Relative Labour Costs Research Articles

Performance and economic analysis of the production of Nile tilapia submitted to different feeding management

<p>The productive performance and the variable cost of production were evaluated for different feeding strategies for tilapia during the production cycle. A sample of 2,000 juvenile tilapia was distributed (23.55 ± 2.38 g) into five treatments and with four repetitions as follows: C (feed consumption to apparent satiety), R20 (beginning feed restriction when fish reached an average weight of 20 g), R200 (beginning feed restriction when fish reached an average weight of 200 g), R400 (beginning feed restriction when fish reached an average weight of 400 g) and R600 (beginning feed restriction when fish reached an average weight of 600 g). The fish were given extruded commercial feed containing 34% crude protein until they reached a weight of 200 g, at which time they received feed containing 32% crude protein. Monthly biometrics were performed in order to determine the food restriction starting point, which was one day of restriction followed by six feeding days. The following parameters were evaluated: water quality, productive performance variables, the variable costs of production and excreted nitrogen. The results were subjected to analysis of variance, and the means were compared using Tukey’s test (5% significance). No statistical differences were observed in final weight, weight gain, feed consumption, feed conversion or survival. The fish from the R20 treatment had the lowest variable cost of production (g fish-1) and the lowest nitrogen excretion into the water. This suggests that feed restriction from the early stages of life does not compromise the productive performance and contributes to reducing the variable costs and the quantity of nitrogen excreted into the environment. Thus, a one-day per week feed restriction strategy can be applied from the earliest stages of life without compromising the productive performance or body composition of Nile tilapia. This strategy can also reduce variable costs of production by means of reducing relative labour and feed costs. </p>

DETERMINANTS OF INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTION FRAGMENTATION: MALAYSIA’S EXPERIENCE IN THE INFORMATION, COMMUNICATIONS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS (ICT) INDUSTRY

Although Malaysia has been an integral part of the international production fragmentation network since 1970, empirical investigations on the factors that determine the expansion of these networks are sparse. The paper examines the aforementioned empirical gap in the case of the Malaysian information, communications and telecommunications (ICT) sector using trade patterns in parts and components (PNC). Panel-data estimation from 1990 to 2008 suggests that mobile factors such as relative labor costs and productivity, foreign capital, agglomeration effect, infrastructure development and industrial policies are important in facilitating the international production fragmentation development. Income and domestic prices effect however, are conditional to trade flows.

Nursing: Essential to Healthcare Value

Nursing is a practice discipline and occurs as 1 nurse and 1 patient, family, or community at a time. The encounter between a nurse and patient forms a fundamental bond that defines, not only nursing as a profession, but each individual nurse as a provider of care. Nursing practice drives value, and nurses have a direct and intimate influence on the quality, safety, and costs of patient-centered care. If we define nursing value as the function of outcomes divided by costs,1 there is a need to better define the measures and analytics for patient-level costs and outcomes of nursing care. This fundamental shift to capture the patient or consumer impact of nursing care is an important expansion of how nursing value is quantified. This will require rethinking how we view nursing care delivery beyond solely measuring nursing in terms of tasks or ratios and staffing levels, to one that recognizes the individual and collective accomplishments and results provided by each nurse across the broad spectrum of care. True nursing value can only be described by measurement of the clinical and financial impact of nursing care.

MATHEMATICAL TOOLKIT OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT IN THE PRODUCT QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

In the report the author presents the results of analysis and systematization of the main technical and economic indicators of quality control, as well as the correlations of developed local problems of the production processes related labor costs estimation with regeneration (restoration). Together they form the mathematical tools of informational support of the company’s personnel management in the product quality control system in the main and flexible integrated productions.

Possibility of developing low-carbon industries through urban symbiosis in Asian cities

Energy and resource consumption has been expanding quickly with the rapid growth of Asian cities, which has resulted in increased greenhouse gas emission and waste generation. The promotion of low-carbon industries is an urgent global issue that extends to Asia as well. To reduce carbon dioxide emission substantially, industries must not only introduce energy-saving technologies but also use low-carbon raw materials and fuel, such as recyclable wastes and carbon-neutral biomass. This paper presents the concept of a “hybrid industry,” that is, an industry whose processes utilize not only fossil resources but also recycled and renewable resources as much as possible. This study examines the feasibility of hybrid industries through the promotion of urban symbiosis in cities in three Asian countries with different circumstances: Kawasaki in Japan, Ulsan in Korea, and Shenyang in China. Asian cities are in the midst of shifting from dumping wastes to incineration. However, in view of the carbon reduction effect of recycling as well as the cost for recycling and appropriate treatment of wastes, the potential of hybrid industries that use combustible municipal wastes as input should be considered. In this study, the potential for carbon dioxide reduction as well as the costs of promoting hybrid industries are evaluated. The results highlight that promoting hybrid industries generates significant environmental benefits for the three cities, and there are important factors that affect the cost-effectiveness of hybrid industries, including the spatial density of waste generation, composition of wastes, relative labor cost for collection and pre-treatment of wastes compared with construction cost of an incinerator and avoided costs through product and fossil resource substitution, and the willingness of citizens to separate wastes. Finally, key drivers for promoting hybrid industries through urban symbiosis in Asian cities are discussed.

Framework for Automated Reporting in EU funded Projects

Reporting processes in EU funded projects involve a huge amount of financial operations. This time consuming procedure can be easily automated as it involves repetitive operations. The novelty of the paper consists in the presentation of AutoFiState software application for automatic financial data capture in projects financed through ESF (European Social Fund) in Romania. The AutoFiSate application was developed on the basis of results obtained in the fields of automated testing and scripting languages. The use of the AutoFiState software application leads to maximum effectiveness in how ESF funds are used by reducing the time needed to draw up the financial reports and the related labor costs. Using scripting languages to develop such reporting-support programs we can improve reporting and save employees effort and time.

Aspects Influencing High Labour Costs in Relation to a Company’s Costs

This study investigates the circumstances causing high labour costs in the Czech Republic, particularly in relation to levy obligations of employers and employees. In the Czech Republic, employers pay the state 34 % of employees’ gross wages, which increases labour costs. Employees pay a 15 % tax on so-called super-gross wages, social security and health insurance equalling 11 % of their gross wages. The supergross wage is the sum of the employee’s gross wages plus the social security and health insurance levied by the employer on the employee’s gross wages (34 %). It is a fictitious increase of the tax base for calculation of tax obligations. The total average levies affecting labour costs (including social security and health insurance paid from work income by both the employer and the employee, the implicit tax rate (ITR) on labour) amount to 39 % in the Czech Republic. In the European Union (EU), the ITR is 35.8 % (Eurostat, 2013). Therefore, the Czech Republic is the sixth costliest country (after Belgium, Italy, Austria, Finland and Sweden). The employer’s high levy obligation leads to an increase in wage costs and raises the cost of labour. The employer then tries to get the employee’s gross wages reduced. If the state burdens the employer with a high levy obligation, companies’ interest in creating new jobs declines, or companies resort to illegal forms of employment relationships and some wages are paid to employees “under the table” so that the employer can avoid levy obligations. For this investigation, the labour price has been quantified by the effective tax rate (ETR). It takes into account the statutory income tax rates, the amount of social security and health insurance and tax base construction, including possible tax deductions. The mathematical models are constructed from two points of view, when the calculation of tax burden involves taking into consideration: Int Adv Econ Res (2015) 21:127–128 DOI 10.1007/s11294-014-9498-4

A comparison of international HRM practices by Indian and European MNEs: evidence from Africa

By comparing the HRM practices in Indian and European MNE subsidiaries located in four of the Southern African Development Community countries, this paper tests the relevance of the country-of-origin effect and analyses the strength of institutional and firm-level influences. Examining data from 865 MNE subsidiaries obtained from the World Bank enterprise survey data, the paper finds that Indian MNEs have higher labour costs in relation to total sales than their European counterparts, that Indian MNEs make more use of temporary labour than their European counterparts, that Indian MNEs invest in less training than their European counterparts. No support is found for the hypothesis that Indian MNEs have a lower ratio of skilled workers in comparison to European-owned subsidiaries. The study shows that country-of-origin effects are weakened if they are not consistent with host country ideology and that as economies evolve so too do their expectations of HR policy and practices.

Decomposition of the drivers of the U.S. hospital spending growth, 2001–2009

BackgroundUnited States health care spending rose rapidly in the 2000s, after a period of temporary slowdown in the 1990s. However, the description of the overall trend and the understanding of the underlying drivers of this trend are very limited. This study investigates how well historical hospital cost/revenue drivers explain the recent hospital spending trend in the 2000s, and how important each of these drivers is.MethodsWe used aggregated time series data to describe the trend in total hospital spending, price, and quantity between 2001 and 2009. We used the Oaxaca-Blinder method to investigate the relative importance of major hospital cost/spending drivers (derived from the literature) in explaining the change in hospital spending patterns between 2001 and 2007. We assembled data from Medicare Cost Reports, American Hospital Association annual surveys, Prospective Payment System (PPS) Impact Files, Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) Medicare claims data, InterStudy reports, National Health Expenditure data, and Area Resource Files.ResultsAggregated time series trends show that high hospital spending between 2001 and 2009 appears to be driven by higher payment per unit of hospital output, not by increased utilization. Results using the Oaxaca-Blinder regression decomposition method indicate that changes in historically important spending drivers explain a limited 30% of unit-payment growth, but a higher 60% of utilization growth. Hospital staffing and labor-related costs, casemix, and demographics are the most important drivers of higher hospital revenue, utilization, and unit-payment. Technology is associated with lower utilization, higher unit payment, and limited increases in total revenue. Market competition, primarily because of increased managed care concentration, moderates total revenue growth by driving lower unit payment.ConclusionsMuch of the rapidly rising hospital spending growth in the 2000s in the United States is driven by factors not commonly known or well measured. Future studies need to explore new factors and dynamics that drive longer-term hospital spending growth in recent years, particularly through the channel of higher prices.

Foreign Multinational Production in Canadian Manufacturing Sector

Foreign multinationals play an important role in Canadian economy. Their affiliates accounted for about 50% of manufacturing production and 30% of total business production in Canada. Understanding the linkage between foreign multinational production in Canada and Canada's characteristics (such as scale of economy, human capital endowment, business environment, and trade barriers) can provide useful insights for policy development. Based on the framework developed in Markusen and Maskus' work, this paper examines the determinants of foreign affiliates' production in Canadian manufacturing sector using a panel dataset of 12 parent countries and over 1988 to 2005 period. The paper finds that foreign affiliates' production fits well the knowledge-capital model with production being more of vertical integrated. The result suggests that mainly it is Canada's relative low skill abundance and low labour cost of unskilled workers that attract foreign MNEs.

RETHINKING OPTIMAL EXCHANGE RATE REGIMES WITH FRICTIONAL LABOR MARKETS

Currency fluctuations are an important determinant of labor market dynamics. Vice versa, relative labor costs affect real exchange rate dynamics. The optimal choice of exchange rate regimes cannot neglect this nexus. We assess such a choice using a two-country model with frictional labor markets. The monetary authority faces a tension between the classical insulating property of floating exchange rates and the destabilizing effects of currency fluctuations on (relative) job flows. Results show that the second motive is important: optimal monetary policy prescribes (some) response to the exchange rate. We also reexamine the conditions for optimal policy in a currency area whose members experience asymmetries in labor market institutions.

Quantitative evaluation of labour costs for the Chinese construction industry based on a comprehensive index system

Chinese construction companies have experienced dramatic rises in labour wages in recent years. The control and management of construction labour costs are becoming increasingly significant, but the concerns remain secondary in the country. An integrated evaluation index system was established for the labour costs in this paper. Principle component analysis was adopted to study the Chinese construction labour costs between the period 1996 and 2010. The results indicated that labour prices continued to increase from 1996 in China; in 2004 especially, the growth rate accelerated. Meanwhile, the input–output efficiency of the Chinese labour costs increased significantly, and the relative labour costs dropped. The labour costs of the Chinese construction industry presented a beneficial development trend. In an effort to further upgrade the comprehensive level of labour costs in the country, the structure should be further optimised and production mode of construction industry changed.

A Female Style in Corporate Leadership? Evidence from Quotas

This paper studies the impact of gender quotas for corporate board seats on corporate decisions. We examine the introduction of Norway's 2006 quota, comparing affected firms to other Nordic companies, public and private, that are unaffected by the rule. We find that affected firms undertake fewer workforce reductions than comparison firms, increasing relative labor costs and employment levels and reducing short-term profits. The effects are strongest among firms without female board members beforehand and are present even for boards with older and more experienced members afterward. The boards appear to be affecting corporate strategy in part by selecting like-minded executives. (JEL G34, J16, J78, M12, M51)

Recovery Risk and Labor Costs in Public–Private Partnerships: Contractual Choice in the US Water Industry

We use an ordered logistic model to empirically examine the factors that explain varying degrees of private involvement in the US water sector through public–private partnerships. Our estimates suggest that a variety of factors help explain greater private participation in this sector. We find that the risk to private participants regarding cost recovery is an important driver of private participation. The relative cost of labour is also a key factor in determining the degree of private involvement in the contract choice. When public wages are high relative to private wages, private participation is viewed as a source of cost savings. We thus find two main drivers of greater private involvement: one encouraging private participation by reducing risk, and another encouraging government to seek out private participation in lowering costs.

The End of Cheap Chinese Labor

In recent decades, cheap labor has played a central role in the Chinese model, which has relied on expanded participation in world trade as a main driver of growth. At the beginning of China's economic reforms in 1978, the annual wage of a Chinese urban worker was only $1,004 in U.S. dollars. The Chinese wage was only 3 percent of the average U.S. wage at that time, and it was also significantly lower than the wages in neighboring Asian countries such as the Philippines and Thailand. The Chinese wage was also low relative to productivity. However, wages are now rising in China. In 2010, the annual wage of a Chinese urban worker reached $5,487 in U.S. dollars, which is similar to wages earned by workers in the Philippines and Thailand and significantly higher than those earned by workers in India and Indonesia. China's wages also increased faster than productivity since the late 1990s, suggesting that Chinese labor is becoming more expensive in this sense as well. The increase in China's wages is not confined to any sector, as wages have increased for both skilled and unskilled workers, for both coastal and inland areas, and for both exporting and nonexporting firms. We benchmark wage growth to productivity growth using both national- and industry-level data, showing that Chinese labor was kept cheap until the late 1990s but the relative cost of labor has increased since then. Finally, we discuss the main forces that are pushing wages up.

Les déterminants de l'investissement direct étranger d'exportation-plateforme

Résumé Cet article analyse les facteurs de localisation de l’investissement direct étranger d’exportation-plateforme. Dans un modèle analytique, nous montrons que les principaux déterminants sont le coût relatif du travail entre le pays d’accueil et le pays d’origine et/ou le pays tiers, le coût de transfert technologique du pays d’accueil, les coûts d’échange intra-régionaux mais également la taille du marché du pays tiers. Dans le cas des industries orientées vers l’exportation au Vietnam, les principaux facteurs de localisation reposent sur la possibilité d’accéder aux marchés de l ’asean , des États-Unis et de l’Union européenne. Nos résultats montrent aussi l’existence d’autres facteurs de localisation comme la disponibilité de la main-d’œuvre qualifiée et à faible coût ou encore le désir de suivre les concurrents étrangers.

A Short-Range Scheduling Model for Blockbuster's Order-Processing Operation

Blockbuster Inc., a chain of VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, and video game rental stores, has developed a highly specialized distribution network. The company maintains a single distribution center in which it receives products from suppliers, and processes and packs them for shipping to stores across the United States. The volumes of particular products and the number of different products shipped in a week have significant week-to-week volatility. Short lead times are typical because of supplier manufacturing delays and strict in-store due-date requirements. At the distribution center, processing and packing are scheduled through multiple processing departments that compete for use of shared merge conveyors and shared sortation systems. Blockbuster's general processing and packing goal is on-time delivery of products to stores while controlling costs. In this paper, we describe the development and implementation of a mixed-integer programming model to schedule Blockbuster's short-range order-processing operations. Implemented beginning in January 2007, the model has helped Blockbuster to maintain timely shipping, reduce related labor and transportation costs, improve capacity utilization, and attain a better understanding of how to achieve further improvements. Blockbuster's structure, in which multiple processing departments compete for subsequent shared resources, such as merge conveyors and sortation systems, is common in other industries; therefore, we also discuss the relevance of this model to other organizations.

A Comment on Professor Robert Wade’s Rebuttal

I thank Professor Wade for his response to my comments. There is much agreement between us on the importance for development economists to rethink industrial policy, and to come up with a framework that adequately describes the distribution of roles between states and markets in well-functioning economies. His elegant conceptualization of the strategy used by East Asian economies to address market failures is an important component of today’s knowledge of the political economy of development. His discussion of the key issues associated with the risk of government failures deserves a few clarifications on my part. Wade observes that latecomers to the industrial process often targeted industries in countries that were much more than twice as rich as they themselves were at the time, and that there is more vertical differentiation in the production of any good, which creates niches far beyond the latent comparative advantage. Besides the fact that industrial policy has also sometimes failed in East Asian countries and there have been many cases of costly targeting mistakes, it may be useful to note that the emergence of production networks and vertical differentiation makes it possible indeed for a developing country to export some technology-intensive products. But a decomposition of the value chain tends to reveal that in successful ventures the value-added part of production in the developing country is still consistent with its comparative advantage. An illustration of this phenomenon is the fact that most information and communication technology (ICT) products sold in the US are imported from China. But what China actually does is mainly the assemblage of imported capital ⁄ technology-intensive components produced in Japan, Korea and Taiwan, China. It does not yet produce such sophisticated components, which are still beyond the reach of its comparative advantage. It is important to remember that an industry can be divided into different segments. Each segment involves a set of production activities with specific capital ⁄ technology intensities. For a developing country, the decision to enter any particular segment should be determined by the comparative advantage principle (see Wang et al., 2010). Wade also raises the wage–productivity gap issues and suggests that the World Bank should devote more attention to equity. I agree. Most economists view the increase in productivity as a necessary condition for growth, neglecting the question of whether growth is inclusive and sustainable. The World Bank has done substantial work in recent years on that very topic. Greater emphasis is now given to the quality of the growth process, notably whether it can deliver inclusive and sustainable development. The impacts of policies and economic changes on the poorest, once neglected, are now given high priority in research. Inequality – especially inequality of opportunity – is now seen as an important problem constraining growth and poverty reduction (see World Bank, 2010; see also World Bank, 2006). Public policy should indeed tackle the role that inequality plays in the gap between productivity growth and compensation, wages and incomes. A developing country engaged in the catching-up process can achieve growth with equity by following its comparative advantage. The adoption of a comparative advantagefollowing strategy can improve income distribution in the dynamic development process. When an economy’s development is in its early stage – with relatively abundant labor and scarce capital – enterprises will initially enter labor-intensive industries and adopt technologies that require large amounts of labor inputs. This creates as many employment opportunities as possible and enables a rapid migration of labor from low value-added traditional sectors to higher value-added modern manufacturing and service sectors. With the upgrading in the endowment structure, labor gradually becomes scarce while capital becomes abundant. As a result, the relative cost of labor increases while the relative cost of capital decreases. Because capital income is the major source of *Wade, R. (2011) ‘Why Justin Lin’s Door-Opening Argument Matters for the Discipline of Development Studies’, Global Policy, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 115–116. DOI: 10.1111/j.1758-5899.2010.00049.x Global Policy Volume 2 . Issue 2 . May 2011

Using Pooled Model, Random Model And Fixed Model Multiple Regression To Measure Foreign Direct Investment In Taiwan

Through out the paper, two questions will be answered. The first question is, which are the countries that contribute largely to Taiwan FDI? The second question the paper is going to explore is what are the factors that draw FDI into Taiwan. According to the current literature on FDI in other countries, the determinants of FDI are relative market size, relative labor cost, distance and literacy rate. Three versions of the empirical model were estimated. They are Pooled regression model, Fixed Effect (FE) model, and Random Effect (RE) model. Throughout the three models, the relative market size hypothesis was consistently proved to be a key determinant of FDI in Taiwan.

A Female Style in Corporate Leadership? Evidence from Quotas

This paper studies the impact of gender quotas for corporate board seats on corporate decisions. We examine the introduction of Norway’s 2006 quota, comparing affected firms to other Nordic companies, public and private, that were unaffected by the rule. We find that affected firms undertook fewer workforce reductions than comparison firms, increasing relative labor costs and employment levels and reducing short-term profits. The effects are strongest among firms without female board members beforehand and are present even for boards with older and more experienced members afterward. The boards appear to be affecting corporate strategy in part by selecting likeminded executives.