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The results of an empirical study which has investigated the cost dynamics of a group of private warehouses is presented. Specifically the article tests the applicability of using a learning curve to plan and evaluate a private warehouse′s average labour cost per case performance. To test the applicability of using a learning curve in this industry, the study has analysed the empirical performance of a small sample of private warehouses over a five‐year period. A regression model of the private warehouse′s average labour cost per case performance shows that they do follow the standard log‐linear learning curve relationship between unit cost and cumulative units. The regression model shows that the private warehouses have a learning rate of 87 per cent. An example application shows that including the study′s results in a private‐versus‐public warehouse selection problem, using a discounted cash‐flow analysis, increases the private ware‐house′s internal rate of return by approximately 10 per cent.

This paper aims to weigh the restrictions to job creation imposed by labor market imperfections with respect to financial market imperfections. The authors want to see which restriction is more severe, and thus assess which is more powerful in creating permanent employment if it were removed.

A structural estimation is performed. The policy rules of the dynamic programming model are integrated into a simulated maximum likelihood procedure by which the model parameters are recovered. Data come from the CBBE (Balance Sheet data from the Bank of Spain). Identification of key parameters comes mainly from the observation of debt variation and sluggish adjustment to permanent labor.

Long-run permanent employment increases up to 69% when financial constraints are removed, whereas permanent employment only increases up to 54% when employment protection or firing costs are eliminated. The main finding of this paper is that the long-run expansion of permanent employment is larger when financial imperfections are removed than when firing costs are removed, even when there are important wage increases that moderate these employment expansions.

The removal of firing costs has been suggested by several economists as a result of the analysis of labor market imperfections. These policies, however, face the strong opposition of labor unions. This paper shows that the goals of permanent job creation can be accomplished without removing employment protection but by means of enhancing financial access to firms.

The connection between financial constraints and employment has been studied in recent years, motivated by the Great Recession. However, there is no assessment of how financial and labor market imperfections compare with each other to restrict permanent job creation. This comparison is crucial for policy analysis. This study is an attempt to fill out this gap in the economic literature. No previous research has attempted to perform this very important comparison.

The purpose of this paper is to examine employers’ perceptions of changes in the labour cost‐productivity gap due to the ageing of the workforce, the effects of tenure wages and employment protection on the perceived gap, and whether a perceived labour cost‐productivity gap affects employers’ recruitment and retention behaviour towards older workers.

The authors analyse surveys administered to employers in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden.

Approximately half of employers associate the ageing of the personnel with a growing gap between labour costs and productivity. Both the presence of tenure wages and employment protection rules increase the probability of employers perceiving a widening labour cost‐productivity gap due to the ageing of their workforce. A counterfactual shows that even when employment protection and tenure wage systems are abolished, 40 percent of employers expect a net cost increase. The expected labour cost‐productivity gap negatively affects both recruitment and retention of older workers.

In this paper, the wage‐productivity gap is examined through the perceptions of employers using an international comparative survey.

Management history has long acknowledged the existence of unproductive labour. Despite becoming unfashionable in modern times, the growth of unproductive labour within the economic composition of Australia’s labour force, witnessed since the late 1980s, brings to the fore old debates with a modern resonance, debates as to how and when labour contributes to economic growth. Using Australia as a case study, this paper aims to explore the economic cost increasing rates of unproductive labour, typically associated with government-imposed regulation, may have upon an organisation, and more broadly society.

This paper explores the theoretical frameworks developed by classical and neoclassical economists on the subject of productive and unproductive labour and uses key elements to explain the economic consequences of the current labour economy and regulatory environment that exists within modern Australia.

It is the growth of unproductive roles within the Australian economy since the late 1980s that contributes not only to the rising cost of employing domestically and the rising cost of living, but furthermore, to the fragility of Australia’s long-term economic security.

Australia’s economy is bound by chains of regulation. No longer does productivity fuel a growing economy, but rather, economies are powered by the rein of unproductive labour – labour that does not produce value but rather, consumes it. Unproductive labour is not a “dusty museum piece”. Rather, it is a defining characteristic of modern Australia, one that impacts immensely the cost of domestic business, and ultimately, society and the cost of living.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the organizational construction of profit at the responsibility-centre level, how underlying cost calculations are challenged, and the role of accountants therein.

This paper analyses profit calculation in a public social housing organization that experienced New Public Management (NPM). Participant observations, archives and interviews inform the study over three years, enabling access to day-to-day practices.

This study examines a trial of strength that revisited long-existing profitability and cost calculations. Accountants held competing views of how to treat labour costs. Some were anti-programme during a trial of incompatibility, while others were programme defenders. The authors also provide evidence of the stability of an established network and its resistance to the claims of an adversary spokesperson in a trial of strength. The concept of trial of incompatibility proved helpful in showing how the actor networks within OMEGA played out the tension between profit orientation and the social mission of offering affordable dwellings.

The paper provides rare qualitative data on the significant and complex role of calculative costing choices in determining intra-organizational profitability and its interference with the inherent social mission of the organization.

The authors suggest that profitability calculations are influenced not only by economic context but also by different views of organizational actors regarding how to calculate profit. These calculations would benefit from a more detailed and explicit documentation of reasons for choices made, given the potential for different and, in principle, equally valid approaches. The authors provide further evidence of the complexity of the public social housing sector.

This research points to a departure from the mission of public social housing in the face of NPM reforms and further questions the compatibility of a profit orientation with the provision of affordable dwellings.

The findings show intra-accounting variation regarding a specific element of profit calculation (labour costs) relating to the organization’s wider mission and status.

Using the example of the motor industry in Poland, attempts to explain why foreign direct investment (FDI) has, in this sector, during the post‐reform period (i.e. since 1990) remained rather low. This is despite the fact that the labour costs are a small fraction of those in advanced economies. Argues that other factors frequently outweigh the comparative advantage of low labour costs. Suggests the following factors: low labour productivity; internally‐controlled labour costs of an enterprise on average account for only 14 per cent per unit cost of a compact model; transport and related costs of imports; low volume production, and the necessity of substantial, ever‐increasing amounts of flexible, high‐tech equipment for start up. In combination, these factors help explain why unit costs in “non‐technology frontier areas” are frequently in excess of those prevailing in the advanced economies, and so act as a disincentive to FDI.

Employee turnover is a significant challenge for human resource management (HRM) strategies and organisational performance. This study seeks to present findings drawn from an extensive survey of labour turnover in the Australian accommodation sector. A particular focus is placed on turnover rates and costs.

Based on labour turnover literature and an industry panel, an online survey was designed and distributed to four‐ and five‐star hotels across Australia. Human resource managers from 64 hotels participated in the survey, providing a representative sample and a response rate of 29 percent.

The research shows that the major costs are attributed to labour turnover. These are costs that both the industry and individual operators should examine closely, as they impact substantially on hotel operating costs and profitability. It also indicates that the levels of service, consumer experience and value may be impacted.

A limitation of the study is its main focus on tangible labour turnover costs. Additionally, findings based on four‐ and five‐star hotels may not apply to other accommodation sectors.

The literature on hotel labour and turnover costs is limited and the paper provides the first major study in the Australian context, adding new knowledge to one's understanding of labour turnover and cost impact on hotels. It also suggests areas where hotels may better address the turnover issue.

On the basis of labor economics theories, this study examines how adjustment in human capital accounts for labor cost stickiness.

This study makes use of employee education level as a measure of the quality of human capital and relies on data from Chinese public firms to conduct the empirical test. This study focuses on two important components of labor cost changes: one corresponding to the adjustment in the number of employees (capacity adjustment) and another corresponding to the adjustment in the mix of employee education levels (quality adjustment).

This study reveals that labor cost changes driven by the adjustment of employee education level are sticky. This stickiness cannot be explained by the standard adjustment cost theory. This further shows that firms that actively adjust their employee quality during downturns experience improved future performance. The findings are robust to alternative measures and specifications.

This study provides new evidence for and insights into the cost behavior literature. Previous studies treat input resources in a homogenous way and focus on the effect of capacity adjustment. This study considers the heterogeneity of resources and examines three dimensions of salary cost adjustment: capacity, structure, and unit cost. In line with the economic theory of sticky costs proposed by Banker et al. (2013a), the study’s evidence sheds light on the additional underlying economic mechanisms driving cost stickiness behavior. Specifically, managers asymmetrically adjust both employee structure and average salaries, in addition to employee number. This study also adds to the existing knowledge of the consequences of managers' actions regarding cost behavior.

A discussion is presented of the elements in Human Resource Planning and how they can be incorporated into a common denominator of costs. This is the framework for a report on a study of loss and recruitment of nurses in a typical district general hospital and analysis of the nurse labour market in the light of future developments proposed for the NHS.

The author argues that we must stop and take a look at what our insistence on human labour as the basis of our society is doing to us, and begin to search for possible alternatives. We need the vision and the courage to aim for the highest level of technology attainable for the widest possible use in both industry and services. We need financial arrangements that will encourage people to invent themselves out of work. Our goal, the article argues, must be the reduction of human labour to the greatest extent possible, to free people for more enjoyable, creative, human activities.