Human Capital and the Size Distribution of Firms Countries that have relatively fewer workers with a secondary education have smaller firms. The shortage of skilled workers limits the growth of more productive firms. Two factors influence the availability of skilled workers: i) the education level of the workforce and ii) large public sectors that predominantly hire individuals with a better ed...

This paper analyzes the determinants of the welfare state. In a model that integrates majority voting and lobbying by interest groups, we show how the bargaining power of the unskilled and the skilled workers’ lobby affects the size of the welfare state: The more influential the union representing the unskilled, the greater the extent of redistribution. On the other hand, the presence of depend...

New automation technologies affect workers in a heterogeneous manner according to their demographic characteristics, skills, and the tasks they perform. In this paper we study effects of on labor market outcomes developing country, Chile. We focus our analysis impacts across cohorts. Does young differently than older workers? Do tend perform routine tasks? Are occupations more exposed negative ...

This paper compares characteristics of the nursing workforce in Canada and Australia and provides insights into reasons why the shortage of nurses is more critical today than ever before. Workplace issues are discussed in a global context. Factors that affect retention and recruitment are described. Factors that make the current shortage more serious and different than at other times are also p...

China experienced a sharp increase in wage inequality between unskilled and skilled workers in the late 1990s. Using a sample of 1,500 firms in five Chinese cities with available data for 1998 and 2000, we investigate the role of technology and foreign trade in determining China’s wage inequality. We find evidence that conditional on the technology deployed, trade reduces wage inequality in exp...

This paper analyses the impact of immigration on the welfare of the native population in an economy that consists of skilled and unskilled workers. Due to unionisation, the wage rate in the market for unskilled labour is above the competitive level. For a given skill endowment of the native population, we show that immigration reduces the welfare of the host country up to a certain threshold an...

The term "inner city" has come to be synonymous with severe social deprivation with characteristics such as a high density of population, a high concentration of unskilled workers, high levels of unemployment and poor housing. These factors are all present to a greater or lesser extent in our area. Many inner cities also have problems due to a high percentage of people from ethnic minorities. I...

South Africa simultaneously lost more than 890,000 jobs and increased the number of skilled workers from 1989 to 1999. We argue this is the consequence of well-documented acute apartheidera distortions which led to a current coordination failure where (i) firms are locked into a mostly skill-intensive technology where they have very little demand for semi-skilled and unskilled labor, and (ii) t...

As cities grow, they add jobs and services, becoming more complex economically as well as physically. The need for new jobs places huge demands on cities that are struggling to provide the public services that growth demands, often in the face of existing unemployment. In the developing world, many of the new jobs needed are for unskilled and relatively uneducated workers, both migrants and tho...