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1 – 10 of over 3000David M. Gordon advanced labour economics with his theory of labour market segmentation, in which jobs rather than the marginal productivity of individual workers were the unit of…
Abstract
David M. Gordon advanced labour economics with his theory of labour market segmentation, in which jobs rather than the marginal productivity of individual workers were the unit of analysis. He advanced economic historiography and macroeconomics by conceptualising social structures of accumulation – a framework built on the foundation of his institutionalist training and enriched by his study of Marxist economics. By appropriating methods from other social science disciplines into econometrics, he augmented empirical analysis in economics. He was a founding member of the Union of Radical Political Economics and its journal, the Review of Radical Political Economics – that advanced and promoted heterodox, radical, and Marxist economists in the United States. His contributions to economics, to organised labour, and to the New School for Social Research, where I studied with him, were stunning.
Part 1 lays out some context about the New School Graduate Faculty where Gordon taught. Part 2 explores what historical forces, including his family, led to his expansive creativity. Part 3 summarises how he expanded labour economics to include the relations as well as the technology of production, linked his understanding of the production process to a historical materialist view of labour in the United States, then extended that to econometric analyses of the US macroeconomy. Part 4 presents a bibliometric analysis to provide some idea of the impact of his work. I end with some concluding remarks.
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- David M. Gordon
- labor market segmentation
- social structures of accumulation
- New School for Social Research
- United States
- B. History of economic thought
- methodology and heterodox approaches
- C. mathematical and quantitative methods
- J. labor and demographic economics
- N. economic history
- economic development
- innovation
- technological change and growth
Isabella Maria Weber and Gregor Semieniuk
American radical economists in the 1960s perceived China under Maoism as an important experiment in creating a new society, aspects of which they hoped could serve as a model for…
Abstract
American radical economists in the 1960s perceived China under Maoism as an important experiment in creating a new society, aspects of which they hoped could serve as a model for the developing world. But the knowledge of “actually existing Maoism” was very limited due to the mutual isolation between China and the US. This chapter analyses the First Friendship Delegation of American Radical Political Economists (FFDARPE) to the People’s Republic of China in 1972, consisting mainly of Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE) members, which was the first visit of a group of American economists to China since 1949. Based on interviews with trip participants as well as archival and published material, this chapter studies what we can learn about the engagement with Maoism by American radical economists from their dialogues with Chinese hosts, from their on-the-ground observations, and their reflection upon return. We show how the visitors’ own ideas conflicted and intersected with their perception of the Maoist practice on gender relations, workers’ management, and life in the communes. We also shed light on the diverging conceptions of the role for economic expertise between URPE and late Maoism. As the first in-depth study on the FFDARPE, we provide rich empirical insights into an ice-breaking event in the larger process of normalization in the Sino-US relations, which ultimately led to the disillusionment of the Left with China.
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Cynthia Lum Fonta, David Gordon and Zoi Toumpakari
The institutional structures established by French and British colonists continue to shape the socio-economic landscape of sub-Saharan Africa, potentially contributing to the…
Abstract
Purpose
The institutional structures established by French and British colonists continue to shape the socio-economic landscape of sub-Saharan Africa, potentially contributing to the unequal distribution of child poverty. This study, therefore, has significant relevance as it aims to estimate child poverty disparities within the context of colonial origins in Francophone and Anglophone African countries.
Design/methodology/approach
This study utilised data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted between 2000 and 2019 involving 22 sub-Saharan African states. A rights-based framework was applied based on the SDG-updated Gordon et al. (2003) methodology to measure child poverty. We then compared child poverty disparities between colonial origins using one-way ANOVA tests and risk ratios to quantify the magnitude of these differences.
Findings
Critically high estimates of sanitation and housing poverty (above 70% prevalence) were observed in the two colonial settings. Children in Francophone states were 1.4 times (RR = 1.4; 95% CI: 1.1–1.8) more likely to experience higher risks of low medical access, almost twice as likely to experience low vaccine uptake (risk ratios-RR = 1.8; 95% CI: 1.2–2.8) or no formal education (RR = 1.7; 95% CI: 1.1–2.5). All other dimensions were equal between colonial origins.
Research limitations/implications
Due to its cross-comparative approach, this study is restricted in making conclusive inferences regarding the causal relationship between colonialism and health/education poverty. Also, given the limited number of countries, particularly Anglophone countries, our sample may not fully represent all French and British ex-colonies. As a follow-up to this study, we intend to repeat this analysis using the harmonised Multiple Indicator Cluster (MIC) surveys, providing a larger number of countries.
Originality/value
Despite similar household poverty levels in both colonial settings, Francophone states had lower access to health and education services than Anglophone states. These findings indicate deeper systemic issues that may be rooted in the historical governance styles of centralisation. More effective decentralisation of healthcare and education services in Francophone countries and improved government commitment to addressing household poverty throughout sub-Saharan Africa are imperative.
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Mohammed Mohammed Elgammal, Fatma Ehab Ahmed and David Gordon McMillan
This paper aims to ask whether a range of stock market factors contain information that is useful to investors by generating a trading rule based on one-step-ahead forecasts from…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to ask whether a range of stock market factors contain information that is useful to investors by generating a trading rule based on one-step-ahead forecasts from rolling and recursive regressions.
Design/methodology/approach
Using USA data across 3,256 firms, the authors estimate stock returns on a range of factors using both fixed-effects panel and individual regressions. The authors use rolling and recursive approaches to generate time-varying coefficients. Subsequently, the authors generate one-step-ahead forecasts for expected returns, simulate a trading strategy and compare its performance with realised returns.
Findings
Results from the panel and individual firm regressions show that an extended Fama-French five-factor model that includes momentum, reversal and quality factors outperform other models. Moreover, rolling based regressions outperform recursive ones in forecasting returns.
Research limitations/implications
The results support notable time-variation in the coefficients on each factor, whilst suggesting that more distant observations, inherent in recursive regressions, do not improve predictive power over more recent observations. Results support the ability of market factors to improve forecast performance over a buy-and-hold strategy.
Practical implications
The results presented here will be of interest to both academics in understanding the dynamics of expected stock returns and investors who seek to improve portfolio performance through highlighting which factors determine stock return movement.
Originality/value
The authors investigate the ability of risk factors to provide accurate forecasts and thus have economic value to investors. The authors conducted a series of moving and expanding window regressions to trace the dynamic movements of the stock returns average response to explanatory factors. The authors use the time-varying parameters to generate one-step-ahead forecasts of expected returns and simulate a trading strategy.
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Anshul Tripathi, Umesh Kumar Bamel, Happy Paul, David Gordon and Nisha Bamel
This paper aims to understand the relationships of complementary specialization, cognitive trust, affective trust, tie strength and similarity with group formation intention.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to understand the relationships of complementary specialization, cognitive trust, affective trust, tie strength and similarity with group formation intention.
Design/methodology/approach
The data have been collected from 30 management students from a batch of 110 students of a premiere Indian business school. To assess the proposed relationship, multiple hierarchical regression was performed on collected data by using SPSS© 20.
Findings
The obtained results exhibited cognitive trust, affective trust and tie strength as significant predictors of dyadic group formation intention, whereas similarity and complementary specialization were not found.
Originality/value
The research on group formation is limited, and more particularly the functions of the above-mentioned factors on the group formation intentions of management graduates are yet to generalize. Therefore, present research is an early approach which tries to address the mentioned gap from a social network perspective and considers the group formation and social network literature.
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Xue Wu, An-Jin Shie and David Gordon
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the frontline employees’ emotional labour can illustrate the relationship between customer orientation (CO) and turnover intention…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the frontline employees’ emotional labour can illustrate the relationship between customer orientation (CO) and turnover intention in the hospitality industry. The study applies the job demands and resources (JD-R) theory to explain the relationship between variables in the proposed model.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper surveys a sample of 378 frontline employees in the hospitality industry.
Findings
The findings of this study show that the CO is strongly and positively associated with turnover intention. The three dimensions of emotional labour are all partially mediated with the relationship between CO and turnover intention.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations of this study include the sample came from seven five-star hotels in Beijing, China. This study used perceptual self-reported measures, which may generate exaggerated relationships among variables. These issues are addressed in the analysis.
Practical implications
First, the recruitment and selection of frontline employees should incorporate an assessment of the level of CO. Second, hospitality management should train employees in the proper control of emotional labour.
Social implications
Hospitality should make efforts to supply job resources, such as providing delicious food; more promotion opportunities; better training and recreation programs; more clarified job definitions; and position autonomy. Moreover, good interpersonal relationships, regular recreational activities and sharing working experiences with colleagues may be applied to cope with job demands.
Originality/value
This study is to explain the roles of the three dimensions of emotional labour (surface acting, genuine emotion and deep acting) in the relationship between CO and turnover intention. More specifically, this study demonstrates why hospitality employees with high (or low) CO have low (or high) levels of turnover intention applying the concept of emotional labour based on JD-R theory.
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Gender divisions are embedded in and essential to the structure of capitalist production. While most men and women in the United States both now work for wages, they rarely work…
Abstract
Gender divisions are embedded in and essential to the structure of capitalist production. While most men and women in the United States both now work for wages, they rarely work together. Gender segregation has been identified as one of the major issues of the earnings gap between men and women. An explanation of the forces responsible for this has been difficult to achieve. Most theories fail to consider the contribution of demand‐side factors to gender segregation. Neo‐Marxist analysis of labour market segmentation and theories of the dual economy have provided new frameworks for investigating these structural or demand‐side features of industrial organisation. The pattern of blue‐collar segregation in US manufacturing industries is examined drawing on these theories. Employment data from the US census is used to identify how the levels of blue‐collar segregation in manufacturing industries are influenced by the industry's location within the core or peripheral sector of the US economy. Many of segregation's proposed remedies stress the role of supply‐side factors. These strategies focus attention almost exclusively on male and female workers and ignore the structure of the workplace. Strategies that ignore the dualistic nature of the US economy offer only partial solutions and may be counter‐productive. If forced to eliminate or reduce segmentation, employers may simply restructure their labour processes in a way that undermines rather than contributes to gender inequality. It is apparent that the pursuit of gender equality in the workplace is intrinsically related to and dependent on the broader efforts of workers to achieve greater control over production, both at the workplace and in the economy as a whole.
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Consider now the set of all possible events that can occur in a given context. There is a distinction between an elementary event and a compound event. The set of elementary…
Abstract
Consider now the set of all possible events that can occur in a given context. There is a distinction between an elementary event and a compound event. The set of elementary events is exhaustive, exclusive and elementary: the elementary events cover all the possible events; no two of them can occur at the same time; and all other events are constituted by compounds of these. Denoting the set of all elementary events by E, the set of all (possibly compound) events is the power set of E, S E. The set of events, S E, consists of pairs of events: for each event e there is its complementary event not-e; and for the event not-e there is its complementary event not-(not-e)=e. In any given world only one event of any complementary pair can occur.
I DO not know whether the love for reading is inherited, but both my parents were voracious readers and, besides possessing a good collection of their own books, borrowed freely…
Abstract
I DO not know whether the love for reading is inherited, but both my parents were voracious readers and, besides possessing a good collection of their own books, borrowed freely from a subscription library. My earliest recollections include being read to by one or other of my parents, and my mother's proneness for falling asleep in the reading spurred me on to learn to read on my own account. I well remember that it was David Copperfield that especially interested me at that period. I soon became a good reader and read almost anything that came my way. Besides the many volumes for children in the home collection, I dipped extensively into those intended more especially for adults, including the works of Dickens, Scott, and even that now forgotten but one‐time popular Victorian work, Proverbial Philosophy by Martin Farquhar Tupper.
The paper outlines and examines a social‐institutional conception of income inequality or economic distribution. The fundamental proposition of this conception is that income…
Abstract
The paper outlines and examines a social‐institutional conception of income inequality or economic distribution. The fundamental proposition of this conception is that income inequality/distribution is far from being the outcome of the operation of strictly market laws or economic forces but rather one of institutional arrangements or social structures. Of the latter particularly important have shown to be the institutional structure of the economy, particularly labour markets, as well as the degree of democracy of political systems. The results suggest transcending single‐factor economic explanations and predictions of income inequality, as implied in the Kuznets curve and its ramifications, in favour of an alternative multilevel sociological approach.
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