scholarly journals Comparative Advantage and Skill-Specific Unemployment

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Larch ◽  
Wolfgang Lechthaler
Keyword(s):  
Heterogeneous Firms ◽  
Unskilled Worker ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Skilled Worker ◽  
Industry Trade ◽  
Trade Model ◽  
Unskilled Workers ◽  
Endogenous Selection ◽  
Two Sectors ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract We introduce unemployment and endogenous selection of workers into different skill-classes in a trade model with two sectors and heterogeneous firms. This allows us to identify three different channels through which trade liberalization can affect unemployment: specialization, changes in productivity, and mobility. These three channels may work in opposite directions and their relative importance depends on the type of trade (intra-industry trade vs. inter-industry trade) and the skill-class of a worker. We show that the gains from trade are distributed very unequally. When a skilled worker abundant country opens up to trade with a country that is unskilled worker abundant, the biggest losers are the skilled workers in the import sector in the skill abundant country. However, average unemployment among skilled workers goes down, while average unemployment among unskilled workers goes up.

Knowledge, Skills, Craft? The Skilled Worker in West German Industry and the Resilience of Vocational Training, 1970–2000

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-373
Author(s):  
Lutz Raphael
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
German Industry ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Skilled Worker ◽  
Radical Reform ◽  
The Social ◽  
Unskilled Workers

Abstract The spread of computer technology in West German industry during the 1980s and 1990s dramatically changed the demand for skilled and unskilled work in manufacturing. As a result the knowledge used in production was redefined and reformers pushed for radical reform in vocational and general education. In these decades a corporate agreement across trade unions, associations of employers and state bureaucracy brought about a series of adaptive reforms of existing apprenticeships and the creation of new apprenticeships in new branches. This survival of the dual system is analysed as part of the strategies of modernizing West German manufacturing industries. Both employers and trade unions defended the central role of skilled workers in the new system of flexible quality production that developed during this period of rapid technological change. Data from the Socio-Economic Panel and from other sources enable analysis of the social effects of this economically successful strategy. They show the large-scale use of skilled workers in industrial production and their opportunities for upward mobility and additional qualifications. At the same time unskilled workers, and unskilled migrant workers in particular, experienced greater risks of unemployment and increased job uncertainty.

scholarly journals Cardiovascular hospitalisation before and during the financial crisis among occupations in Taiwan

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Y Chang
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Sex Education ◽  
Negative Binomial ◽  
Random Effect ◽  
Unskilled Worker ◽  
Research Database ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Occupational Groups ◽  
2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis

Abstract Background Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) were related to financial stress. Little was known about the effects of financial crisis on cardiovascular health by occupations. This study examined CVD hospitalisations before and during the 2008 financial crisis among five occupational groups in Taiwan. Methods Data were collected from the Taiwan Survey on Hypertension, Hyperglycemia and Hyperlipidaemia 2007, including 4,673 participants aged 20 and above, categorized into five types of occupations, i.e., professional & manager (PM), office clerk & administrative staff (OA), skilled work (SW), unskilled worker (UW) and non-worker (NW). We abstracted their CVD hospitalisation records in the three years before (September 2005 to August 2008) and during the 2008 financial crisis (September 2008 to August 2011) from the National Health Insurance Research Database. Using incidence rate ratios (IRRs), we compared CVD hospitalisation of the first, second, third year from September 2008 to the three-year average before September 2008 for five occupational groups. Random effect negative binomial models were performed to estimate IRRs. Results After adjusting for covariates including age, sex, education, smoking, alcohol drinking, exercise and body mass index, there was an increase of CVD hospitalisation incidence for NW in the first year of the financial crisis (IRR=1.46, 95% Confidence Interval [95% CI]=1.19-1.77); in the second year, SW had a raised risk of CVD hospitalisation (IRR= 2.71, 95% CI = 1.59-4.60). For all occupational groups, the incidence rates of CVD hospitalisation reached the peak in the third year (PM: IRR=2.68, 95% CI = 1.05-6.83; OA: IRR=2.70, 95% CI = 1.18-6.19; SW: IRR=5.13, 95% CI = 2.89-9.09; UW: IRR=2.12, 95% CI = 1.02-4.41; NW: IRR=1.85, 95% CI = 1.18-2.67). Conclusions CVD hospitalisation of all occupations were affected by the financial crisis; when non-workers were the early victims, skilled workers may be the most vulnerable in the 2008 financial crisis. Key messages This study investigated the effects of the 2008 financial crisis on cardiovascular disease hospitalization by five occupational types in Taiwan. All occupations, particularly skilled workers, were affected by the financial crisis.

scholarly journals Theoretical and Empirical Characterization of Water as a Factor: Examples and Related Issues with the World Trade Model

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 459
Author(s):  
Ignacio Cazcarro ◽  
Albert E. Steenge
Keyword(s):  
World Trade ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Considerable Change ◽  
Water Research ◽  
Trade Model ◽  
The World ◽  
Main Model ◽  
Selection Of

This article originates from the theoretical and empirical characterization of factors in the World Trade Model (WTM). It first illustrates the usefulness of this type of model for water research to address policy questions related to virtual water trade, water constraints and water scarcity. It also illustrates the importance of certain key decisions regarding the heterogeneity of water and its relation to the technologies being employed and the prices obtained. With regard to WTM, the global economic input–output model in which multiple technologies can produce a “homogeneous output”, it was recently shown that two different mechanisms should be distinguished by which multiple technologies can arise, i.e., from “technology-specific” or from “shared” factors, which implies a mechanism-specific set of prices, quantities and rents. We discuss and extend these characterizations, notably in relation to the real-world characterization of water as a factor (for which we use the terms technology specific, fully shared and “mixed”). We propose that the presence of these separate mechanisms results in the models being sensitive to relatively small variations in specific numerical values. To address this sensitivity, we suggest a specific role for specific (sub)models or key choices to counter unrealistic model outcomes. To support our proposal we present a selection of simulations for aggregated world regions, and show how key results concerning quantities, prices and rents can be subject to considerable change depending on the precise definitions of resource endowments and the technology-specificity of the factors. For instance, depending on the adopted water heterogeneity level, outcomes can vary from relatively low-cost solutions to higher cost ones and can even reach infeasibility. In the main model discussed here (WTM) factor prices are exogenous, which also contributes to the overall numerical sensitivity of the model. All this affects to a large extent our interpretation of the water challenges, which preferably need to be assessed in integrated frameworks, to account for the main socioeconomic variables, technologies and resources.

scholarly journals International Trade and Human Capital Investment with Heterogeneous Firms and Workers: Modeling and Analysis

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 1106
Author(s):  
Jaewon Jung
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
International Trade ◽  
Organizational Behavior ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
Investment Decision ◽  
Heterogeneous Firms ◽  
Modeling And Analysis ◽  
Trade Model

Though the importance of organizational behavior and human decision processes within firms for the firm performance has largely been recognized in the business and management literature, much less attention has been devoted to studying such implications in the international trade context. This paper develops a general-equilibrium trade model in which heterogeneous workers make an investment decision in acquiring advanced managerial skills and choose their optimal effort level based on their comparative advantage. In doing so, we show how globalization-induced human capital accumulation within firms leads to sustainable economic growth. We also show that workers’ organizational belief and CEO’s managerial vision may be an important element for the human capital formation within firms and for the performance of firms in a global economy.

scholarly journals The spatial selection of heterogeneous firms

2010 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshihiro Okubo ◽  
Pierre M. Picard ◽  
Jacques-François Thisse
Keyword(s):  
Heterogeneous Firms ◽  
Spatial Selection ◽  
Selection Of

scholarly journals International trade in services and inequalities

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 1069-1075 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvain Petit
Keyword(s):  
Wage Inequality ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Business Services ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Unskilled Workers ◽  
Tourism Services ◽  
The Impact

This study investigates the impact of the international openness in tourism services trade on wage inequality between highly skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled workers in the tourism industry. The sample covers 10 developed countries and expands over 15 years. A cointegrated panel data model and an error correction model were used to distinguish between the short- and long-run effects. The results are compared to those of openness of business services and manufactured goods. The findings point out that tourism increases wage inequality at the expense of the least skilled workers in the long run and the short run.

Abstract P036: Socioeconomic Status and Risk of Diabetes over 35 Years

Circulation ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 125 (suppl_10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena M Bjorck ◽  
Christina Stahl-Heden ◽  
Masuma Novak ◽  
Wai Giang Kok ◽  
Annika Rosengren
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Population Sample ◽  
Diabetes Type 2 ◽  
Diabetes Type ◽  
Low Ses ◽  
Occupational Class ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Unskilled Workers

Background and aim: The link between low socioeconomic status (SES) and CHD is well established but whether low SES is also an independent predictor for development of diabetes type 2 is not clear. The aim of this study was to investigate whether SES, measured as occupational class, predicted subsequent development of diabetes type 2 over an extended follow-up. Methods: A total of 6941 men 47-55 years old, without prior diabetes, from a population sample of 9998 men, were investigated during 1970-73. Of the men, 23.7% were unskilled workers, 27.2% were skilled workers, 19.7% occupied either a supervisory manual position or were lower officials, 17.9% were officials at an intermediate position, and 11.6% were professionals, executives or senior officials. Follow-up was achieved through the national Swedish patient registry. Results: A total of 900 men (13%) were registered at any time with a diagnosis of diabetes over a 35-year follow-up. Compared with men in the highest occupational class, men with intermediate non-manual occupations had a multiple-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 1.10, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.84-1.44, lower officials and foremen had an HR of 1.37 (1.06-1.78), semiskilled and skilled workers 1.39 (1.08-1.78), and unskilled workers 1.66 (1.30-2.13) after adjustment for smoking at baseline, BMI, blood pressure, serum cholesterol, treatment for hypertension and leisure time physical activity. Conclusions: Low SES is an independent risk factor for long-term risk of diabetes in men, with a 66% independent higher risk in unskilled workers, compared to professionals/senior officials.

scholarly journals Special Issue on Application of Robot and AI

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-139
Author(s):  
Naoki Asakawa
Keyword(s):  
Path Planning ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Human Hand ◽  
Path Generation ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Skilled Worker ◽  
Robot Hands

Due to changes in the global industrial structure, the number of employees in the manufacturing industry has decreased in developed countries. One of solutions to this situation offered in Industry 4.0 is “the utilization of robots and AI as alternatives to skilled workers.” This solution has been applied to various operations conventionally performed by skilled workers and has yielded consistent results. A skilled worker has two skills, namely, “physical operation skill” and “decision making skill,” which correspond to the utilization of robots and AI, respectively. Conventionally, robots have simply played back programs they were taught. However, owing to feedback technologies using force, position, or various other sensors, robots have come to be able to perform smart operations. In some of these, the capabilities of robots exceed those of human workers. For example, while humans are highly adaptive to various operations, it is difficult for them to maintain a constant force or position for long periods of time. Generally, humans make decisions about operations according to their experience, and this experience is gained from many instances of trial and error. Now, the trial-and-error learning of AI has become significantly superior to that of humans in terms of both number and speed. As a result, many systems can find operational strategies or answers much faster than humans can. This special issue features papers on robot hands, path planning, kinematics, and AI. Papers related to robot hands present an actuator using new principles, new movements, and the realization of the precise sense of the human hand. Papers related to path planning present path generation on the basis of CAD data, path generation using image processing, automatic path generation on the basis of environmental information, and the prediction of error and correction. Path generation using VR technology and error compensation using an AI technique are also presented. A paper related to kinematics presents the analysis and evaluation of a new mechanism with the aim of new applications in the field of machining. In closing, I would like to thank the authors, reviewers, and editors, without whose hard work and earnest cooperation this issue could not have been completed and presented.

An intra-industry trade model in a vertical differentiation framework

2013 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Ayşen Hiç Gencer ◽  
William P. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Vertical Differentiation ◽  
Industry Trade ◽  
Trade Model
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