Search results

This study investigates the relationships among digital transformation, technological innovation, industry–university–research collaborations and labor income share in manufacturing firms.

The relationships are tested using an empirical method, constructing regression models, by collecting 1,240 manufacturing firms and 9,029 items listed on the A-share market in China from 2013 to 2020.

The results indicate that digital transformation has a positive effect on manufacturing companies’ labor income share. Technological innovation can mediate the effect of digital transformation on labor income share. Industry–university–research cooperation can positively moderate the promotion effect of digital transformation on labor income share but cannot moderate the mediating effect of technological innovation. Heterogeneity analysis also found that firms without service-based transformation and nonstate-owned firms are better able to increase their labor income share through digital transformation.

This study provides a new path to increase the labor income share of enterprises to achieve common prosperity, which is important for manufacturing enterprises to better transform and upgrade to achieve high-quality development.

Much has been written about the causes and measurement of labour turnover, but less has been written about the costs involved. It is generally assumed that high rates of labour turnover will have harmful financial effects, without any serious attempt being made to quantify these effects. Sometimes it is considered that the costs involved in quantifying the costs will not justify the knowledge gained. Over the years, however, various methods for costing labour turnover have been suggested and used in specific examples. This article summarises the main methods suggested, and attempts to draw some conclusions as to their adequacy. No method yet devised has presented management with a simple but effective guide to labour turnover costs which can be applied in most situations.

Trade liberalization could either exacerbate or ameliorate the incidence of child labour. This paper aims to examine the effect of trade liberalization through membership in the GATT/WTO on the incidence of child labour across countries and over time. The authors examine child labour force participation data and WTO membership for 94 countries between 1980 and 1999. They find that membership in the WTO is negatively correlated with child labour. However, they do not find a statistically significant relationship between openness and child labour and therefore rule out the trade‐expanding channel of WTO membership on child labour.

The authors' regression equations examine the effect of GATT or WTO membership on the incidence of child labour. They examine data from 94 countries from 1980 and 1999 and employ a fixed‐effects regression. They estimate different models taking different variables as control variables. They find a statistically significant effect negative of WTO membership on the incidence of child labour. They do not find a statistically significant effect of openness on child labour.

The authors find that membership in the WTO did reduce child labour. They do not find a statistically significant effect of openness on child labour.

WTO membership does not increase the incidence of child labour as some critics claim. Membership itself is associated with reduced child labour so it may not be necessary to expand trade through international agreements in order to impact the incidence of child labour.

Contrary to critics of the WTO, membership does not exacerbate the problem of child labour.

This paper presents new data on child labour in a panel across countries over time. It is the first paper to systematically estimate the impact of international agreements on the incidence of child labour.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight that child labour is complementary to adult labour in the brick kiln industry.

The paper presents a case study of bonded labourers in the brick kiln industry of Southeast India.

The paper finds that child labour is used by parents in the moulding process in order to avoid falling into debt bondage. In this industry, brick making is organized as a home‐based enterprise. Thus, child labour increases the family productivity and consequently its income. In case of a ban on child labour bonded parents will be worse‐off. NGOs can play an essential role by preventing families from falling into bondage and by improving their living standards.

The results may help the NGOs address child labour issues in the developing world.

Human labour will play a critical role in the future of Europe. Discusses ways to segregate capital into “Mind Human Capital” and “Physical Human Capital”. Argues that important differences between mind and physical human capital have profound implications for the future of Europe. Very significant trends in and related to human and physical capital will have differential effects on countries of Europe. In addition, mind and physical capital have profound implications for businesses in Europe. Provides insights on key relationships between mind and physical labour and economic developments. In addition suggests specific implications of such relationships. Also provides predictions concerning the role of mind and physical capital in the future of Europe. Is of particular interest to those responsible for evaluating the European business environment and making strategic decisions about future disinvestment and investments in Europe.

During the last ten years, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and some other international organizations, have increasingly addressed human trafficking from a “forced labour” perspective. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the terminology in relation to human trafficking and forced labour, to highlight the links between them, and to provide a critique of the ILO approach. It also aims to make the case for the implementation of a specific international instrument to address the link between trafficking and forced labour.

This paper compares the definitions of human trafficking and forced labour, the link between them in the United Nations, European and ILO instruments.

Although human trafficking is a criminal activity, the ILO identifies it as a form of forced labour. The paper concludes that, no matter what role the trafficking victims have in participating in the criminal activities, they should be viewed as victims and witnesses. They should not be viewed as “workers” or “labourers”. Any minor under the age of 18 years, in accordance with the European and international instruments, has no legal capacity to give consent to being exploited.

This paper argues that the international and European instruments do not specifically address the link between trafficking and forced labour. There is a need for a specific international instrument prescribing the link between trafficking and forced labour. In the absence of such an international instrument, there is a piece meal approach by international bodies and countries toward the regulation of trafficking and forced labour.

TOGETHER with other interested bodies, the “Arbeitseinsatzverwaltung” (Labour Utilization Administration), has (or long been devoting increasing attention to the problem of supplementary training in the metal working industries. Formerly, these measures for the schooling and training of metal‐workers had been directed principally at improving the personal standard of efficiency of the individual; recently they have assumed a wider importance on account of the shortage of labour in certain of the metal‐working trades. The Labour Exchanges have concerned themselves directly with these schemes; in past years, with financial support, in collaboration with other agencies. Between 1933 and 1938, the training schemes sponsored by the Retch Labour Administration (Reichs‐Arbeitsverwaltung), dealt with a total of some 390,000 workers.

The aim of this study is to empirically investigate the effect of real wages on labour productivity in Malaysia's manufacturing sector using annual data from 1980 to 2009.

This study uses the Johansen cointegration test to examine the presence of long‐run equilibrium relationship between labour productivity and real wages in Malaysia. In addition, the Granger causality test within the vector error‐correction model (VECM) is used to ascertain the direction of causality between the variables of interest.

The Johansen test suggests that real wages and labour productivity are cointegrated. Moreover, labour productivity and real wages have a quadratic relationship (i.e. inverted U‐shaped curve) instead of linear relationship. Hence, the effect of real wages on labour productivity is non‐monotonic. Furthermore, the Granger causality test indicates that real wages and labour productivity are bilateral causality in nature.

This study is limited to the labour productivity in the manufacturing sector only.

This study demonstrates that the effect of real wages on labour productivity is non‐monotonic; hence increase in real wages alone does not always enhance labour productivity. Thus, other incentives should be offered to stimulate long‐term labour productivity growth in Malaysia.

Perhaps no other topic was given so much attention in the Kuwaiti socio‐political, economic literature as that of human resources. This is so for a number of reasons. First, Kuwait being a small economy cannot survive on its own labor force. Foreign labor helps the country but has some serious consequences. The imported labor force is very cheap compared to national labor. This had resulted in a malallocation of manpower in various sectors of the economy. Secondly, Kuwait, like many Muslim Gulf societies, does not fully utilize its female labor force; and thirdly, there are problems regarding the attitudes of Kuwaitis towards labor of particular types. In addition, there are many challenges in the area of human resources that the country faces as it moves into the 21st century.

The hospitality industry attracts a wide variety of workers from a number of different labor markets. Since the world is growing smaller with advanced technologies, finding required labor around the globe has become much easier than ever before. Therefore, considering only locals as a source of labor maybe an outdated recruitment strategy. Continued globalization of the free market economy will encourage the migration of international labor. This paper discusses international labor markets and the migration of labor forces in the hospitality industry worldwide. It proposes that current trends and patterns of worldwide population growth need to be accounted for in developing strategies for addressing labor shortages.