Labor Mobility, Structural Change and Economic Growth

Labor Mobility, Structural Change and Economic Growth
Author: Jaime Alonso-Carrera
Publisher:
Total Pages: 38
Release: 2015
Genre:
ISBN:

This paper develops a two-sector growth model in which the process of structural change in the sectoral composition of employment and GDP is jointly determined by non-homothetic preferences and labor mobility cost. This cost, paid by workers moving to another sector, limits structural change. Our model can explain the following patterns of development of the US economy throughout the period 1880-2000: (i) balanced growth of the aggregate variables in the second half of the last century; (ii) structural change in the sectoral composition of employment between agriculture and non-agriculture sectors; (iii) structural change process in the sectoral composition of GDP between these sectors; and (iv) wage convergence between the two sectors. We outline that the last two patterns can only be explained if labor mobility cost is introduced. Results reveal that mobility cost generates a misallocation of production factors. This implies a loss of GDP which amounts to over 30% of the GDP throughout initial periods according to the calibrated model. During the transition, the loss of GDP decreases and eventually vanishes. Thus, the elimination of the misallocation explains part of the increase in the GDP. Additionally, this study points out that misallocation introduces a mechanism through which cross-country differences in sectoral composition may account for cross-country income differences.

Growth, Employment and Migration in Southeast Asia

Growth, Employment and Migration in Southeast Asia
Author: Prema-chandra Athukorala
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2000
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

This comparative analysis of growth, structural change and labour market dynamics in the Greater Mekong countries (Yunnan Province in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar) of Southeast Asia is the first of its kind. It explores economic integration and cooperation, the possibilities for improving the functioning of labour markets and facilitating mutually beneficial labour flows in the region. The book begins with a comparative overview of policy reforms, economic performance and structural changes, focusing on economic relations in the Greater Mekong countries. It then examines the salient features of labour market structures and policies, patterns of cross-border migration, and information systems, paying attention to the similarities and differences between countries. It is especially timely in the context of economic transition from socialist systems in the three Indochina countries, the ongoing policy reforms in Yunnan Province and Myanmar, and in light of the Asian financial crisis in shaping growth trends. The analysis yields policy recommendations for improvement in labour market performance. The book will be of great interest to development and labour economists and those working in the field of Asian studies, as well as to policymakers.

Growth and Structural Transformation

Growth and Structural Transformation
Author: Kwang Suk Kim
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2020-03-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1684172195

This study provides a comprehensive overview of Korea’s macroeconomic growth and structural change since World War II, and traces some of the roots of development to the colonial period. The authors explore in detail colonial development, changing national income patterns, relative price shifts, sources of aggregate growth, and sources of sectoral structural change, comparing them with other countries.

Migration, Unemployment and Trade

Migration, Unemployment and Trade
Author: Bharat R. Hazari
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2013-03-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1475733798

Migration, Unemployment and Trade focuses on the issues of migration, welfare and unemployment in a trade and development framework. Several chapters of the book analyze the implications of internal labor mobility in a model designed to highlight its implications for regional welfare, urban unemployment, rural-urban dichotomy and structural adjustment. An important innovation in this work is the disaggregation of the economy and the use of separate utility functions to highlight non-homogeneity of preferences. The book also deals with international mobility of factors in different frameworks. In particular it concentrates on the highly emotive issue of legal and illegal migration. Thus this work incorporates interesting and important features of labor economics and factor mobility into trade and distortion theory.

Economic Crisis Accelerates Urban Structural Change Via Inter-sectoral Labour Mobility

Economic Crisis Accelerates Urban Structural Change Via Inter-sectoral Labour Mobility
Author: Daniel Straulino
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2022
Genre:
ISBN:

Are recessions drivers of structural change? Here we investigate the resilience of cities, and argue that a re-allocation of labour between industrial sectors in times of crisis induces an acceleration in structural change. Using UK data, we find that cities experienced a sharp increase in inter-sectoral job transitions, and that local employment in skill-related sectors is most strongly associated with employment growth, during the recession, which we identify with the period of employment contraction between 2008 and 2011. This coincides with a massive but short-lived increase in the rate of structural change (i.e. the total change in employment shares of different industries) around 2009. These findings suggest that cities with skill-related sectors re-allocate workers in a crisis, thus inducing structural change.

Labor Mobility and the World Economy

Labor Mobility and the World Economy
Author: Federico Foders
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2011-09-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3540310452

An increasing number of landings of illegal migrants on the coast of Italy and Spain, but also the recent riots, car-burnings, and street battles that occurred all across France and that have been attributed to the migrant community, seem to indicate that migration is likely to stay high on the European policy agenda for some time. The flow of migrants from poor to rich countries does not, however, constitute a typically European problem. V. S. public policy has also been facing a continued (legal and illegal) inflow of labor from different regions, notably Mexico and other Latin American countries. And similar developments in other advanced countries (Australia, Canada) as weil as in selected fast-growing emerging markets in Eastern Europe and East Asia imply that these countries too are being compelled to adjust their public policies in order to relieve migratory pressures and deal with their consequences. The world economy already saw rising cross-border labor flows in the 1990s and most forecasts predict that South-North and South-South migration will re main at relatively high levels over the next decades and possibly even turn into a major global challenge for policy makers in the 21st century.

The Labor Market and Economic Adjustment

The Labor Market and Economic Adjustment
Author: Pierre-Richard Agénor
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 98
Release: 1995-11-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1451854781

This paper examines the role of the labor market in the transmission process of adjustment policies in developing countries. It begins by reviewing the recent evidence regarding the functioning of these markets. It then studies the implications of wage inertia, nominal contracts, labor market segmentation, and impediments to labor mobility for stabilization policies. The effect of labor market reforms on economic flexibility and the channels through which labor market imperfections alter the effects of structural adjustment measures are discussed next. The last part of the paper identifies a variety of issues that may require further investigation, such as the link between changes in relative wages and the distributional effects of adjustment policies.

Structural Transformation and the Agricultural Wage Gap

Structural Transformation and the Agricultural Wage Gap
Author: Jorge Alvarez
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 53
Release: 2017-12-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1484335449

A key feature of developing economies is that wages in agriculture are significantly below those of other sectors. Using Brazilian household surveys and administrative panel data, I use information on workers who switch sectors to decompose the drivers of this gap. I find that most of the gap is explained by differences in worker composition. The evidence speaks against the existence of large short-term gains from reallocating workers out of agriculture and favors recently proposed Roy models of inter-sector sorting. A calibrated sorting model of structural transformation can account for the wage gap level observed and its decline as the economy transitioned out of agriculture.

Let Their People Come

Let Their People Come
Author: Lant Pritchett
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 116
Release: 2006-09-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1944691065

In Let Their People Come, Lant Pritchett discusses five "irresistible forces" of global labor migration, and the "immovable ideas" that form a political backlash against it. Increasing wage gaps, different demographic futures, "everything but labor" globalization, and the continued employment growth in low skilled, labor intensive industries all contribute to the forces compelling labor to migrate across national borders. Pritchett analyzes the fifth irresistible force of "ghosts and zombies," or the rapid and massive shifts in desired populations of countries, and says that this aspect has been neglected in the discussion of global labor mobility. Let Their People Come provides six policy recommendations for unskilled immigration policy that seek to reconcile the irresistible force of migration with the immovable ideas in rich countries that keep this force in check. In clear, accessible prose, this volume explores ways to regulate migration flows so that they are a benefit to both the global North and global South.