Services form an increasing proportion of the inputs used in manufacturing. We explore empirically whether competition in the service sector affects downstream manufacturing firms' efficiency, via the inputs used. Using French micro-data for services, we calculate proxies for competition in...

The paper compares employment structures in five Continental welfare states. These countries feature broad similarities in their reliance on a more dualised model of labour market flexibility, particularly in service occupations with low skill requirements. However, a closer look also reveals...

To account for employment evolutions at the macro-economic level, we propose a modelling where employment is explained by added value, working time and real labour cost. Estimations using quarterly French macro-economic data are carried out in a multivariate framework for three sets of sectors....

This paper investigates empirically the strategic alignment between innovation and production strategies in a sample of service firms in Spain. It employs the integrated archetypes approach to analyse a dataset of unique, manually collected, firm responses. The results highlight differences in...

The answer to competition from emerging countries with low wage costs must be very different according to the affected sector. We need to draw a distinction between manufacturing industry and services that can be relocated and other sectors: consumer services, retail, construction, most business...

The empirical data presented here have been derived from a company survey which has been conducted in eight service sectors across the EU. From these eight sectors four sectors have been chosen for the present analysis. The criterion for selection was comparability with respect to market...

Die Mindestlohnkommission entscheidet alle zwei Jahre über eine Anpassung des gesetzlichen Mindestlohns. Bisher orientierte sie sich dabei nachlaufend an der Tariflohnentwicklung. Das trug dazu bei, dass der Arbeitsmarkt den staatlichen Eingriff in die Lohnfindung gut verkraftete und die...

Recent attention has focused on the UK's productivity gap in the retail sector. Figure 1 shows an estimate of labour productivity in retail across countries, using output per hour worked. The UK lies well behind the US, France and Germany. Reynolds at al (2005) contribute to this debate by...