Employment mobility in high-technology agglomerations: the cases of Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire

This paper examines labour market behaviour of the highly skilled in high-tech local economies, taking the UK examples of Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire as case studies. It reports on data from a survey of members of three scientific institutes to compare rates of employee mobility in the two locations and considers the likely explanations and implications of those patterns.     

城市更新过程中流动人口居住-就业变动的协同机制研究——以北京为例

城市更新过程中流动人口面临居住与就业的不稳定.本文构建流动人口居住与就业协同变动的理论分析框架,使用北京大样本问卷调研数据,基于双层级双变量离散选择模型,分析城市更新背景下流动人口居住-就业变动协同性及其与背景环境的关系.结果发现:流动人口的居住/就业变动概率远高于本地人口,城市更新对流动人口居住和就业的不稳定性影响更...     

From economic integration to socioeconomic inclusion: day labor worker centers as social intermediaries

Day labor worker centers have emerged as an important mode of regulatory action in the informal economy of major US cities. Research suggests that these organizations are beneficial in improving employment outcomes experienced by migrant workers engaged in this labor market sector. Yet, the extent to which these organizations impact the social integration of this working population remains relatively undeveloped in the literature. Using data from the National Day Labor Survey, we examine the impact of day labor worker centers on the level of social inclusion experienced by migrant day laborers. We find that worker centers have a modest, but statistically significant, impact on the levels of social integration experienced by this working population and that this varies from city to city. Ultimately we argue that the social intermediary role of these organizations may offer a type of counter mobilization necessary to promote the socioeconomic integration of this working population, but that issues of capacity remain.     

GDP and employment effects of policies to close the 2020 emissions gap

Four policies might close the gap between the global GHG emissions expected for 2020 on the basis of current (2013) policies and the reduced emissions that will be needed if the long-term global temperature increase can be kept below the 2 °C internationally agreed limit. The four policies are (1) specific energy efficiency measures, (2) closure of the least-efficient coal-fired power plants, (3) minimizing methane emissions from upstream oil and gas production, and (4) accelerating the (partial) phase-out of subsidies to fossil-fuel consumption. In this article we test the hypothesis of the International Energy Agency (IEA) that these policies will not result in a loss of gross domestic product (GDP) and we estimate their employment effects using the E3MG global macro-econometric model. Using a set of scenarios we assess each policy individually and then consider the outcomes if all four policies were implemented simultaneously. We find that the policies are insufficient to close the emissions gap, with an overall emission reduction that is 30% less than that found by the IEA. World GDP is 0.5% higher in 2020, with about 6 million net jobs created by 2020 and unemployment reduced.

Policy relevance

The gap between GHG emissions expected under the Copenhagen and Cancun Agreements and that needed for emissions trajectories to have a reasonable chance of reaching the 2 °C target requires additional policies if it is to be closed. This article uses a global simulation model E3MG to analyse a set of policies proposed by the IEA to close the gap and assesses their macroeconomic effects as well as their feasibility in closing the gap. It complements the IEA assessment by estimating the GDP and employment implications separately by the different policies year by year to 2020, by major industries, and by 21 world regions.     

Environmental change and the informal plastic recycling networks of Kolkata

This article introduces plastic recycling networks in Kolkata, India, as a case to illustrate the contradictory entanglement of economic and environmental change in urban informal contexts of the Global South. In light of the prevailing environmental critique of informal plastic recycling in India, this article discusses plastic recyclers’ environmental impact and contribution as well as the potential to enhance the environmental and economic performance of their business. Network and chain approaches in the emerging field of Environmental Economic Geography are combined with the notion of social metabolism to conceptualize the entanglement of environmental and economic processes as well as socio-environmental inequalities entailed in recycling networks. The analysis reveals the impact that the heterogeneity and fluctuation of plastic waste supply has on the economic organization of recycling networks, giving rise to distinct forms of governance in its intermediate and down-stream segments. Such an integrated perspective also serves to explain why environmental upgrading is hard to achieve under prevailing circumstances by plastic recyclers in Kolkata. Based on an assessment of the social and political conditions of informality under which plastic recyclers operate, the adoption of common assumptions about ecological modernization imbuing parts of Environmental Economic Geography is called into question.     

农户的非农就业如何影响中国的土地流转?

To clarify the impact of non-agricultural employment on rural land circulation in China,we built logit models using the Chinese Household Income Project 2013 dataset,which includes 18,948 household samples over 15 provinces,126 cities and 234 counties of China in 2013.We use the proportion of non-agricultural income,the proportion of non-agricultural laborers and non-agricultural fixed operating assets to reflect the degree of the households’dependence on agriculture,the degree of the households’laborers committed to non-agricultural employment and the stability of non-agricultural employment,respectively.The results show that the stability of non-agricultural employment is an important reason for farmers to transfer out their land,and an increase in non-agricultural income is the fundamental reason.The proportion of non-agricultural assets has the greatest impact on the decision to transfer land,followed by the proportion of non-agricultural income.Per unit increase in the non-agricultural income ratio has a stronger effect on the transfer-out decision than it does on the transfer-in decision,which is a 0.09 increase of the probability of transfer-out the land and a 0.07 decrease of the probability of transfer-in the land.In terms of regional differences,when considering the impact of non-agricultural employment on the land transfer-out decision,the impacts of non-agricultural income and labor force are the greatest in the Central region.The impact of non-agricultural assets is the greatest in the Eastern region.For the Eastern region,the decision to transfer out land is mainly affected by non-agricultural assets and the non-agricultural labor force,and the decision to transfer in land is mainly affected by non-agricultural assets.In the Central and Western regions,the decision to transfer out land is mainly affected by non-agricultural assets,non-agricultural income and the non-agricultural labor force,in that order.The decision to transfer in land in the Central region is not significantly affected by non-agricultural employment.The decision to transfer in land in the Western region is mainly affected by non-agricultural assets,non-agricultural labor force and non-agricultural income,in that order.We note that non-agricultural assets have a prominent impact on land transfer,which shows that the stability of non-agricultural employment has an important impact on land transfer decision-making.Vocational training for rural labor forces may be an effective means to promote stable non-agricultural employment and simultaneously facilitate rural land circulation,especially in Central and Western China.     

江汉平原农地城市流转与经济发展阶段的耦合关系

分析江汉平原2000—2004年农地城市流转时空特征,根据农地城市流转的综合变动系数,将江汉平原农地城市流转类型划分为剧变型、缓变型、相对稳定型和稳定型,并研究农地城市流转类型与经济发展阶段的关系,结果表明:在不同的经济发展阶段,农地城市流转类型也不同;在相同的经济发展阶段,如果产业结构和就业结构不同,农地城市流转类型也不同;各市、县的产业非农化、就业非农化及农地城市流转耦合系数与农地城市流转综合变动系数具有较高的一致性,这对判断农地城市流转类型具有参考作用。     

The Role of Residential Location in Conditioning the Effect of Metropolitan Economic Structure on Male Youth Employment

Youths have increasingly experienced labor market problems over the last several decades. One fruitful line of explanation focuses on structural changes in the demand for labor stemming from deindustrialization, changing skill requirements for employees, and increasing supply competition from women and recent immigrants. While these explanations merit attention, they have not adequately considered facts that condition their impact. This paper considers the argument that intra-metropolitan residential location conditions the effects of metropolitan labor market structure on black and white male youths' employment probabilities. Using a sample of individual-level data drawn from the 1990 census combined with metropolitan-level indicators of economic structure, it was found that some structural effects varied between central-city and suburban male youths. The conditioning role of residential location, and the subsequent nature of the structural effects, varied considerably between black and white male youths. Interpretations of the conditioning role of residential location include a variety of social and institutional effects on individual residents and the stigmatizing effects of some neighborhoods, especially on black male youths.     

Image Sources for Informal Settlement Management

Informal settlements are a common feature of developing countries. In South Africa the improvement of living conditions in these settlements and the upgrading to formal housing types are regarded as being of central importance to the nation's development. Effective settlement improvement and upgrading activities, which we here term "management", require adequate spatial data. To date, the acquisition of spatial models of informal settlements has been based on conventional mapping techniques, and mostly on photogrammetry. Data are compiled using analogue or analytical methods. These are manual and hence require both considerable expertise and expensive equipment. Moreover, these methods are uneconomical over the often relatively small, densely populated areas covered by informal settlements and are also too expensive to employ with a regularity required to support such tasks as change detection. Alternative imaging sources and mapping techniques are therefore needed.
In this article we examine the problem of spatial information acquisition for informal settlement management from three perspectives: spatial information requirements, the role which imagery can play in satisfying these spatial information requirements, and effective imaging options. We focus on the potential of high resolution satellite imaging, small format digital aerial imagery and digital multispectral video systems for rapid mapping. We also discuss the example of automated shack extraction from aerial imagery.     

残障人士在景区就业有可能性吗？

为探索残障人士在旅游景区就业的可能性,应用刻板印象研究中的BIAS Map（Behaviors from Intergroup Affect and Stereotypes Map）模型,基于对多个景区游客的问卷调查,运用方差分析和线性回归,剖析游客对旅游景区残障员工的态度及群际接触因素对游客态度的影响。研究表明,从游客态度角度看,残障人士在旅游景区工作有其可能性。其原因是：游客对旅游景区雇佣的残障员工总体上持高热情、低能力的刻板印象,会唤醒游客对残障员工的钦佩情绪及采取被动助长残障员工的行为;在排除人口统计特征的影响下,接受过残障人士的服务、与残障人士高频率接触会显著唤醒游客对残障员工的积极情绪。建议强化地方政府在促进残障人士就业过程中的主导作用,倡导景区雇佣残障人士,重视“全国助残日”等节日契机,促进公众与残障群体多方式、高频率的接触,从而减少社会偏见,构建和谐社会。