A cost-benefit approach to labor market reform

Labor reforms in Latin America have been scarce compared with the pace of structural reforms aimed at liberalizing product and capital markets. Some analysts contend that without continued liberalization labor market performance will fail to improve, hindering Latin American economies’ ability to compete in international markets. ; This article assesses labor market regulations in Latin America, documents their recent history, and assesses their costs and benefits. The author argues that existing regulatory systems, while generating costs in terms of labor market performance, constitute the base (albeit imperfect) of social protection policies in Latin America. ; Compared with industrialized countries, Latin American countries have more protective labor regulations governing working conditions and job security but lower social security benefits. Evidence from the existing literature points to sizable negative effects of mandatory benefits, particularly social security contributions, on employment. Job security provisions tend to bias employment toward prime-age workers and away from younger and less skilled workers. ; Since the demand for social protection in Latin America appears to be large, the author argues that reforms that seek only labor market deregulation do not address this demand. It is tempting to conclude that the solution lies in designing and implementing less costly social protection mechanisms, but the alternatives are not exempt from costs and are not warranted to improve upon existing systems. In these circumstances, the author recommends a mix of research, policy experimentation, and policy evaluation to find solutions that maximize benefits while minimizing costs.Economic stabilization ; Labor market

Visualising product-service system business models

Copyright © 2014. Copyright in each paper in this conference’s proceedings is the property of the author(s). Permission is granted to reproduce copies of these works for purposes relevant to the above conference, provided that the author(s), source and copyright notice are included on each copy. For other uses, including extended quotation, please contact the author(s).The paper addresses the issue of how to visualise innovative business models at various stages of the design and development process. The focus is on a particular type of business model, defined Product-Service Systems (PSSs), characterised by an integrated product-service offering, but can be generalised to other business model innovations. The paper presents a visualisation system based on a formalised business model ontology and a set of visualisation tools, and discusses how it can be used to enhance internal and external communication and improve dialogue and co-design activities inside the company and with external stakeholders

Author Index

Contains an index of authors

Author Index

Contains an index of authors

Author Index

Contains an index of authors

Oceanographic drivers of deep-sea coral species distribution and community assembly on seamounts, islands, atolls, and reefs within the Phoenix Islands Protected Area

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Auscavitch, S. R., Deere, M. C., Keller, A. G., Rotjan, R. D., Shank, T. M., & Cordes, E. E. Oceanographic drivers of deep-sea coral species distribution and community assembly on seamounts, islands, atolls, and reefs within the Phoenix Islands Protected Area. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7, (2020): 42, doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.00042.The Phoenix Islands Protected Area, in the central Pacific waters of the Republic of Kiribati, is a model for large marine protected area (MPA) development and maintenance, but baseline records of the protected biodiversity in its largest environment, the deep sea (>200 m), have not yet been determined. In general, the equatorial central Pacific lacks biogeographic perspective on deep-sea benthic communities compared to more well-studied regions of the North and South Pacific Ocean. In 2017, explorations by the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer and R/V Falkor were among the first to document the diversity and distribution of deep-water benthic megafauna on numerous seamounts, islands, shallow coral reef banks, and atolls in the region. Here, we present baseline deep-sea coral species distribution and community assembly patterns within the Scleractinia, Octocorallia, Antipatharia, and Zoantharia with respect to different seafloor features and abiotic environmental variables across bathyal depths (200–2500 m). Remotely operated vehicle (ROV) transects were performed on 17 features throughout the Phoenix Islands and Tokelau Ridge Seamounts resulting in the observation of 12,828 deep-water corals and 167 identifiable morphospecies. Anthozoan assemblages were largely octocoral-dominated consisting of 78% of all observations with seamounts having a greater number of observed morphospecies compared to other feature types. Overlying water masses were observed to have significant effects on community assembly across bathyal depths. Revised species inventories further suggest that the protected area it is an area of biogeographic overlap for Pacific deep-water corals, containing species observed across bathyal provinces in the North Pacific, Southwest Pacific, and Western Pacific. These results underscore significant geographic and environmental complexity associated with deep-sea coral communities that remain in under-characterized in the equatorial central Pacific, but also highlight the additional efforts that need to be brought forth to effectively establish baseline ecological metrics in data deficient bathyal provinces.Funding for this work was provided by NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (Grant No. NA17OAR0110083) to RR, EC, TS, and David Gruber

Employment growth and labor force participation: how many jobs are enough?

Public concerns about the “jobless” recovery following the 2001 recession have centered on whether enough jobs will be created for those who want to work. A more pressing question, however, may be how many jobs are needed to sustain desired growth in overall economic output. ; This article provides an analysis of just how many jobs are needed to keep unemployment in check and considers whether the current rate of job creation is enough to fuel optimal gross domestic product growth. The author examines the decline in the labor force participation rate that has occurred since the late 1990s. Part of the decline in the rate is likely a response to fewer job opportunities as a result of the recession. She also notes, however, that the decline suggests other, noncyclical factors may be at play and are likely to be compounded by baby boomers entering retirement age. The author discusses the pros and cons of some options for increasing the flow of workers into the labor force, including raising the retirement age, increasing immigration, and offshore outsourcing. ; While the current rate of job creation should be able to sustain the expected labor force growth for the near term, she concludes, it is not clear that this rate can sustain a desirable rate of economic growth in the long run. Any of the options policymakers have for affecting this trend of slower labor force growth will take time to implement and adjust to, suggesting that serious discussions of these options’ respective merits should begin now.Employment ; Economic development

Job Loss, Credit Constraints and Consumption Growth

We use direct evidence on credit constraints to study their importance for household consumption growth and for welfare. We distentangle the direct effect on consumption growth of a currently binding credit constraints from the indirect effect of a potentially binding credit constraint which generates consumption risk. Our data is focused on job losers. We find that less than 5% of job losers experience a binding credit constraint, but for those that do, they experience significant welfare losses, and consumption growth is 24% higher than for the rest of the population. However, even among those who are currently unconstrained and who are able to borrow if needed, consumption responds to transitory income.Job Loss, Credit Constraints, Consumption