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Book part
Publication date: 11 May 2017

Rolf van der Velden and Dieter Verhaest

The explicit assumption in most literature on educational and skill mismatches is that these mismatches are inherently costly for workers. However, the results in the literature…

Abstract

The explicit assumption in most literature on educational and skill mismatches is that these mismatches are inherently costly for workers. However, the results in the literature on the effects of underqualification or underskilling on wages and job satisfaction only partly support this hypothesis. Rather than assuming that both skill surpluses and skill deficits are inherently costly for workers, we interpret these mixed findings by taking a learning perspective on skill mismatches. Following the theory of Vygotski on the so-called “zone of proximal development,” we expect that workers who start their job with a small skill deficit, show more skill growth than workers who start in a matching job or workers with a more severe skill deficit. We test this hypothesis using the Cedefop European skills and jobs survey (ESJS) and the results confirm these expectations. Workers learn more from job tasks that are more demanding than if they would work in a job that perfectly matches their initial skill level and this skill growth is largest for those who start with a small skill deficit. The learning opportunities are worst when workers start in a job for which they have a skill surplus. This is reflected in the type of learning activities that workers take up. Workers with a small skill deficit are more often engaged in informal learning activities. Finally, workers who started with a small skill deficit are no less satisfied with their job than workers who started in a well-matched job. We conclude that a skill match is good for workers, but a small skill deficit is even better. This puts some responsibility on employers to keep job tasks and responsibilities at a challenging level for their employees.

Details

Skill Mismatch in Labor Markets
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-377-7

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 29 October 2014

Scott Carter

This chapter argues that the Marxian theory of exploitation underlies the concepts of surplus and deficit industries that appear in Sraffa’s (1960) Production of Commodities by

Abstract

This chapter argues that the Marxian theory of exploitation underlies the concepts of surplus and deficit industries that appear in Sraffa’s (1960) Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities. This is seen from archival research of the unpublished papers of Piero Sraffa housed at the Wren Library, Trinity College, University of Cambridge. There it is shown that the origin of these concepts lies in the Marxian theory of exploitation that Sraffa developed regarding the notion of the ‘pool of profits’ the Italian economist utilized over a 14-year period from 1942 to 1956. The chapter engages in an extensive textual study of the archival evidence and then presents a simple analytical model of these relations.

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Research in Political Economy
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-007-0

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Book part
Publication date: 17 March 2010

Linda Kamas and Anne Preston

This chapter investigates the relationship between heterogeneous social preferences and charitable giving under alternative prices of giving and types of subsidies. Using 10…

Abstract

This chapter investigates the relationship between heterogeneous social preferences and charitable giving under alternative prices of giving and types of subsidies. Using 10 allocation decisions, we categorize participants’ social preferences as self-interested, inequity averse, or social surplus maximizing. In subsequent charitable giving treatments, analysis of within-person decision-making gives support for several predictions consistent with social preference types: social surplus maximizers are most likely to give to a charity that increases production; inequity averters give more to charity than do other groups; all preference types give more when the price of giving declines; and social surplus maximizers are more responsive to the price of giving than are inequity averters.

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Charity with Choice
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-768-4

Book part
Publication date: 30 September 2010

Paul Paolucci

In theorizing the dynamics of social processes, dialectical thinking informs Marx's historical materialist inquiries and both – dialectics and historical materialist principles …

Abstract

In theorizing the dynamics of social processes, dialectical thinking informs Marx's historical materialist inquiries and both – dialectics and historical materialist principles – inform his political–economic analysis. In conceptualizing empirical observations during this work, Marx (1973b, p. 101) assumes that the “concrete is concrete because it is the concentration of many determinations, hence unity of the diverse” and that “With the varying degree of development of productive power, social conditions and the laws governing them vary too” (Marx, 1992, p. 28). This methodological tack strives for the flexibility needed for analyzing patterns in long-term social development (the structure of history) as well as the logic of specific systems in their totality and flux (the history of structures).

Details

Theorizing the Dynamics of Social Processes
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-223-5

Book part
Publication date: 11 July 2007

Samezō

This paper is a translation of the third and most important chapter of Keizaigaku shi (History of Political Economy) by the Japanese Marxist economist Samezō Kuruma (1893–1982)…

Abstract

This paper is a translation of the third and most important chapter of Keizaigaku shi (History of Political Economy) by the Japanese Marxist economist Samezō Kuruma (1893–1982), first published in 1948. Kuruma discusses in detail the achievements and limitations of the Classical school of political economy. He examines the fundamental ideas of Adam Smith and David Ricardo regarding the determination of commodity value and the source of surplus-value, and then looks at how these ideas are connected to production price and profit. Kuruma notes that Smith and Ricardo managed to arrive at the essential labor theory of value, but that neither could correctly apply this theory to adequately explain phenomena in the realm of competition – either abandoning the labor theory of value altogether to embrace a composition theory of value (Smith) or directly applying the theory to explain phenomena without grasping the intermediary processes of development (Ricardo). Kuruma's critique of Smith and Ricardo highlights the achievement of Marx in overcoming the limitations that ultimately led to the breakdown of the Classical school of political economy.

Details

Transitions in Latin America and in Poland and Syria
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-469-0

Book part
Publication date: 18 February 2004

Simon Clarke

Review essay on Stephen A. Resnick and Richard D. Wolff’s, Class Theory and History: Capitalism and Communism in the USSR. New York and London: Routledge. xiv + 353 pp. 2002.The…

Abstract

Review essay on Stephen A. Resnick and Richard D. Wolff’s, Class Theory and History: Capitalism and Communism in the USSR. New York and London: Routledge. xiv + 353 pp. 2002. The overwhelming ideological dominance of neo-liberalism has led to the widespread acceptance of the most facile explanations of the collapse of the Soviet Union, whose demise supposedly demonstrates the validity of Adam Smith’s critique of political intervention in the functioning of the market. In this book Stephen Resnick and Richard Wolff undertake the vitally important task of theorizing the rise and fall of the Soviet Union from a Marxist perspective. Resnick and Wolff follow the neo-liberals in seeing the Soviet Union as a form of capitalism administered by the state, but reject the neo-liberal critique of the inefficiency of state capitalism, celebrating the supposedly great economic achievements of the Soviet Union. The failure of the Soviet Union lay not in the dominance of the state, but in the failure to go beyond state capitalism to establish a communist society. Instead of building on the limited communist elements in soviet society, the Soviet Union was marked by the persistence of what Resnick and Wolff call the “ancient” and “feudal” class structures which ultimately proved its undoing, by undermining the state capitalist appropriation of the surplus and providing the cultural and political foundations for a return to private capitalist forms of surplus appropriation.

Details

A Research Annual
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-089-0

Abstract

Details

The Political Economy of Antitrust
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-44453-093-6

Book part
Publication date: 28 February 2022

Alexandros Vasios Sivvopoulos and Mark Van Boening

This experiment analyzes multi-offer versions of the signaling and screening litigation games, as well as a bilateral multi-offer litigation game. A plaintiff has either a low or…

Abstract

This experiment analyzes multi-offer versions of the signaling and screening litigation games, as well as a bilateral multi-offer litigation game. A plaintiff has either a low or a high claim on an uninformed defendant, and the two negotiate in an attempt to reach a pre-trial settlement. Trial is costly, and settlement generates surplus over which the two parties can bargain. In the signaling game, the defendant has the power to make the offer, while the plaintiff makes the offer in the screening game. Previous experiments on single-offer games find that disputes occur even when offers contain surplus not predicted under the theory, and fairness appears to be important in explaining deviations from theory. This research examines whether renegotiation in the form of successive sequential offers can yield efficiency gains via lower dispute rates. There are four main findings. One, under the one-sided multi-offer structure the excess dispute rate is 23 percentage-points lower in the screening game, and the high-offer dispute rate is 31 percentage-points lower in signaling game. The bilateral game yields an additional 15 percentage-point reduction in the high-offer dispute rate, but excess disputes persist. Two, in these games, proposers take advantage of the multi-offer opportunity and make around three to four offers per negotiation. Three, across games the surplus in a fair offer remains constant at about one-sixth of the surplus, but the empirical benchmark from which this is measured varies according to which player has the power to make the offer. In the one-sided games, the benchmark is the respective zero-surplus endpoint, but in the bilateral game the benchmark is the surplus midpoint. Fourth, dynamic behavior plays an important but complex role in observed outcomes. Multi-offer mechanisms may be alternatives to costly information transmission mechanisms like disclosure or discovery.

Details

Experimental Law and Economics
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-537-0

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Book part
Publication date: 20 August 2016

Sedef Sert, Paola Garrone, Marco Melacini and Alessandro Perego

This chapter highlights factors, such as stakeholder engagement and changes in operating processes, which can enable retailers to implement an alternative approach to recovering…

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter highlights factors, such as stakeholder engagement and changes in operating processes, which can enable retailers to implement an alternative approach to recovering and redistributing fresh surplus food.

Methodology/approach

A successful fresh surplus food redistribution program was identified as part of a larger research project on food waste and redistribution. The “Buon Fine” program of a large Italian retailer (Coop Lombardia) was described by two senior executives who were interviewed for four hours using a semi-structured questionnaire. Collected information was triangulated with corporate reports and other publications.

Findings

Coop Lombardia implemented an expanded supply chain by cooperating with municipalities and food aid organizations. Such a process differed in important ways from the traditional “food bank” model. The latter organizations collected and distributed surplus food to disfavored populations.

Originality/value

The findings of this chapter will help senior executives of retail trade companies to improve the sustainability of their supply chain and help policymakers address food poverty to improve food security in their territory.

Details

Organizing Supply Chain Processes for Sustainable Innovation in the Agri-Food Industry
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-488-4

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 29 May 2023

Peterson K. Ozili

Purpose: The chapter’s objective is to develop a new model or approach to earnings management for sustainability. The challenges posed by climate change and environmental…

Abstract

Purpose: The chapter’s objective is to develop a new model or approach to earnings management for sustainability. The challenges posed by climate change and environmental degradation have stimulated interest in sustainability. However, such interest has not led to the development of new models demonstrating how firms’ earnings management can contribute to sustainability and sustainable development.

Methodology: The chapter develops a model demonstrating how earnings management can contribute to sustainability. The surplus income model uses income targeting as a channel through which the surplus income generated by a firm is allocated to a relevant sustainability activity or project. The author shows that a firm’s total income can be divided into the target and surplus income components. The author then explores the possible activities that firms may allocate surplus income to in the interest of sustainability.

Finding: The surplus income model or approach allows a firm to contribute or donate to a relevant sustainability activity or project out of its surplus income. Under this model, managers are incentivised to generate surplus income from which they can contribute to a relevant sustainability activity or project, thereby making the firm a champion of sustainability.

Originality: Previous studies have not examined how earnings management by firms can contribute to sustainability. This chapter fills this gap in the literature.

Details

Smart Analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Performance Management in a Global Digitalised Economy
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83753-416-6

Keywords

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