Regional labor markets in Finland: Adjustment to total versus region-specific shocks

This article analyses regional labor market adjustment in the Finnish provinces during 1976–2000. We investigate the inter-relations of employment, unemployment, labor force participation, and migration to see how a change in region-specific and total labor demand is adjusted. The analysis reveals that region-specific labor demand shocks adjust mainly via participation, whereas total shocks are adjusted by unemployment. The region-specific component of labor demand shock has shorter-lived effects on unemployment and participation, but its effect on employment is permanent. Conversely, total shocks leave no permanent effect. Migration is more important in the region-specific case where, after a few years, it acquires a large role in the adjustment process.     

Free markets and the marriage market: structural adjustment,gender relations,and working conditions among Dominican women workers

The relationship between economic conditions and marriage patterns in the Dominican Republic is analyzed using data collected in 1994 on women working in a free-trade zone. The author concludes that changes associated with structural adjustment appear to have contributed to a deterioration of the job market and a greater prevalence of female-headed households. It is shown that "structural adjustment increases the need for women to work, because of cuts in government programs, declining real wages, growing inflation, and a deterioration in male employment, which weakens the man's role as principal breadwinner and increases the importance and visibility of women's contribution to the household economy. This change in the gender composition of the labor force has encouraged some women to resist marriage and/or remarriage because the ?marriage market' of eligible men willing and able to support a family has been reduced, contributing to greater marital instability."     

Labor market behavior in Washington: A cointegration approach

This study found a long run equilibrium relationship among population, labor force participation rate and employment, in which population is positively related to employment and negatively related to labor force participation rate. We proved that employment growth from new business investment causes increase in population in the state of Washington in spite of its beautiful environment and amenities. The causality does not operate in reverse way. We decomposed the time series into stationary components and non-stationary components and interpreted each component on the basis of historical economic condition of Washington. The response of the labor force participation rate to an impulse in employment supports Bartik's (1993) and Yeo and Holland's (2004) findings. Obviously the result is the opposite of Blanchard and Katz's (1992) finding that the long-run effect of job growth on the labor force participation rate is negligible. With regard to the party who benefits from job growth, we suspect that most of new jobs are captured by in-migrants because the pattern of the stationary component of employment and net migration is quite similar and the impulse response of population is significantly higher than that of employment.     

Urban unemployment and labor force participation in Korea

This paper examines urban unemployment patterns in Korea using a simultaneous model of unemployment and labor force participation. Urban demographic characteristics and economic conditions are put forward to explain inter-urban variations in the rates of unemployment and labor force participation. The estimation results indicate the importance of local demographic characteristics and economic conditions in determining labor force participation rates and unemployment rates. The results clearly indicate that sexual dualism is pervasive in the urban labor market in Korea. Market discrimination against women is quite evident. The effect of city size seems to be insignificant except that large cities tend to provide a more favorable environment for women to participate in the labor force.     

Location,social categories,and individual labor market experiences in developing economies: the Venezuelan case

"Individual labor market experiences [in Venezuela] are examined in terms of educational attainment, labor force participation, and wages received. Explanatory factors include personal attributes and two multivariate scales measuring place characteristics related to development. The results indicate that place characteristics associated with development have important effects on labor market experiences.... Among the key findings of this research are that educational attainment most affected labor force participation by women and wages of men."     

建筑企业项目劳务用工管理模式探讨

结合工作实践经验,对建筑企业项目劳务用工管理模式进行了探讨,分析了劳务管理中存在的市场对"包工头"约束力不足,工人素质有待提高等问题,并针对问题提出了进一步提高劳务管理水平的措施。     

Migration and regional labor market adjustment: Chile 1977–1982 and 1987–1992

The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the migration processes that have been occurring in Chile between 1977–1982 and 1987–1992, as a market mechanism to re-allocate labor among regions. Using traditional consumer theory, a model is developed for a migrant who is evaluating migration. Secondly, this model is estimated, with cross section aggregate data, for both periods using a logit formulation. The results indicate that there is a strong force in the Chilean regional labor market, which serves to concentrate the workforce around the largest populated region of the country. Finally, regional labor markets are simulated to show that migration forces are very weak to arbitrage regional wages and unemployment rate and specific policy is required to promote balanced development across Chilean regions. Received: January 1999/Accepted: August 2001     

YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT: WHAT DOES THE 1980 CENSUS SAY ABOUT ITS CAUSES AND CURES?

Unemployment rates for urban youth have grown considerably over the past decade and are currently at Great Depression levels. This paper examines the relative importance of four hypotheses regarding the causes of this development. These are that youth have been: (1) pushed out by recession conditions and declining growth rates; (2) crowded out by growth in their own numbers and expansions in female labor force participation; (3) priced out by minimum wages; or (4) dropped out by poverty, discrimination and other structural forces which have weakened the labor market attachment of young people. It is argued that most of the problem can be attributed to the pushed out and dropped out forces. Hence, policies to expand employment opportunities, as well as to reduce poverty and discrimination are most important. The author further argues that a redefinition of the problem and a reorientation of policy are both necessary.     

Migration and the quasi-labor market in Russia

"This paper explores the twin concepts of labor demand and labor mobility during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. The study uses a detailed data set on labor stock, industrial labor demand, and labor flows for the 1980s in the Yaroslavl' Oblast, and data on migration and regional labor markets for all Russian regions in the 1990s. Contextual features, such as the social contract, full employment, methods of labor allocation, and a generally low rate of geographic mobility, distinguish the centrally planned quasi-labor market from the labor market in capitalist democracies. The findings suggest that net in-migration induces employment change in the current period rather than in a future period. The job creation effects appear concurrent with migration during the Soviet period. In the post-Soviet period, migration and employment relationships are not predictable based on the same relationships during the Soviet period."     

Foreign labor and regional labor markets: aggregate and disaggregate impact on growth and wages in Danish regions

Foreign labor has become a central issue in Western Europe. This paper tests whether (1) inflows of foreign labor affect regional growth, and thereby whether employment opportunities for Danish workers are affected; (2) inflows of foreign labor lower real wage growth. We find that foreign labor has non-negative effects on the job opportunities for Danish workers in regional labor markets, whereas the evidence of a regional wage growth effect is mixed. We also present disaggregated results focusing on regional heterogeneity of business structures, skill levels and backgrounds of foreign labor. The results are interpreted within a specific Danish labor market context and the associated regional outcomes. This adds to previous findings and emphasizes the importance of labor market institutions for the effect of foreign labor on regional employment growth.     

A Simulation Model Of Economic Growth Dynamics

A small-area economic base study is carried out through computer simulation using techniques of Industrial Dynamics. The model explicitly incorporates feedback between population and employment sectors to determine population, migration, job changes, labor force, participation rate change and industrial location and growth. The authors feel the technique holds promise for policy guidance especially in light of the speed and low cost of model construction and use. They suggest a number of specific questions which the model can help to answer.     

Inter-regional labor market equilibrium: another pattern of spatial mismatch

The inability of the free market to lead to a balanced regional labor market equilibrium has been explained to a certain extent by the spatial mismatch hypothesis: “housing segregation” explains a deadlock situation where a “center” with high unemployment and low income coexists with “suburbs” with high labor demand and income. The author proposes a framework for a theoretical general equilibrium model that may explain the existence of a spatial equilibrium with inequalities in employment and income in various regions. This model explains the interregional imbalances on the labor demand side due to the changes in relative land prices and agglomeration economies and diseconomies in three separate types of economic sectors. On the labor supply side, the model suggests a pattern of a commuting–migration relationship by which labor migrates for housing reasons while retaining present jobs and commuting back to them. Government intervention through influence on travel costs, education, and land allocation can lead to the diminution of such interregional gaps.     

Unemployment compensation and labor migration in search equilibrium model

The economics of unemployment compensation has attracted considerable attention over the past couple of decades in terms of positive analysis, but less attention has been devoted to labor migration issues in the job search equilibrium. In this study, we developed a rural–urban migration model where the urban labor market was characterized by job search during periods of unemployment. Characteristics of the steady state were analyzed and the unemployment compensation scheme was examined. From this model, we drew an inference of more or less migration occurring to the extent of how unemployment compensation was related to exogenous variables such as discounted gross income, urban rural productivity differentials, entry cost, and the employment tax rate.     

The determinants of the intermetropolitan migration of the poor

In an integrated economy the movement of workers among regions is a natural part of the process of economic progress and industrial change. Migration is typically viewed by economists as a labor market adjustment mechanism in that labor migrates from areas of lower to areas of higher economic opportunity.Migration of the poor has become a matter of increasing public policy concern in recent years, particularly in urban states that have experienced large inflows of low-income migrants. In this study regression analysis is used to identify some of the key factors affecting the migration of the poor into and among large metropolitan areas of the United States between 1965 and 1970. The results support the hypothesis that the poor migrate to areas offering higher welfare benefits. The results also suggest that the poor migrate towards areas which offer more employment opportunities.The analysis and conclusions of this paper represent the views of the author and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston or the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or its staff.     

Agglomeration, congestion, and regional unemployment disparities

Regional labor markets are characterized by huge disparities between unemployment rates. Models of the New Economic Geography explain how disparities between regional goods markets endogenously arise but usually assume full employment. This paper discusses regional unemployment disparities by introducing a wage curve based on efficiency wages into the New Economic Geography. The model shows how disparities between regional goods and labor markets endogenously arise through the interplay of increasing returns to scale, transport costs, congestion costs, and migration. The level and stability of regional labor market disparities depends on the extend of labor market frictions.     

Accounting for migration in regional occupational employment projections

Occupational employment projections are one of the primary products produced by state labor market information agencies to assist with state and regional job training and worker assistance programs. In theory, the information from occupational employment forecasts should improve both interregional and intertemporal labor market efficiency through better matching between training efforts and job openings. Until recently, the projections methodology was predominantly a demand-requirements approach that failed to incorporate important labor supply effects and interstate/interregional dependencies. Recent research has focused on improving the labor supply specification. This paper reports on one such effort to evaluate the importance of interstate occupational migration and to develop methods to incorporate migration into the existing projections methodology. Initial results indicate that the total number of estimated job openings by occupation have to be revised significantly upwards when migration is taken into account.     

Leaving home,returning home: Migration as a labor market choice for Alaska Natives

We investigate determinants of the pattern of recent migration of Alaska Natives between rural homelands and urban areas. A review of the literature on moving in the North American North suggests that economic opportunities draw migrants, although such opportunities must be viewed in the context of the mixed subsistence-cash economy prevailing in rural areas of the region. Consequently, we model Native migration as a simultaneous decision with labor market participation in a mixed economy. Estimated equations explaining individual Alaska Native migration choices using the U.S. Census Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) are consistent with the model, and also suggest that perceived opportunities differ between women and men.The authors acknowledge financial support from the National Science Foundation, grant OPP-9521459. An earlier version of this paper was presented to the 1998 annual meeting of the Western Regional Science Association     

The dynamics of spatial labor mobility in the Netherlands

"This paper discusses several factors that may explain [the] dynamic properties of internal labor migration. [The authors] focus especially on the influence of labor market and housing conditions on the mobility of people. A two-stage, generation-allocation model is proposed to investigate the role of different factors in the explanation of aggregate interregional migration flows. This model is applied to recent data on interprovincial labor migration in the Netherlands. The results indicate that housing supply seems to be an important determinant of temporal developments of spatial mobility, and that also the conditions on national and regional labor markets are associated with specific properties of recent migration patterns."     

Sources of regional variation in youth employment

This paper uses state data for the late 1970's in a regression model to assess the relative importance of several hypotheses that have been advanced to explain the significant relative deterioration in youth employment opportunities. The paper also attempts to evaluate the nature and importance of regional differences with respect to the variables that are associated with youth employment opportunities. In particular the paper focuses on the effects of minimum wages and efforts to alter wages by unions, the expanded youth population and the changing labor force participation of females, differences in labor market tightness, expenditures on job training, schooling decisions on the part of young people and the general influence of poverty. Drawing on the empirical evidence, the authors conclude that a policy of regional minimum wages might result in a ten to twenty percent expansion in youth employment and achieving full employment for adult males might have an approximately equal effect.