Skill Intensity Research Articles

Intensity of Social Media Use and Literacy Skills in Students: A Study in the Context of Learning, Entertainment, and Communication

This research scrutinizes the correlation between social media usage intensity and literacy skills among 397 high school and vocational students in Indonesia, focusing on learning, entertainment, and communication. Utilizing a descriptive quantitative approach, the study categorizes social media usage. It evaluates literacy skills, revealing a significant correlation between learning and communication but no impact on entertainment. The confirmed homoskedasticity of the regression model strengthens the findings. This suggests implications for educational strategies and advances our understanding of how social media affects literacy. Future studies should broaden samples, consider diverse demographics, and employ comprehensive designs for nuanced findings—tailored interventions to enhance social media usage and support literacy warrant further exploration.

Skill intensity in manufacturing exports: Do basic, technology-intensive or differentiated exports cause growth in Kuwait?

This study examines the causality between basic, technology-intensive, and differentiated manufacturing exports and economic growth in Kuwait using data from 1970 to 2021 and two augmented production function models: one with natural resource exports (Model 1) and the other without on both sides of the model (Model 2). The Johansen cointegration and the autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) bound tests are conducted to examine the long-run relationship between the variables. In addition, the Granger causality test in a vector autoregressive framework (VAR) and the Toda–Yamamoto test are employed to explore the directions of the short- and long-run causality between variables, respectively. The empirical results of Model 1 indicate that neither of the decomposed manufacturing exports directly causes economic growth in the short or long run at any conventional significance level, whereas natural resource exports cause economic growth, basic and technology-intensive manufactured exports in the short-run at the 5% level. Model 2 estimations confirm the absence of direct causality between decomposed manufacturing exports and economic growth, whereas a long-run causality runs from output net of natural resource exports to basic manufactured exports at the 10% level. Both model estimations indicate that all the variables jointly cause economic growth and basic manufactured exports in the short and long run, directly or indirectly through imports, confirming the existence of a circular causation. These findings can serve as the basis for designing specific export–import policies to foster diversification and a sustainable economic growth in line with Kuwait’s Vision 2035.

Influence of educational composition on firm innovation and performance

ABSTRACT Despite a strong focus on innovation from both politicians and managers, our current understanding of the relationship between managers’ education level and the educational composition of the workforce in terms of innovation and their joint association with performance remains limited. For example, while most studies include workforce quality as a control, and recognize its importance, there is still little knowledge about how it influences the innovation process. The data and estimation framework used in this study enable for a detailed analysis of the importance of both managers’ and workers’ skill intensity and workers’ skill diversity throughout the sequential innovation process that transforms ideas into valuable innovation in three stages. In addition, the availability of panel data allows us to account for various econometric issues, such as sample selection bias, reverse causality, simultaneity, and measurement errors. We conclude that educated managers, together with a balanced workforce across education length and field enhance both innovation and performance. Even more interestingly, we show that the educational level of managers influences the innovation process primarily through the recruitment of more educated workers with diverse educations. And the importance of including the indirect effect of educational composition through R&D decisions on the likelihood of innovation.

The Effects of Labor-Saving Technological Progress on Capital Accumulation: Evidence from NASDAQ-100 Firms

This study delves into the impact of labor-saving technological progress on the capital accumulation of technology companies that have a substantial workforce consisting of highly skilled workers over the sample period from 2000/Q2 to 2021/Q3. To begin with, we estimate a three-equation system of the normalized-CES production function to derive labor-saving technical progress and the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor for NASDAQ-100 firms. Secondly, two linear regression models are estimated by using parameters acquired in the initial step to assess the impacts of labor-saving technological progress on capital accumulation. Based on the estimation results, labor-saving technological progress and the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor mitigate the upward trend of capital accumulation despite their stimulating impacts on economic value added in the NASDAQ-100 firms. These two adverse results are consistent with the concept of skill intensity in technology firms, referring to the difficulties of replacing automation with non-routine tasks and highly skilled workers. In this sense, along with the insufficient replacement of technological progress with labor, the detrimental effects of technological progress on capital accumulation widen the gap between labor productivity and labor compensation during profit expansion periods. These negative consequences are mitigated by worker layoffs during profit-downsizing periods, despite its accelerating impact on economic value added.

Territorial comparative advantage, wage inequality, and monetary policy in the global world

We analyze the effects of trade under relocations from an innovator to a follower region in a context with region-specific monetary policy and long-run inflation. We propose an endogenous growth model of two regions with intermediate goods of different skill intensities that are traded internationally. We show that the greater the benefits of relocations, the greater the territorial comparative advantage of followers. The better worldwide allocation of production due to relocations releases resources for R&D activities, increasing internationally available technological knowledge. In both regions, this ensures an increase in wage levels of skilled and unskilled workers and in economic growth. The structural stance of monetary policy in the follower region affects the optimal value of reallocations, but not the worldwide economic growth and skill premium. Yet, the monetary policy of the innovator region may penalize worldwide growth and impact the skill premium. Dynamic effects of relocations, under certain conditions, increase the skill premium in both regions.

Neighbourhood labour structure, lockdown policies, and the uneven spread of COVID‐19: within‐city evidence from England

AbstractWe estimate the importance of local labour structure in the spread of COVID‐19 during the first year of the pandemic. We build a unique dataset across 6791 English neighbourhoods that distinguishes between people living (residents) and people working (workers) in a neighbourhood, and differentiate between jobs that can be done from home (homeworkers), jobs that likely continued on‐site (keyworkers), and non‐essential on‐site jobs. We find that a 10 percentage points increase in keyworker jobs among residents is associated with 3.15 more cases per 1000 (4.8% relative to the mean), while a 10 percentage points increase in homeworker jobs among residents is associated with a decrease of 7.74 cases per 1000 (11.8% relative to the mean). Results for the composition of workers show the same sign, but smaller magnitudes. A dynamic analysis of the monthly incidence of reported cases shows that these relationships are particularly strong during lockdown periods. These results are heterogeneous across neighbourhoods, with larger positive effect of keyworkers, and lower protective effect of homeworkers, in higher deprivation areas. We explore the role of occupation skill intensity in driving these neighbourhood differences. These findings highlight important asymmetries in the distributional impact of the policy response to COVID‐19.

Enchondroma in a Collegiate Division II Women’s Acrobatics and Tumbling Athlete: A Level 4 Case Report

A 19-year-old collegiate female acrobatics and tumbling athlete presented with deep shooting pain in her right thigh during impact activities. Diagnostic imaging revealed a 12-mm enchondroma in her right proximal femoral metadiaphysis. After 10 days of rest, the patient began gradually increasing the intensity of impact skills and completed the remainder of the acrobatics and tumbling season. This is the first reported case of an enchondroma in the proximal femoral metadiaphysis in a young athlete. Athletic trainers must use clinical reasoning skills and interprofessional collaboration when managing atypical presentations to improve patient care and promote a positive recovery after injury.

Relationship between Short Story Reading Intensity and Elementary School Students' Reading Skills

A person's low interest in reading can result in a lack of information which causes knowledge to be less developed. This research aims to determine the intensity of short story reading and students' reading skills as well as the relationship between these two variables in class II students at 017 Public Elementary School Tanjungpinang Timur, Kepulauan Riau. Researchers use quantitative correlational research. The population used was 76 students in classes III/b and III/c with a sample of 64 students. The sampling technique uses a purposive sampling technique. The instruments used in data collection were performance and questionnaires. The data analysis technique used in this research is hypothesis testing using the Spearman rank correlation formula. The research results showed that the intensity of reading short stories was in the medium category, 43 students or around 64% of 64 students; the students' reading skills were in the medium category; and 38 students or around 59% of 64 students. Based on hypothesis test calculations using SPSS 25 software, a sig value was obtained. 0.000 < 0.05, then there is a correlation between variables so that H1 is accepted while H0 is rejected, thus indicating that there is a positive relationship between the intensity of reading short stories and students' reading skills. Schools are expected to empower students' reading skills through the habit of increasing reading intensity

Hubungan Intensitas Interaksi Sosial Dengan Kemampuan Artikulasi pada Anak Hearing Impairment di SLB YRTRW Surakarta

Abstract Background: Some people have problems in social interaction with different factors. One of those who experience communication disorders in social interactions, namely children with Hearing Impairment. The auditory system provides information about the acoustic effects of articulation. Auditory feedback is very important in coordinating articulation processes, because the purpose of speech is to produce intelligible acoustic signals. The prevalence from the Ministry of Social Affairs in 2019, among persons with disabilities in Indonesia, 7.03% are persons with hearing disabilities. Purpose: This study aims to determine whether there is a relationship and description of the intensity of social interaction with articulation skills in children with Hearing Impairment at SLB YRTRW Surakarta. Methods: This research is a quantitative study using descriptive methods through a correlational design. The sampling technique was carried out by purposive sampling with a population of 108 people and a sample of 25 people. Research Results: Based on the research results obtained from data analysis using the Spearman rank analysis test there is a significance value (ρ) of 0.292, which means a significance value (ρ) > 0.05. Then the null hypothesis (Ho) is accepted and the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is rejected. The correlation coefficient (r) between the intensity of social interaction and articulation skills is (r) = -0.219, which means that it has no relationship with weak strength. Conclusion: There is no relationship between the intensity of social interaction and articulation skills in children with Hearing Impairment at SLB YRTRW Surakarta. Keywords: Social Interaction, Articulation Ability, Hearing Impairment

Market concentration and the relative demand for college‐educated labour

AbstractIf large firms employ relatively more educated workers, will an increase in market concentration increase income inequality by raising the relative demand for skill? I use Swedish employer–employee data from 1997–2016 and find a strong correlation between firm size and the share of college‐educated (‘skilled’) workers. An increase in a sector's market concentration is correlated with a higher skilled wage premium and higher relative employment of skilled workers. This is due mainly to the reallocation of workers across firms. I demonstrate how these findings can be explained by a model of heterogeneous firms where productivity and skill intensity are positively correlated.

Skill demand and labour market concentration: evidence from Italian vacancies

PurposeThe authors provide a novel interpretation of the relationship between skill demand and labour market concentration based on the training rationale.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use a novel data set on Italian online job vacancies during 2013–2018 to analyse the relationship between labour market concentration and employers' skill demand. The authors construct measures of market concentration and skill intensity in the local labour market. The authors regress the measures of skill demand on market concentration, controlling for sector, occupations and other features of the labour market. The authors also use the Hausman–Nevo instrument for market concentration.FindingsThe authors show that employers in a highly concentrated labour market demand competencies associated with the ability of workers to learn faster (e.g. social skills) rather than actual knowledge. They also require less experience but higher education. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that employers in more concentrated labour markets are more prone to train their employees. Instead of looking for workers who already have job-specific skills, they look for workers who can acquire them faster and efficiently. The authors provide a theoretical framework within which to analyse these aspects as well as providing a test for the relevant hypotheses.Practical implicationsIn addition to cross-countries differences in labour market regulations, the authors' findings suggest that policy authorities should consider the local labour market structure when studying workforce development programmes aimed at bridging the skill gap of displaced workers. Moreover, the authors show that market concentration can have relevant implications for human resource (HR) managers by affecting their recruitment behaviour through the demand for skills. In fact, concentrated markets tend to favour firms' collusion and anti-competitive behaviour that could strongly affect HR management practices.Originality/valueThe authors' paper innovates on the literature in a number of ways. First, the authors provide evidence of local labour market concentration in Italy. Second, the authors provide evidence of skill demand at the local level using a detailed skill taxonomy that goes beyond the classical distinction between high and low skills. Third, and most importantly, the authors provide evidence of the relationship between skill demand and labour market concentration. By analysing detailed skills and competencies, the authors take one step beyond understanding the features of labour demand in monopsonistic markets.

International Trade, Labor Flexibilization, and Wage Inequality: The Colombian Manufacturing Case

Abstract This article delivers empirical evidence for the Colombian manufacturing sectors (during 1993–2012 and the subperiod 2000–2012) regarding the relationship between trade integration after the openness policy and the sector skill intensity over the skill premia, which depends on the Skill Biased Technical Change. We find that international trade reduces the positive sector skill intensity effect on wage inequality, moderately benefiting unskilled workers; however, a negative impact of the 1990 labor flexibilization on the skill premia, which increased the hiring of less expensive temporary and agency workers. Furthermore, the positive sector skill intensity impact on wage inequality is more important for trade with less developed countries than with the developed ones.

Global Innovation Contests

The primary objective of this paper is to develop a two-country, dynamic, general equilibrium model with innovation contests to formally analyze the impact of globalization on the skill premium and fully-endogenous growth. Higher quality products are endogenously discovered through stochastic and sequential global innovation contests in which challengers devote resources to R&D, while technology leaders undertake rent-protection activities (RPAs) to prolong the expected duration of their temporary monopoly power by hindering the R&D effort of challengers. The model generates intra-sectoral trade, multinationals, and international outsourcing of investment services. Globalization, captured by a move from autarky to the integrated-world equilibrium, leads to convergence of wages and growth rates. Globalization and long-run growth are either substitutes or complements depending on a country’s relative skill abundance and the ranking of skill intensities between RPAs and R&D services. Trade openness between two countries that possess identical relative skill endowments but differ in size does not affect either country’s long-run growth.

Recent trends in the spatial distribution of human capital: Are skill levels converging across regions in England and Wales?

AbstractIn modern knowledge‐based societies human capital is the single most important determinant of regional inequalities in productivity and standards of living. Using a newly constructed data set that allows the analysis of educational attainments at different levels of geography, this paper evaluates spatial inequalities and the degree of convergence in the distribution of human capital across areas in England and Wales during the second decade of the 21st century. Our results show this was a period characterised by a large increase in educational attainment and skill intensity. However, the growth in skill intensity was far from uniform across space. In particular, we find strong evidence of both absolute σ‐divergence and β‐convergence in the distribution of skills. Thus, even if low‐skill areas grew on average more than other areas with higher skill intensity at the start of the period, the stochastic dominance analyses provide strong evidence of an unambiguous increase in absolute inequalities so that by end of the decade the skill gap between low‐ and high‐skill areas had significantly widened. We present new spatial and aspatial evidence that sheds light on those inequalities and the changes in the spatial configuration of human capital over the last decade. Despite the implementation of policies aimed at reducing regional inequalities, many low skill areas struggled to attract talent so that the gap with most skilled areas widened over that period likely contributing to the persistence of the well‐documented large spatial economic inequalities in this country.

The double-edged sword effect of social networking use intensity on problematic social networking use among college students: The role of social skills and social anxiety

Social networking has benefits but can lead to negative consequences including problematic social networking site use (PSNSU), especially among youth. Through the lens of uses and gratification theory and social skill account of problematic Internet use, this study investigated how intensity of social networking use was associated with PSNSU via social skills and social anxiety among 26,612 Chinese college students in Shaanxi province. Sex difference in the associations was examined. Results from structural equation modeling reported that social anxiety partially mediated the positive association between intensity of social networking use and PSNSU, while intensity of social networking use was associated with increased social skills, which in turn suppressed the detrimental impact of intensity of social networking use on PSNSU. Multigroup analyses further showed that the associations between intensity of social networking use and social skills, and between social anxiety and PSNSU were more evident among males while the associations between social skills and social anxiety/PSNSU were stronger among females compared to males. Findings suggest that intensity of social networking use was associated with PSNSU via dual mechanisms of competitive mediation via social skills and complementary mediation via social anxiety. Interventions for PSNSU should take the social impact of social networking use and the sex difference into consideration.

Foreign acquisition and firm performance in sub‐Saharan Africa: Empirical evidence from Ghana

AbstractIn this paper, we examine the effect of foreign acquisition on numerous performance outcomes of hitherto indigenously owned firms. We use a 12‐year (1991–2002) panel data set of manufacturing firms in Ghana. Taking merit of the availability of feasible preacquisition covariates, we utilise both regression and matching methods with difference‐in‐differences techniques to handle possible endogeneity due to selection bias of the acquisition decision and inherent firm‐level heterogeneity. Our findings confirm that indeed foreign investors tend to target (cherry‐pick) high‐performing indigenous firms. Additionally, findings from regression analysis reveal positive and significant acquisition effects on average wages, productivity and output. We do not find statistically significant acquisition effects on employment and skill intensity. Robustness check on results using matching and difference‐in‐differences estimation generally confirms these results with negligible differences. A key recommendation arising from study findings is that developing economies especially in sub‐Saharan Africa should strengthen policies that aim to attract more inward foreign investments.

Inventory of Agrestals in Telangana, India: Their Impact and Management

Background: Understanding the sociological structure of weeds in crop fields is a pre-requisite for effective management. Identification and quantification of weed species found in different crops are possible to provide strategies for weed control. The exploration studies of weeds in agro-ecosystems are meager in Telangana, so that the present study has initiated to explore the weeds and educate the local farmers about the impact of agrestals and it will be of immense helpful to control the loss of crop productivity first of its kind in the region. Methods: The inventory of agrestals was carried out in 33 districts of Telangana State during 2016-2020 in two growing seasons (kharif, rabi) and it is an overview in agro-ecosystems. Result: The study focuses on the documentation of weed taxa in agricultural fields and recorded ca. 249 plant taxa pertaining to 150 genera and 47 families. Cyperaceae is the predominant family with 38 plant species followed by Poaceae (33 spp.), Asteraceae (20 spp.), Euphorbiaceae (17 spp.), Amaranthaceae (16 spp.). Echinochloa crus-galli is the dominant taxon in paddy crop with its mimic, where Cyperus rotundus is a serious competitor in many cultivated crops. The present study is very climacteric for farmers, agronomists and plant breeders for cognizance, to know the intensity of weeds impact and management skills.

Skill-based functional specialization in trade: an input–output analysis of multiscalar value chains in Brazil

ABSTRACT Sophisticated spatial labour markets can promote better opportunities for functional upgrading in value-added trade. This paper estimates the skill-based functional specialization in Brazilian labour factor content in trade in value-added (LTiVA), considering different geographical scales. We combined an interregional input–output model for Brazilian states with occupational data to identify the skill intensity embedded in LTiVA based on the hypothetical extraction method (HEM) technique. Our findings show that the largest Southeastern economic area specializes in highly sophisticated functions, while the rest of the country embodies low skills in value-added trade for domestic and global trade levels. Furthermore, the results reveal a central role for the São Paulo state governing the subnational value chains and reinforcing the international uneven spatial functional division pattern at the subnational level.

How do endowments determine trade? quantifying the output mix, factor price, and skill-biased technology channels

Differences in how countries absorb endowments of skilled and unskilled labour can be decomposed into (a) differences in the skewness of output mix towards skill-intensive industries and (b) differences in the skill intensity of each industry. The latter can be decomposed into contributions from cross-country differences in (2a) relative wages and (2b) skill-biased factor-augmenting technologies. To investigate the relative importance of each, we develop a multi-sector Eaton-Kortum model featuring skilled/unskilled labour and factor-augmenting international technology differences. The model is calibrated to WIOD data for 39 countries in 2006. Using a model-based decomposition, we show that the skill-intensity mechanism is much more important than output-mix. Further, differences in skill intensities across countries are explained in similar proportions by the relative-wage mechanism and the technology mechanism. Our results have immediate implications for the impact of endowments and skill-biased technology on output mix, trade in goods, and international differences in skill premia.

Innovation and Productivity in the Malaysian Food Processing Industry: An Empirical Analysis using a System Generalised Method of Moments Approach

The food processing industry was reviewed as a top priority for industrial development and targeted to lead greater growth in Malaysia’s Industrial Masterplan (NIMP). Leading to industrial development, this paper highlighted the relationship between innovative activities (R&D expenditure and ICT expenditure) and productivity with other variables like the presence of skill intensity, capital intensity, export intensity, foreign-owned firms and imported intermediate input. This hypothesis is examined for a panel dataset of the food processing industry in Malaysia from 2000 until 2015 (according to Economic Census- Manufacturing). Using a System Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) approach, empirical analysis suggests that innovators performed better than non-innovators in terms of labour productivity. Innovative activity and ICT expenditure along with skilled intensity and capital intensity seem to be the main determinants of subsector’s productivity, whereas R&D expenditure has mixed results from the estimation output.