian Labor Force Survey and find that, holding several job, industry, and city characteristics constant, a statistically significant firm size‐wage gap exists across workers employed by all types of firms, and separately for those employed across both for‐profit and not‐for‐profit firms in Estonia after its economic transition.

Analysing the Politics of Nigeria's 2019 National Minimum Wage: Towards a Public Policy.

This paper analyses the politics that characterised the Nigeria 2019 national minimum wage negotiations and implementation, which so far is the most prolonged in Nigeria’s history. Workers' welfare is the responsibility of governments across the world through fixing and regulation of the national minimum wage. But in Nigeria, this has been problematic, and the entire process is characterised by industrial actions undertaken to compel the government to commit to wage negotiations and implementation. The paper argues that the absence of functional standing machinery with a focus on labour economics, deciding the condition and time for a minimum wage review is seen as the main bane in government–labour frequent face-off in Nigeria, which has negatively impacted on harmonious industrial relations. Writing from the analytical point of view, the paper finds that industrial actions have become one action too many because of government's political approach to labour demands. Deciphered in the foregoing is that the current system of government–labour negotiation for new national minimum wage cannot guarantee workers’ welfare in Nigeria. Thus, for the Nigeria government to address this perennial minimum wage problem and be seen as fulfilling its obligation to the International Labour Organisation, it must urgently put in place an acceptable mechanism for fixing and regulating the national minimum wage in Nigeria to cushion the effect of the hike in petroleum products on which the national economy largely depends.

Signaling versus auditing

We analyze a competitive labor market in which workers signal their productivities through education a la Spence (1973), and firms have the option of auditing to learn workers’ productivities. Audits are costly and non–contractible. We characterize the trade–offs between signaling by workers and costly auditing by firms. Auditing is always associated with (partial) pooling of worker types, and education is used as a signalonly if relatively few workers have low productivity. Our results feature new auditingpatterns and explain empirical observations in labor economics like wage differentialsand comparative statics of education choices. Our analysis applies also to other signalingproblems, e.g., the financial structure of firms, warranties, and initial public offerings.

Search is a verb: systematic review searching as invisible labor.

Invisible labor is a term used by labor economists to describe work that contributes, and is often even necessary, to the economy but largely goes unrecognized and unpaid. Despite the fact that systematic review searching is a significant task for many librarians and knowledge professionals, the search process can be considered a form of invisible labor because it often goes without recognition. This occurs sometimes through not granting authorship to the librarian who performed the intellectual contribution of search development and sometimes through a devaluing of the search process by the choice of language used to describe the search. By using the term search as a passive verb or noun, authors devalue the real intellectual labor involved in searching, which includes decisions related to search terms and combinations, database selection, and other search parameters. This commentary explores the context of how searching is described through the concept of invisible labor.