Workers’ Compensation Insurance and Occupational Injuries

Objectives: Although compensation for occupational injuries and diseases is guaranteed in almost all nations, countries vary greatly with respect to how they organize workers’ compensation systems. In this paper, we focus on three aspects of workers’ compensation insurance in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries - types of systems, employers’ funding mechanisms, and coverage for injured workers - and their impacts on the actual frequencies of occupational injuries and diseases.Methods: We estimated a panel data fixed effect model with cross-country OECD and International Labor Organization data. We controlled for country fixed effects, relevant aggregate variables, and dummy variables representing the occupational accidents data source.Results: First, the use of a private insurance system is found to lower the occupational accidents. Second, the use of risk-based pricing for the payment of employer raises the occupational injuries and diseases. Finally, the wider the coverage of injured workers is, the less frequent the workplace accidents are.Conclusion: Private insurance system, fixed flat rate employers’ funding mechanism, and higher coverage of compensation scheme are significantly and positively correlated with lower level of occupational accidents compared with the public insurance system, risk-based funding system, and lower coverage of compensation scheme

Labor Contract, Asymmetric Information and Business Cycles

In this paper, a heterogeneous agent model of workers and employers is developed with differing information structures. In particular, the static implicit contract is introduced into otherwise standard dynamic equilibrium business cycle model by embedding the state-contingent wage-hour outcomes from the labor contract with the firm's capital accumulation decision. With this model, it is discussed whether this model's implications are different from those of standard general equilibrium business cycle model and implicit contract model. Compared to the prototype general equilibrium model, the labor contract feature, especially under asymmetric information, improves the predictions for the relative fluctuation and the correlation between hours and real wages. On the other hand, the dynamic general equilibrium consideration also help to overturn the unsatisfactory features in the previous contract theory

Use Of Information Network And Organizational Productivity: Firm-Level Evidence In Korea

This paper studies the relationship between the use of various information networks and organizational productivity in Korean firms. To this end, first. the current firm-level usage panems of information networks are explained in the following network categories: (1) LAN (Local Area Network). (2) inter- and intra-firm networks, (3) various types of inter-firm networks, and (4) the Internet and intranet, Second, by deriving TFP (Total Factor Roductivity) from the baseline production function, which augments lT stock into otherwise standard one, the impact of various information networks is investigated. The results show that LAN, the Intemet and intranet have significant impacts on fm-level TFP, while inter-firm network does not. Also, the productivity of firm using the Internet is 8.5 percent higher than the firms using only LAN, and the productivity of firms using intranet is 43.6 percent higher than the firms using just the Internet.Information Networks, Total Factor Productivity JEL Classificarion D21; D24; 033,

Asset Ownership, Business Format and Market Structure of Online Retail Market

The domestic online retail market consists of three different business models: independent retailer, merchant and marketplace. When we look at the growth process of these business models, some interesting characteristics are found; first, the average sales amount of the independent model has been decreasing steadily for several years, and second, the market share of the marketplace model show a steady and significant growth. This paper investigaties these characteristics with a formal theoretical model. Based on the asset ownership and business format, the model explicitly considers the retail's decision on the online retail business model. By introducing several parameters to affect the retailers' decision, we found that the model's prediction is consistent with the characteristics aforementioned

On the optimal level of protection in DRM

We examine the optimal level of Digital Rights Management when stronger DRM makes copyright infringement more difficult, but at the cost of decreased value for legal users. We find that DRM-free is profit-maximizing when copyright enforcement is strong or free-rider problems are severe. Otherwise, DRM is optimal for the firm. Even in the latter case, copyright enforcement and DRM are substitutes, and, thus, stronger copyright enforcement by the government reduces the usage of inefficient DRM. We also find that, although stronger copyright enforcement may raise the price of the legitimate product, consumers often benefit overall due to the decreased use of DRM.DRM DRM-free Digital products Optimal level of protection Copyright enforcement

Adoption of Enterprise Application Software and Firm Performance

Due to the rapidly changing business and IT environments, firm-level adoption of IT shifted from in-house development to purchasing EA software. This paper analyzes the effects of EA (Enterprise Application) software – ERP, CRM, SCM, Groupware, KM, EAI – on SMEs’ productivity. The distinct feature of this paper is that I use a formal econometric approach with combined data of SMEs’ accounting and IT usage aspects, while case studies have been mostly used in the previous works. The empirical results show that Groupware and SCM significantly raise the SMEs’ productivity, and the manufacturing sector has stronger effects than the service sector. From these results, the following implications are derived. First, the adoption rate and the real benefits of EA software are not closely related domestically. Second, in SMEs, EA software facilitating the inter-firm relationship is more effective than EA software focusing on the internal efficiency. Third, easy-to-understand, and relatively long-experienced enterprise applications are more effective than hard-to-understand and brand-new applications. Finally, the government IT policy on SMEs should focus on the process coordination and standardization of the manufacturing sector with upstream and downstream firms. Copyright Springer 2006SMEs, Enterprise Application Software, ERP, CRM, productivity, D21, D24,