workforce

Using a new sectoral panel for 60 countries and a methodology suitable for such a panel, the authors find that job security regulation clearly hampers the creative-destruction process, especially in countries where regulations are likely to be enforced.

This paper carries out four empirical illustrations of the potential magnitude of the “ghost country” problem, in which countries boom and then shrink to a fraction of their former population, by showing that the “desired population” of any given geographic region varies substantially. Its calculations suggest that even with “globalization” and complete “policy reform” there will remain substantial pressures for labor mobility

This paper reviews literature on the types of skills utilised by firms, the mechanisms by which skills contribute to firm productivity, and how skills are acquired. It identifies potential policy implications relating to work based skills training.

This study explores the information and communications technology industries and science-based industries of Canadas knowledge economy.

Using a conditional change score design to examine the
effects of seven major high technology policies on the change in high technology industry employment in metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) between 1988 and 1998, the authors find that two programs--technology grant and loan programs, and technology research parks--have direct effects net of controls for location and agglomeration factors.

The recent media and political attention on service outsourcing from developed to developing countries gives the impression that outsourcing is exploding. As a result, workers in industrial countries are anxious about job losses. This paper aims to establish what are the hypes and what are the facts. The results show that although service outsourcing has been steadily increasing it is still very low, and that in the United States and many other industrial countries "insourcing" is greater than outsourcing.

This paper draws on the ICT Professionals Survey (carried out between December 2000-February 2001) and matching post-survey financial data to examine the determinants of ICT-related ‘internal skill gaps’ and their impact on company sales performance.

This paper uses data from the 1998 Technical Graduates Employers Survey, combined with post-survey financial data, to examine the effects of high-level skill shortages on firm-level performance in the UK. Cross-sectional and panel regression analysis of the determinants of sales per employee at firm level suggests that quality-related difficulties in recruiting ICTskilled engineers and scientists do not have any statistically significant effects on performance.

Are public sector workers in Ireland paid more than private sector employees, when such differences in productivity-related personal attributes and job characteristics are controlled for? The authors estimate that in 2001 the premium enjoyed by public servants was about 13 per cent.

This paper estimates the agglomeration benefits that arise from vertical linkages between firms in the context of Indonesia. The analysis is based on international trade and economic geography theory developed by Krugman and Venables (1995).