The author estimate the costs and benefits of labor retrenchment in state-owned industrial enterprises in China. Their results indicate the prevalence of low and stagnant labor productivity, low capital productivity, and excessively high wages in the state sector for the period reviewed...

In 1980, China's government owned and controlled its state enterprises, which were managed (inefficiently) by bureaucrats. During the 1980s, the government experimented with decentralizing state enterprises to boost productivity. By decade's end, China's state enterprises had become more...

The authors take a new look at the regulatory determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) by asking whether labor market flexibility affects FDI flows across 25 Western and Eastern European countries. Their analysis is based on firm level data on new investments during the 1999-2001 period....

The authors present a political economy model in which policy is the outcome of an interaction between three actors: government (G), managers and workers (W), and transfer recipients (P). The government's objective is to stay in power, for which it needs the support of either P or W. It can...

The authors argue that significant adjustment took place in Polish industry after Poland's 1990 reforms. They analyze data on two- and three-digit manufacturing industries, disaggregated by firm ownership and size. By applying a statistical model to labor productivity growth, they try to...

Unlike the well-developed literature on the employment impact of the minimum wage in industrial nations, very little is known about minimum wage effects in low income countries. Minimum wages increased sharply in Indonesia between 1990 and 1996 and by more in some provinces than in others....

The authors examine wage inequalities in Sri Lanka's formal sector using data from the Sri Lanka Integrated Survey 1999-2000. The study aims to: a) investigate whether the labor market is characterized by wage disparities among ethnic and gender groups; b) identify the determinants of wages and...

Using time series data spanning three decades, the authors examine the determinants of sectoral migration in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. They employ a principal components algorithm to address problems associated with trended and inter-correlated explanatory variables. Migration...

The author investigates the effects of technology on the employment and wages of differently skilled Mexican manufacturing workers using firm panel data from 1992-99. She analyzes the relationship between technology and skill demand. Findings support the skill-biased technical change hypothesis....

To analyze what determines wages and productivity in Zimbabwe, the author analyzes an employer/employee data-set from Zimbabwe's manufacturing sector. The author finds that: * Formal education, training, and experience positively affect wages and productivity positively. * Women are paid roughly...