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It is often the case that policy makers are slow to adopt the results of economic analysis in their policy formulation. Shiftworking is one of those rare cases where policymakers have seized upon something as having particular significance which economists have on the whole neglected. Robin Marris published a seminal work, The Economics of Capital Utilisation, in 1964, but it was not until the later 1970s that further substantial work was undertaken by economists and shiftworking appears to be regarded as hardly worth a mention in the standard labour economics texts. This relative neglect by economists is surprising given the significance and growth of shiftworking in a number of countries. Where data are available it is estimated for instance that, as a rough approximation, the number of workers engaged on shiftwork doubled between 1950 and the mid‐1970s. For the UK one estimate is that between 1954 and 1964 the proportion of manual employees working shifts in manufacturing industry increased from 12 to 20 per cent, and that by 1978 the figure was 34 per cent (that is approximately 1.5 out of 4.27 million employees). Shiftworking has in fact reflected a conflict of goals for the policymakers. On the one hand in both the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the European Commission (EC) concern has been expressed at the possible harmful effects on workers of particular shiftworking patterns and proposals have been made to limit its incidence and control its form (this being particularly the case with nightwork and with the hours of women and young persons). On the other hand, concern with the growing problem of unemployment has led policymakers in other sections of these same bodies to propose an extension of shiftworking, as one particular form of work‐sharing, in order to generate jobs. The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of shiftworking for male manual workers in British manufacturing industry in order to cast some light on these issues. In particular supply equations are estimated in order to understand what factors lead workers to select this particular form of work and demand equations to determine the nature of the employer's demand for labour. These structural equations form the basis of a simultaneous system in which plant size (measured in terms of employment) is estimated as a function of shiftworking and a vector of other explanatory variables in order to determine whether in fact it is reasonable to conclude that an extension of shiftworking will generate additional jobs in Britain. Before presenting the regression results it is however necessary to examine in more detail these socio‐economic policy aspects of shiftwork, to clarify the theoretical framework and to discuss some of the problems of estimation which stem largely from data deficiencies, but also involve problems of simultaneity notably in the relationships between shiftworking, capital intensity and plant size.

This paper aims to find the endogenous relationship between innovation input and corporate performance and deepen the study of innovation performance theory in industry and enterprise at the micro level.

This paper selects the firms listed on A shares in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2009 to 2015 as samples. The authors cluster these samples according to the factors of production and classify the samples into three types: technology-intensive, capital-intensive and labor-intensive. After obtaining the samples and classifying them, the authors conduct a research on the endogenous relationship between the innovation input and the corporate performance through the simultaneous equations model and 3SLS estimation method. Meanwhile, they also make a study on the influence of executive incentive mechanism on the relationship between the innovation input and the corporate performance.

In technology-intensive industry, the increase of pre-innovation input will enhance the corporate performance in the current period, however, which will slow down the pace of innovation and lead to lower corporate performance in the future, and then increase innovation input again. In contrast, in capital-intensive industries, innovation input just improves corporate performance in the current period and the promotion of corporate performance will promote the intensity of innovation input in the future. With labor-intensive industries, innovation input also depends on early good returns, but innovation input has no significant impact on the corporate performance both at present and in the future. While in the executive incentive mechanism, salary incentive has a significant positive regulatory effect on the relationship between innovation input and corporate performance.

This paper presents a new research perspective on the relationship between innovation input and firm corporate performance, which is of great value to the listed company in balancing the R&D input with the company’s target performance and the design of executive incentive mechanism.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the Japan flying geese (FG) model and its implications for China.

Data on exports and imports three‐digit the standard international trade clasification (SITC) Revision 2 from UN‐COMTRADE are employed. An analytical tool namely “products mapping” is made by combining two fundamental variables derived from the FG model. Revealed symmetric comparative advantage (RSCA) index and trade balance index are applied.

The paper provides evidence of the existence of FG pattern. Unskilled labor‐intensive industries and human capital‐intensive industries have clearly shown the FG pattern in East Asia. China has very high comparative advantage in those industries.

The classification of industries is a crucial issue. This paper applies the broader classification of industries based on factor intensity rather than end use. Further researches on more specific industries might give detailed explanation.

The paper examines the position of East Asian countries in the FG model.

In the process of industrial growth, when existing industries go for technology upgradation and new modernised industries emerge, both capital intensity and energy demand of overall industry tend to rise steadily. This poses a serious challenge for sustainable development objectives. Towards this end, enhancing energy efficiency of individual industries is the only remedy. Against this backdrop, the study aims to probe the trends in capital intensities and energy efficiencies of individual industries in India.

This study uses panel data regression analysis on data of two-digit industries from 1980/1981–2016/2017. The statistical analysis includes relevant macroeconomic variables derived from the literature to ascertain the drivers of energy efficiency in industries.

The results brought out that capital deepening due to technology upgradation and modernisation and capital productivity growth are the decisive determinants of energy efficiency growth. Furthermore, the ever-increasing fuel price motivated industries to conserve energy on a steady basis, supplemented by energy conservation-specific policy interventions.

This study recommends policy initiatives to ascertain and address technology gaps industry-wise, so that its subsequent efficient capital utilisation, and energy conservation measures of industries would result in energy efficiency growth in industry. The policy must focus on energy-efficient capital intensification in fabricated metals, leather, textile and wood industries that are found less-energy-efficient despite being less-capital-intensive.

This study empirically explores the capital efficiency of industries by investigating the interaction between capital intensity and energy efficiency at a two-digit industry level. It explores the determinants of energy efficiency and proposes industry-specific policies for energy-efficiency-enhancement of the overall industry.

Past studies on foreign corporate investment and wages hypothesize that by expanding into highly concentrated and highly capital intensive industries, foreign owners are better able to pay higher wages than their domestic counterparts. Our study tests this hypothesis by comparing the effects of domestic and foreign acquisition activity on union and non‐union wages. We find strong evidence supporting the ability to pay hypothesis. There is no indication of bargaining strength changing with foreign acquisitions, as such activity is not associated with larger union wage premiums. Union premiums, however, decline with greater domestic acquisition activity.

Known as the major capital providers in Belt and Road countries and the largest carbon emitter in the world, what role China's outward direct investment (ODI) plays in carbon neutralization has become a matter of concern. This study aims to measure the impact of China's ODI on the carbon emissions of Belt and Road countries.

Based on an econometric model and an inter-regional input–output model, a new model measuring the carbon emission effects of ODI is developed.

The empirical results show that (1) in general, China's ODI generates an emission-reduction effect in Belt and Road countries; (2) The relationship between the emission-reduction effect and income level of host countries shows an approximate inverted U-shaped trend; and (3) China's ODI generates stronger emission-reduction effects on capital-intensive industries.

This study quantitatively measures the scale of carbon emission-increase and reduction effect, which is relatively lacking in previous studies. This study explores the heterogeneity from the perspectives of regions, countries and industries. The authors have compiled an inter-regional input–output table for the Belt and Road countries for 2014 to provide a broad basis for the study of related issues.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of top management support for quality and human resource management practices on quality results in the petroleum industry.

A survey was used to collect data from managers in the petroleum industry. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the hypotheses.

Consistent with previous studies, the results provide support for the importance of top management commitment to quality in emphasizing other quality practices. The relationship between top management support and employee involvement was also significant.

A larger sample is needed to validate the findings of this study. Future studies should address the impact of other quality management practices on quality outcomes.

The findings provide support for the convergence theory and contingency theory in quality management.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of biased technology on employment distribution and labor status in income distribution of China. It also testifies a threshold effect of the capital per labor and employment distribution on labor status from biased technology.

This paper presents a normalized supply-side system of three equations to measure the bias of technology in China. Linear and threshold regressions approaches are applied over cross-province panel data to investigate the influence which biased technology has on labor status under different capital per labor and employment distribution regimes.

This paper empirically shows that technology has been mostly capital-biased in China. The regression results indicate that capital-biased technology impairs labor income status and tend to modify employment distribution and labor income between industries. Furthermore, it reveals the threshold effect of capital per labor and employment distribution on the relationship between biased technology and labor status.

This paper extends the literature by explaining labor status from the perspective of biased technology and the effect of inter-industry employment distribution in China. It further explores the asymmetric effect of biased technology on labor productivity and income, which promotes inter-industry labor mobility and modifies employment distribution. This paper highlights the implications of this explanation for labor relations and human resource management.

Following industry-based view’s (IBV) isomorphic trend among firms in the same industries, the purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to investigate whether industry capital intensity encourages or inhibits firm’s utilization of strategic HRM systems, particularly, high-commitment work systems (HCWS); and second, to examine the quadratic moderating role of firm size on the relationship between industry capital intensity and firms’ utilization of HCWS, drawing on the interactionist view of IBV and the resource-based view, as well as the interactive perspective in the contextualized HRM field.

The research design was time lagged. Firm-level subjectively rated data were collected from 168 large firms with more than 200 employees in Beijing. Industry-level objectively rated data were collected from the statistics yearbooks of Beijing city.

The industry capital intensity was positively related to firms’ utilization of HCWS, all else being equal. For large firms in this research, the relationship between industry capital intensity and firms’ utilization of HCWS was moderated by firm size in a quadratic way.

This research contributes to contextualized HRM literature by empirically examining the complex interactive effects of industry capital intensity and firm’s utilization of HCWS. First, it established the direct cross-level relationship between industry capital intensity and firms’ utilization of strategic HRM systems. Moreover, it explored the boundary conditions of such relationship by investigating the quadratic moderating role of firm size.

Development economics is a new sub-discipline in modern economics. The first generation of development economics is structuralism. The second generation of development economics is neoliberalism. Most developing countries followed the above two generations of development economics and failed to achieve industrialization and modernization. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the third generation of development economics, called new structural economics, which advises governments in developing countries to play a facilitating role in the development of industries in a market economy according to the country’s comparative advantages. The paper also discusses how the government may use industrial policies to play this facilitating role and some new theoretical insights from new structural economics.

The paper draws on the experiences of success and failure in developing countries to generate new understanding about the nature and causes of economic development in developing countries.

The structuralism failed because it ignored the endogeneity of economic structure in a country. The neoliberalism failed because it neglected the endogeneity of distortions in the transition economies.

The paper proposes new policy and theoretical framework for developing countries.