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The presence of cycles characterizes all economic systems, but economic cycles have differentiated spatial impacts. Some regions have broader cycles with respect to the country, while others tend to be less responsive to shocks and hence have narrower cycles. Being exposed to broader cycles, that is, greater volatility, may increase the strain on a regional economic system. This paper investigates the different responsiveness to cyclical forces and volatility of regions in the long run. It does so by using quarterly employment data for the Nuts2 Italian regions over almost 40 years before and during the period 1978–2016. Explored in particular are the cross‐regional variations in employment volatility and the reasons for the patterns observed, as well as whether they have changed the following different macroeconomic policy regimes. The paper identifies the break dates of different regimes, and these regime changes will be related to policy modifications, such as the implementation of the European Monetary Union. The determinants of this regional volatility appear to be quite stable, so that the changes in volatility are explained by how these determinants have changed overtime and how they are unevenly distributed in space. In particular, the lagging regions of the country suffer, in addition to lower production and income, from higher volatility due to a structure which is weaker and more unstable. Volatility can hence be an additional issue for lagging regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the consequences of international factor movements on the skilled–unskilled wage inequality in a dual-economy set-up that includes unemployment and three intersectorally mobile factors of production—unskilled labor, skilled labor, and capital. Thus far, theoretical literature on this subject has adopted the full-employment framework and hence ignored the problem of unemployment. The analysis in this paper reveals that the results crucially depend on the difference in the intersectoral factor intensities between skilled labor and capital. In particular, it demonstrates the existence of a possibility of deterioration in wage inequality following foreign unskilled-labor inflow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is common in empirical regional economics to use total employment as an explanatory variable while investigating issues such as the level and distribution of income and migration. This paper argues that sector-specific changes in employment and labor market performance can have different effects on economic growth, the collection of tax revenue, migration, and the level and distribution of household income. As such, it is important to model sectors separately. We find that expansions in employment opportunities for a high-wage sector such as computer manufacturing or bioengineering, a medium-wage sector manufacturing, and the lower-wage sector of retailing have differing economic consequences for a small city. We use a data intensive computable general equilibrium model to obtain these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the views of economist Michal Kalecki on the economics of socialism. Kalecki asserts that full employment in a socialist system is maintained through the reduction of prices in relation to costs, whereas in the capitalist system, the price-cost relationship is maintained and profits fall by the same amount as investment plus capitalists' consumption through the reduction in output and employment. The two social systems differ in the way they react to a fall in the propensity to invest. The author simplified the principle by stating that one reacts by adjusting output and employment to a given pattern of income distribution between wages and profits, and the other by adjusting income distribution to the capacity level of output and employment.

The wage and employment effects of offshoring roil politics in the United States and around the world. Firms that offshore either outsource their activities to unaffiliated businesses, or internalize production by establishing subsidiaries from which they import intrafirm. We argue that the political environment in trade partner countries influences U.S. offshoring patterns in ways that have been ignored in the extant literature. Drawing on the political business cycle literature, we expect higher production costs and lower profits for firms in capital (labor) intensive sectors when the Left (Right) is in power. These partisan cycles, in turn, shape the sectoral composition of exports from the partner to the United States, and the degree to which trade is conducted intrafirm. Under a Left- (Right-) leaning government in a partner country, U.S. intrafirm imports of capital- (labor-) goods increase relative to total imports in these industries. Examining highly disaggregated U.S. import data, we find strong support for our argument. Our results indicate that the effect of partisan governments on offshore outsourcing depends on factor intensities of production, which vary across industries. The degree of internalization in global sourcing is shaped in part by the distributional objectives of partisan governments, and not by economic factors alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than two and a half million rural young people have bad to be assisted in some way by the Federal Government since 1933. This situation is the result of long-time trends which were brought into bold relief by the depression. In the past rural youth escaped from the effects of these trends by either migrating to new lands or to the cities. New lands are now no longer available and the cities are unable to absorb as many rural youth as formerly. The result is a "piling up" of youth in rural territory. The educational and work programs of both the National Youth Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps have supplemented the schools and the economic system. Through these programs the Federal Government has admitted its responsibility for removing the economic barrier to education on the high school level and above for youth in low income families, as well as the responsibility to provide vocational training, work experience, and wages to youth from relief families who are unable to obtain employment. The governments obligation to its citizens in the field of recreation received an impetus during the years since the initiation of the emergency programs. A responsibility to youth not yet discharged adequately by the government is the presentation of facts for discussion of present-day problems and government. There is a demand among rural youth for such discussions. Requisites to proper discharge of the governments responsibility to youth in any area of activity are: Adequate facts including uniform data gathered periodically, upon which to base policies and a body of public opinion sanctioning the assumption of responsibilities to youth expressed through the elected representatives of the people in Congress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]