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We are witnessing that the labor market indicators of the Republic of Srpska have been deteriorating for years. Unemployment rates are up to three times higher than the already high European average, with no prospect of changing the situation in the near future. Deterioration in the labor market with respect to people younger than 30 years of age bears particular significance. There is a notable gap between the reduction of unemployment rate and the increase of employed people from this population group. The question is: Where (and whether) are the young (educated) people disappearing from the labor market of the Republic of Srpska? The authors provide an analysis of the main indicators of the Republic of Srpska’slabor market, with the aim of recognizing the main tendencies and problems existing at the market, as well as the need to define adequate measures for their resolution.

This paper extends the canonical, neoclassical investment‐based asset‐pricing model through the incorporation of intangible capital and the formulation of a joint productivity distribution with economic uncertainty shocks at the firm level. The distinctive evolutionary dynamics of intangible capital as opposed to that of physical capital mitigate the negative impact of temporary uncertainty shock on production and serve well to explain the value premium with modest assumptions. The value premium is unconditionally positive, but the realized value spread plummets to negative after major transient second‐moment shocks, for example, the Loma Prieta Earthquake and the 9/11 terrorist attack. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the marginal effects of temperature on the growth rate and variability in growth rate of total factor productivity (TFP) of a country, as measured by its production efficiency relative to a stochastic frontier. Using panel data for 168 countries for the period 1950–2014 to estimate a one-step stochastic frontier function, we find that temperature has a concave relationship with the growth rate of production efficiency and with the variability in this growth rate. We observe that hotter than the average temperature is not only detrimental to production efficiency growth but also makes the growth less stable than otherwise, and these effects are larger in very hot countries with average annual temperature greater than 25 °C. More importantly, we observe that the detrimental marginal effects of higher temperature depend on the level of economic development of a country; they are larger for poor countries relative to rich countries. Our findings have implications for the specification of climate damage functions in integrated assessment models and estimates of country-specific social cost of carbon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The GIPS countries, the southern European crisis countries, have seen depressed output dynamics and high unemployment rates during the great recession following the 2007–2008 financial crisis. This paper considers the effects of measures that seek to improve competitiveness by reducing real unit labour costs. The results are derived in structural vector autoregressive models for each of the GIPS counties as well as two reference countries, Germany and the Netherlands. The responses of output and unemployment to innovations in real unit labour costs are economically and statistically significant for Germany and the Netherlands, whereas the responses are typically muted and imprecise estimated for the GIPS countries. The small and uncertain effects raise doubts regarding the efficacy of measures that seek to lower real unit labour costs in the GIPS countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stability of Okun's law coefficient in the United States from 1949 to 2015 is examined using a regression with GARCH errors in order to capture the volatility of the series. Rolling estimations suggest that taking the volatility of the series into account yields more stable results compared to the simple OLS estimation, irrespective of the specification (gap or growth model), the data frequency (monthly or quarterly), or the length of the rolling window. The results also suggest that the persistence of shocks became much more important in explaining contemporaneous volatility when data from the recent global financial crisis were incorporated. In contrast, the feedthrough of output shocks in next period's output volatility was more important in the past, and especially during the 1970s stagflation period, but has been declining since. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structure and dynamics of knowledge are central to modern evolutionary economics. In the canonical evolutionary model, knowledge exists in the routines and competencies of firms, an approach optimized to study industrial dynamics. In mainstream economics however, knowledge is represented as human capital, an investment by workers in education and skills, an approach suited to the study of labor markets, education, jobs and careers. Evolutionary economics has little to say about this. We propose a new research program for evolutionary economics that develops an evolutionary theory of human capital by developing a meso perspective that represents human capital as a position on a network of knowledge, and economic evolution as a change in that network. Our new approach proposes an evolutionary model of the evolution of jobs and occupations as the evolving structure of that network and of a career as a path through that network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization has led countries to a strong interdependence among them, which is reflected in trade and capital flows. Simultaneously, in recent decades, the world is rapidly urbanizing. This dynamic has generated a process of economic growth with serious consequences for the environment, particularly in air quality. In this context, the objective of this research is to examine the causal link among carbon dioxide emissions per capita as a measure of air pollution, real per capita output, FDI, trade openness, and urbanization in 100 countries during 1980–2017. First, we used the cointegration test of Pedroni (JAMA 61:653–670, 1999) and Westerlund (JAMA 69:709–748, 2007) to find the equilibrium long and short term, respectively, and the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (JAMA 29:1450–1460, 2012) test to verify the direction of causality among the series. Second, we estimate the strength of the cointegration vector for individual countries through a dynamic ordinary least squares model (DOLS), and for country groups using a dynamic panel model with ordinary least squares (PDOLS). The results found indicate the existence of short- and long-term equilibrium among the variables globally and by groups of countries. The strength of the cointegration vector is strong in high and middle-high-income countries. At a global level, the results of the causality test suggest the existence of a unidirectional causal relationship that goes from output, urbanization, and FDI to air pollution, and a bidirectional relationship among trade and air pollution. These results are sensitive to the inclusion of the level of development of the countries. Our results suggest that the mechanisms to increase output, along with commercial and FDI flows, and urbanization are factors that play a relevant role in the determination of air pollution. Consequently, public policies should take these aspects into account in efforts to mitigate air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use the synthetic control method to estimate the macroeconomic losses from the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, one of the most severe natural disasters in the modern era. The macroeconomic effects of the earthquake were equal to an average loss of up to 12% of gross domestic product over the period 2010–2015. While surges in imports and foreign aid supported a temporary increase in aggregate consumption, aggregate investment and services sector output experienced large contractions. The road transport sector was severely affected. Impacts on electricity use have been less pronounced. The data suggest that macroeconomic losses may be permanent. The earthquake is thus a case of an extreme natural disaster contributing to divergence in development outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the field of evolutionary macroeconomics by highlighting the dynamic interlinkages between micro-meso-macro with a Veblenian meso foundation in an agent-based macroeconomic model. Consumption is dependent on endogenously changing social class and signaling, such as bandwagon, Veblen and snob effects. In particular, we test the macroeconomic effects of this meso foundation in a generic agent-based model of a closed artificial economy. The model is stock-flow consistent and builds upon local decision heuristics of heterogeneous agents characterized by bounded rationality and satisficing behavior. These agents include a multitude of households (workers and capitalists), firms, banks as well as a capital goods firm, a government and a central bank. Simulation experiments indicate co-evolutionary dynamics between signaling-by-consuming and firm specialization that eventually effect employment and consumer prices, as well as other macroeconomic aggregates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reconstructs China's economic development between 1840 and 1912 with an estimation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It provides for the first time a time series of GDP (per capita) for the late Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), based on sectoral output and value added, in current as well as in constant prices. The present estimation of per capita GDP in the late Qing period comes out higher than previous estimations, but it still suggests low average levels of Chinese living standards. The economy during the late Qing Empire was characterized by a large and growing agricultural sector and displayed only minor structural changes. Only in the beginning of the twentieth century did the economy start to show signs of growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Already classical economists took interest in the role of wages and wage formation mechanisms, as well as in their influence on other components of the labour market. This article aims to systematise contemporary approaches to wages as one of the labour market components that have been developed within major economic theories. The systemization will serve as a basis for identifying main interactions between wages and other labour market components, such as labour supply and demand and labour market disequilibrium. The article presents major concepts formulated within neo-classical and Keynesian theories, labour market segmentation theories, efficiency wage theory, rent-sharing and rent-extraction theories, theory of job search, and search-and-matching models. One of the conclusions arising from the discussion is that the evolution of contemporary labour markets is a challenge for researchers seeking wage formation models adequately describing the real-life circumstances.

The German food retail market is considered to be one of the most competitive markets worldwide. A narrow oligopoly of domestic retail chains dominates competition at the national and regional levels, driven mostly by price competition and extensive market coverage. As a result, market entrance for potential newcomers is highly restricted, even for such global players like Wal-Mart, which retreated in 2006 after nine years of substantial financial losses in Germany. There have been discernable attempts by the domestic incumbents to rebalance the traditional “task division”, affecting the range of customers choices as well as retail brands. However, within ten years the share of large retailers brands earnings in the total food retail market increased from 21.8 percent to 38.8 percent in 2012, as “house brands” optimized their assortment, increased their independence from main suppliers and squeezed out competitors. The empirical analysis presented below describes the role played by different retail brands in German food retail market as measured by their market power, and considers its political implications.

The existing literature often incorporates ad hoc models of exogenous real wage rigidity into search frictions models of the labour market in order to match the large volatility of unemployment observed in the data. In this paper, we develop an alternative version of the search frictions model that incorporates insights from behavioural economics. We derive a model in which endogenous real wage rigidity emerges from optimal wage-setting and show that this model can match the observed volatility of unemployment. Thus our proposed model can match the data as closely as the existing literature but without the disadvantage of assuming exogenous and ad hoc forms of real wage rigidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay evaluates the impacts of knowledge-based economy factors on the total factor productivity (TFP) of emerging economies (the countries known as emerging economies are Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Korea, South Africa, and Singapore) and compares them with G7 economies using panel data analysis during 1996-2013. The results indicate that the ratio of ICT capital stock to GDP and the ratio of foreign R&D capital stock to GDP have the greatest positive impact on TFP, respectively, in emerging economies. But the ratio of domestic R&D capital stock to GDP and the ratio of education costs to GDP in emerging economies comparing to the developed countries of G7 have a less influential impact on TFP. However, in these countries, we see the positive effect of foreign R&D stock through the acquisition of commercial partners’ technologies via imports and customizing them according to local needs and using this factor beside domestic R&D activities which provides a proper atmosphere for improvement of TFP and approaching a knowledge-based economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heinz D. Kurz liefert in diesem Beitrag eine kritische Würdigung von Karl Marx' Beitrag zur politischen Ökonomie. Marx war ein wissenschaftlicher und politischer Entrepreneur, sein Gewerbe die Disruption bestehender Verhältnisse in der politischen Ökonomie und in der Welt. Seine politischen Aktivitäten wollte er grundsätzlich wissenschaftsbasiert wissen. Sein Denken ist unter anderem geprägt durch Aristoteles' Vorstellung von der guten Gesellschaft und von der klassischen Doktrin der nichtintendierten Folgen menschlichen Tuns. Der unter dem Zwangsgesetz der Konkurrenz stehende Kapitalist bewirkt über Innovationen eine Steigerung der gesellschaftlichen Produktivkraft, bis die Probleme der Knappheit der Güter und ihrer Verteilung an Bedeutung verlieren und der Kapitalismus einer höheren Produktionsweise Platz machen muss. Das „Bewegungsgesetz" der modernen Gesellschaft findet Ausdruck im tendenziellen Fall der Profitrate. Heinz D. Kurz erörtert die Marxsche Wert- und Mehrwerttheorie sowie seine Theorie der endogenen ökonomischen Dynamik der kapitalistischen Produktionsweise. Er verweist außer auf die bedeutenden analytischen Funde von Marx auf dessen gravierende Irrtümer und Fehlurteile. Es besteht gleichwohl kein Zweifel: Marx war ein Großer unseres Faches, ein Sozialwissenschaftler von bleibendem Rang, ein Vorreiter auf zahlreichen Gebieten. Er teilt in außergewöhnlichem Maß das Schicksal anderer Großer, nicht verstanden, fehlinterpretiert und politisch missbraucht zu werden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: How do product variety and quality affect the aggregate price bias? We develop a general equilibrium model that accounts for the joint interaction of product quality and variety. Our findings show that the aggregate price bias is procyclical and the contribution of product variety is persistent whereas the contribution of product quality becomes countercyclical in the medium to long run. We show that accounting for product quality and variety has critical implications on the measure of cyclical fluctuations. Measurements of cyclical fluctuations derived using the consumption deflator, which abstracts from changes in product quality and variety, underestimate the variables' true volatility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a new measure of total factor productivity (TFP) that also takes into account the effect of biased technological change. With this methodology, we can distinguish the effects resulting from the introduction of neutral or biased technological change onTFP, called neutral factor productivity and biased factor productivity (BFP), respectively. The new measure ofTFPalso holds in extreme cases where only the effect of neutral/biased technological change is presented. In particular, theBFPcomponent increases (decreases) when the productivity of the cheaper (more expensive) factor increases. Moreover, theTFPholds up to the modification of both units of measure and to the costs of factors. Finally, the intensity of theBFPis independent of the direction of the technological change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing efficiency and productivity should be at the core of the policy agendas of all governments. Knowing whether or not OECD economies optimize their resources in production is, therefore, an important policy issue. The purpose of this paper was to make cross-country comparisons of production efficiency, and its determinants, using mainly a parametric approach. Our proposed model was a stochastic frontier version of Battese and Coelli’s (1995) which includes both a stochastic error term and a term that can be characterized as inefficiency. The non-negative technical inefficiency effects are assumed to be a function of explanatory variables. The empirical analysis of macroeconomic performance done in this paper confirmed that OECD countries with a greater sophistication of their production processes and a higher capacity for innovation tend to be less inefficient Alternative non-parametric methods for evaluating the impact of process/contextual variables on efficiency also corroborated that business sophistication and innovation contribute to efficiency improvements across OECD countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]