Labor Market Segmentation in Urumqi,Xinjiang: Exposing Labor Market Segments and Testing the Relationship between Migration and Segmentation

Labor market segmentation and migration are two phenomena that are dramatically reshaping the spatial, economic, and social relationships of many urban cities in both developed and developing countries. To this point, the bulk of Chinese literature falls within the context of area studies, without much effort to link Chinese migration and emerging labor market outcomes to larger global trends and discourse. This research attempts to link the body of internal Chinese migration and emerging labor markets to labor market segmentation theory, primarily developed by urban economists and sociologists. My findings provide evidence that applying labor market segmentation theory to examine emerging markets in China offers fruitful results that help to identify the new urban stratification that exists in China. I employ a set of quantitative methods using employee‐level field data that I collected in Urumqi in 2008 to identify distinct segments within Urumqi's labor market and argue that migration is a major driver of labor market segmentation. Cluster analysis shows Uyghur minorities and women are found to be overwhelmingly concentrated in the lower sector, composed mostly of “bad” jobs. Discriminant analysis reveals that migrant status and ethnicity are the most important variables that deepen the gap among the labor market segments. The social inequality created as a result of market segmentation can partially explain Uyghur discontent in the region and the July 2009 riots, one of the worst riots in Xinjiang's modern history.     

Producer Services Development and the Role of Telecommunications: A Case Study in Rural Washington

Information-intensive producer services, which constitute one of the fastest growing components of the U.S. economy, have been identified as a potential contributor to economic development in rural areas. This issue is examined in a case study of a community in rural Washington State. The findings indicate that producer services have not been decentralizing to rural Washington, and that opportunities for producer services development in rural communities are limited because of the inaccessibility of markets, smaller pools of skilled labor, and the lack of agglomeration economies. Opportunities for producer services are greatest in large rural communities with high-quality telecommunications systems. Although the quality of telecommunications systems is important to the economic health of communities, advances in telecommunications can be a two-way street for rural America. While telecommunications improvements increase a rural community's access to information and make it possible for rural businesses to more easily serve non-local markets, they can also make it easier for firms located in urban areas to serve rural markets via branch offices or through the telecommunications system.     

Producer Services and Flexible Production: An Exploratory Analysis

While the flexible production literature has become increasingly abundant in recent years, the vast majority of it is narrowly restricted to manufacturing activities, entirely ignoring the role that producer services play in modern systems of production. This paper attempts to explore the conceptual linkages between the growth and the location of producer services, on the one hand, and the rise of flexible forms of production, on the other. After a brief summary of the flexible production approach, the factors underlying the growth and the increasing externalization of producer services are examined. The appropriateness of employing a flexible production framework in the case of producer services, and the significance of flexible production for understanding the location of producer services are then explored. Finally, the labor force effect of flexibility in the production and use of producer services is considered.     

Interregional Trade in Producer Services: Review and Synthesis

This paper reviews some of the past decade's studies of producer or intermediate-services exports from local regions. After a discussion of conceptual and methodological problems and inconsistencies, we present these studies according to the three basic methodologies: surveys, location quotients, and input-output. Overall, our sense is that these studies support limited but important conclusions: (1) If intermediate services are defined broadly, certain of these activities have as their major function interregional or international transfer or trade. By nature, these distributive services have widespread clients, and benefit from locations with substantial physical and communications infrastructure. (2) Among most business-and financial-service activities, most offices are established to serve a local region, but may derive some revenues from beyond this expected zone. (3) The exceptions—the activities and establishments that derive much of their revenue beyond such “normal” zones—are particularly specialized, particularly large, or parts of multiregional enterprises. (4) Such firms tend to locate in larger or more specialized urban places, probably because of the labor force, the corporate connections, and the rapid dissemination of ideas, contacts, and information within and among the largest metropolitan areas. These conclusions lead to some general policy recommendations.     

The Growth of Producer Services Industries: Sorting Through the Externalization Debate

The development of a theory for explaining why firms externalize producer services functions is critical to gaining a better understanding of why the producer services industries have enjoyed robust growth within the United States, Canada and the European Community. Scholars of the service economy have attempted to develop explanations for the externalization of producer services functions. These explanations constitute “the externalization debate” since there has been a lack of consistency and agreement as to how and why externalization is taking place. None of the explanations for externalization approach what could be termed a theory of producer services externalization, since they consist of empirical generalizations that are not deductively connected. This paper attempts to move one step toward the development of such a theory by constructing a more comprehensive and systematic conceptual approach to analyzing the extemalization of producer services functions. The motivating factors for externalization that are proposed in the externalization debate are systematically examined. The insights of the transaction cost and production subcontracting literatures are then discussed and the implications of these literatures for producer services externalization are examined. A synthesis of the insights provided by these research literatures is then used to develop a more comprehensive analytical framework for examining producer services extemalization.     

生产性服务的发展与都市农业社会化服务体系的构建

农业生产性服务是为农业生产过程提供专业化、社会化服务的一种中间服务,是经济发展到一定阶段而出现的新兴业态。在现有文献研究的基础上,从生产性服务的定义入手,论述了农业生产性服务与农业社会化服务、农业现代服务等概念之间区别,阐述了生产性服务与农业发展的互动关系,并结合都市农业的功能特征,说明了都市农业具备先行发展农业生产性服务的条件,提出了构建可持续发展的都市农业生产性服务体系的政策建议。     

Bank Restructuring and Access to Financial Services: The Spanish Case

The Spanish bank sector has restructured extensively since the crisis erupted in 2008 in an attempt to correct the imbalances accumulated during the preceding boom years. Thanks to this restructuring effort, Spain's branch network has been pared back by 32 percent, prompting questions about potential ramifications for the population's access to financial services. Against this backdrop, this paper quantifies, at the municipal level, the segment of the population without access to a bank branch in their home town between 2008 and 2015, paving the way for analysis of the impact of the restructuring effort. It also analyses the role played by the three kinds of deposit institutions in Spain in providing access to financial services via their branch networks. The results show that although the percentage of the Spanish population without access to a branch in their home town has risen, the increase has been small, albeit marked by significant differences from one province to the next. The savings banks (including the former cajas that have converted to banks) are still the most important financial institutions in terms of facilitating branch access to financial services.     

Local Labor Market Adjustment to Immigration: The Roles of Participation and the Short Run

ABSTRACT While previous research has generally found that immigration raises unemployment for natives, effects are often more muted than expected. Anticipated out‐migration responses have been similarly difficult to discern. However, these findings may be byproducts of the long‐run nature of most inquiries, which furthermore do not account for changes in natives’ labor force participation. In response, this study evaluates the impact of the arrival of low‐skilled immigrants on low‐skilled natives in urban areas over a five year period. Initial static results from the Census Basic Monthly Survey clearly indicate that immigrants have a significant negative impact on natives’ labor force participation. Building upon these static panel results, characteristics of immigrants’ destination choices are examined along with the ensuing adjustment process through dynamic analyses of local markets. Surges of immigrants significantly reduce the labor force participation of low‐skilled natives, emphasizing this often neglected channel for labor market adjustment. Previous work may thus understate the true impact of immigrants on local labor markets by focusing on the longer term and ignoring adjustments through participation.     

The Role of Pre‐Entry Experience of Firm Founders in Peripheral Regions: Routines,Business Contacts,and Local Starting Conditions

This paper investigates how spinoffs in peripheral regions can profit from the work experience of their founders. More specifically, it discusses which firm routines and business contacts entrepreneurs gather through their prior work experience, and how this experience influences the organizational structure and orientation of the newly founded firm. The transfer of capabilities from parent firm to spinoff has been identified as important aspect of industrial clustering, but empirical evidence from peripheral areas is still sparse. It compares 22 semi‐structured interviews with founders of manufacturing firms from different peripheral regions in Switzerland to investigate whether routine and network transfer differs in varying peripheral contexts. The results show that not only inherited routines are important, but also inherited business contacts. Further, instead of simply reproducing acquired routines and networks, founders employ a mixture of continuity and change to find a good trade‐off between relying on well‐proven practices and introducing novelty. Finally, the geographical proximity of inherited business contacts seems to have an influence on the implementation strategy founders choose. Entrepreneurs with strong inherited local business contacts do not have to invest as much in building up new business contacts as those entrepreneurs in more isolated locations.     

Impacts of IT Advances and E‐commerce on Transportation in Producer Services

ABSTRACT Producer services have been among the most rapidly growing industries, as measured by employment, in the United States and in Europe in recent decades. The production and delivery of these specialized forms of service industry work require the use of transportation and communications systems in a variety of ways, including the physical movement of people working in these industries, as well as the movement of the information related to the production and distribution of their work. Some of this work is performed in localized markets, requiring travel between clients and suppliers in local transportation modes, such as auto, bus, or other types of transportation. Other work is done by specialists who travel interregionally and globally to do their work, primarily traveling to their clients. There is little knowledge of how these production relationships have changed with the advent of the Internet and the widespread use of e‐mail in the business production process. Within the framework of this STELLA initiative, this paper outlines research needs in this area, and frames an approach that would produce badly needed knowledge about impacts on the producer services of the Internet and related e‐commerce initiatives on physical transportation systems at a local to interregional scale.     

The Labor Market Impacts of Post-school Occupational Training for Young Men

ABSTRACT The period 1966 to 1976 was a decade of change, contrast and challenge. In this article a model is developed and estimated contrasting the labor market experiences of young men who participated in post-school occupational training during this period with those young men who did not participate. Participation in post-school forms of occupational training is identified as a significant contributor to individual labor market success during the period and racial differences in returns to training participation are highlighted. The results prompt questions concerning the direction of current federal training policy.     

The Strange Case of the Missing West Virginia Labor Force

The rate of labor force participation in West Virginia is far below all other states. This study finds that little of the participation rate gap can be attributed to traditional economic or institutional factors. For example, the high long-term unemployment rate in West Virginia accounts for less than 10 percent of the adult male participation gap. Most of the difference is associated with a large Appalachian population, and a high rate of federal disability benefits receipt. The latter, which we argue reflects tastes for nonmarket activities, also is a major factor in low participation rates of West Virginia adult females and teenagers. Unemployment does explain a significant portion of low participation rates for these groups. However, we estimate that a decline in the state's long-term unemployment rate to the nation's average would raise its aggregate participation rate by 3.9 percentage points, or just 28 percent of the total gap. It appears that nonparticipating West Virginians are not just “discouraged workers,” and that economic development policies should explore ways to increase aggregate labor supply, as well as labor demand.     

Capacity Cost Allocation in the Provision of Urban Public Services: The Case of Gas Distribution

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the pattern of price discrimination and cross-subsidization that result from traditional gas distribution cost allocation procedures. A gas distribution capital cost function is developed, using the Box-Cox transformation and estimation procedure applied to a cross-section of 65 communities, and is used to assess the deviations between distribution marginal costs and actual cost allocations. The major conclusions are that current pricing practices produce an aggregate net subsidy to all combined customer classes, that both intra- and inter-class cross-subsidizations are occurring, with the commercial and small industrial markets as the major losers, and that the smaller communities tend to subsidize the larger ones. These results support a move away from current, company-level pricing practices towards locally differentiated pricing.     

The Spatial Organization of a Local Labor Market: Employment and Residential Patterns in a Cohort of Engineering and Scientific Workers

A case study of the local labor market for engineers and scientists at three Lockheed plants in the Los Angeles metropolitan area is presented. The specifications of a questionnaire survey are described and a detailed statistical profile of questionnaire respondents is laid out. It is shown that the local labor market is highly concentrated in geographical space and that both job shifts and residence shifts of sampled workers tend to be extremely localized within the urban area. It is suggested that local labor markets with features like these are a source of significant agglomeration economies for employers.     

Labor Market Dynamics During a Period of Structural Change: California inEarly 1990s

This paper contributes to the literature on labor market dynamics in four ways. First, unlike most of the existing literature, it uses the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). This panel survey, with a 32‐month window of observation, allows a more precise measure of employment flows than other data sources. It was found that one out of three workers experiences a job transition during the observation period. Second, it focuses on the state of California during an economic cycle. According to these estimates, the net decline in employment represents just 2.6 percent of all job rotations (separations offset by accessions), and gross job flows were as important during the downturn as they were during the economic expansion. Third, it estimates gross flows by sector, and finds significant variation in gross flows relative to employment across sectors of economic activity. Fourth, it examines the coexistence of cyclical and structural changes of California in the early 1990s. The results suggest a labor market link between structural changes and economic cycles.     

Measuring Smart Land Use in Urban–Rural Regions of China: A Case Study of Pukou,Nanjing City

This article expands the study of smart growth from urban space to urban–rural regions based on land use. It analyses smart land use in urban–rural regions. The study sets up an integrated measure indicator system of smart land use in urban–rural regions, which consisted of three subsystems: land amount controls, land form compactness, and land use efficiency. As a case study, the system was used to measure the smart land use in the Pukou District of Nanjing City, an area with intensive urbanization in the Yangtze River Delta of China. The results show that smart land use in the investigated area is increasing year by year, but it remains to be further improved. The integrated measure indicator system of smart land use in urban–rural regions is effective for measuring the level and status of regional smart land use.     

新媒体技术在农业批发市场公众号的应用——以山西高新农业技术市场为例

随着信息技术不断创新发展和移动终端的普及与应用,新型媒体的形态层出不穷,使得传播媒介的“粘合特性”更为凸显,行业媒介化营销是行业当下发展的重中之重。微信公众号作为新媒体时代的新型社交平台,具有宏大的受众群体和广泛影响力,逐步受到社会各界的普遍关注。通过深入探讨研究微信公众号实际应用现状,对农业技术市场宣传中的应用可行性进行分析,并以山西高新农业技术市场微信公众号为例,提出相关应用建议。     

Fusion Patterns of Urban Greenway and Tourism Resources in Cold Regions:A Case Study of Harbin City

Taking the greenway construction in Harbin City for example, this paper proposed the design method of integrating greenway and tourism resources, and used greenway to connect tourism resources.Moreover, the application of fusion design in greenway construction was explored from 3 perspectives,namely the fusion theory of tourism resource and greenway, fusion pattern, and fusion application,providing a new referential concept for the primary greenway construction in Harbin.