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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 May 2023) | Viewed by 25499

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Prof. Dr. Franklin G. Mixon

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Center for Economic Education, Columbus State University, Columbus, GA 31907, USA
Interests: public choice; labor economics; industrial organization; sports economics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The rise of income inequality, the emergence of the gig economy, and the global COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the prevalence of remote or home-based work are but a few of changes occurring in labor markets across the globe. These and others have sparked greater interest in the notion of labor economics and sustainability. This Special Issue of Sustainability aims to provide a collection of high-quality studies covering various aspects of labor economics and sustainability, including but not limited to the durability and efficacy of public policy directed toward labor markets (minimum wage laws, workplace safety standards, etc.), the role of human capital investment in the employment process, income inequality, aspects of gender and racial discrimination in hiring and retention practices, the importance of workplace awards in motivating discretionary effort, the evolution of the gig economy, changing norms associated with remote work and employment, green jobs, and the impact of economic transition on traditional labor economics theories and models. We welcome original papers relating to these and other aspects of labor economics and sustainability. Some of these may even intersect with other related academic disciplines such as human resource management, organizational behaviour, and employment law.

Prof. Dr. Franklin G. Mixon
Guest Editor

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Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

labor economics and sustainability
public policy
labor law
labor relations
human resources

Published Papers (13 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 1010 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Estimation of the Economic Opportunity Cost of Labour: An Operational Guide for Ghana

by Glenn P. Jenkins, Richard Sogah, Abdallah Othman, Mikhail Miklyaev and Çağay Coşkuner

Sustainability 2023, 15(14), 11335; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151411335 - 20 Jul 2023

Viewed by 1227

Abstract

The implementation of projects often affects employment through direct job creation, indirectly stimulating employment or augmenting labour supply. These changes in employment have significant benefits and costs to both labour and society. However, the estimation of job creation benefits is complicated because of the large diversities in labour input. We attempt to address this issue by using the supply price approach to develop an analytical framework based on sound microeconomic principles to assist project analysts to arrive at justifiable empirical estimates of the economic opportunity cost (К^ℓ) for a wide range of labour types across a set of diverse situations and market conditions in Ghana. The paper adopts the relevant literature regarding the specifics of labour markets and the peculiarities of different labour types. Accordingly, the К^ℓ will vary by skill, location, and labour market conditions that need to be incorporated into its estimation. In this analysis, the estimation has been carried out to quantify the К^ℓ, the conversion factor, as well as the labour externalities corresponding to the two types of labour: skilled and unskilled. Similarly, these estimates refer to groups of labour according to areas of residence: rural and urban. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Labor Economics and Sustainability)

18 pages, 2033 KiB

Open AccessArticle

On the Substitution and Complementarity between Robots and Labor: Evidence from Advanced and Emerging Economies

by Jing Li, Zidong An and Yan Wang

Sustainability 2023, 15(12), 9790; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15129790 - 19 Jun 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1405

Abstract

This paper aims to empirically study the short-term relationship between robot adoption and the labor market across a diverse set of advanced and emerging economies. Additionally, it seeks to analyze the impact of macroeconomic and institutional factors on this relationship. This study reveals robot adoption promotes employment growth in advanced economies, while it has a negative effect on employment in emerging economies. This heterogeneity can be attributed to both direct and indirect linkages between robots and labor in production. Directly, robots can either substitute or complement human labor. Indirectly, robot adoption stimulates output growth, leading to increased labor demand. We also show that the robot–labor relationship is influenced by macroeconomic variables such as development stage, unemployment rate, and education level, as well as institutional variables such as business regulation and structural reforms. These findings suggest the need for a more inclusive and sustainable approach to the advancement of robot adoption and automation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Labor Economics and Sustainability)

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14 pages, 3193 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Dynamics of Indian Labour: Ramifications for Future of Work and Sustainability

by Bino Paul, Ramesh C. Datta, Unmesh Patnaik, Saritha C. Thomankutty and Sumesh P. Soman

Sustainability 2023, 15(12), 9312; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15129312 - 08 Jun 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1624

Abstract

The labour market is complex to systematise into a well-behaved structure. Here, we attempt to understand the synergy between actors and institutions in the Indian labour market and to reveal the implications for the future of work and sustainability. Combining aggregated and micro-level data from multiple sources, we examine the indicators regarding the macro economy, production and engagement in firms, and changes in the occupational structure of workers. While the familiar narrative of technology–labour acrimony emerges, it is weak. In contrast, the tie between economy and technology is a favourable representation of the proximity between human capital and technology. Inadequate human capital implies chances of non-absorption in employment, especially in the future, even for a labour-abundant country such as India. While labour market flexibility through tripartite contact work does not directly relate to labour productivity, high-wage blue-collar work is a more promising factor that aligns with productivity. On the sustainability front, upgrading environmental standards results in more cohesion between labour and capital. The conventional logic of substitutability between capital and labour is invalid when firms adopt environmental standards. From a policy vantage, the scenarios of sustainability transition to cleaner technologies and decent work require complementarity between capital and labour. Considering the dimension of upgrading in order to transition towards sustainability is an essential factor for understanding the future of work. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Labor Economics and Sustainability)

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15 pages, 680 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Mediating Role of Social Support on the Relationship between Employee Resilience and Employee Engagement

by Glory Okojie, Ida Rosnita Ismail, Halima Begum, A. S. A. Ferdous Alam and Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada

Sustainability 2023, 15(10), 7950; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15107950 - 12 May 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2016

Abstract

The present study addresses the mediating role of social support in the relationship between employee resilience and employee engagement. A cross-sectional design was adopted to collect data from a sample of 260 registered nurses working in public hospitals in Lagos, Nigeria. The findings suggest that employee resilience is significantly related to social support and employee engagement. However, the quantitative analysis could not establish a significant mediation role of social support in the relationship between employee resilience and employee engagement. Based on the results, this research provides empirical evidence for the importance of employee resilience to greater employee engagement. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Labor Economics and Sustainability)

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23 pages, 1775 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Trends in College–High School Wage Differentials in China: The Role of Cohort-Specific Labor Supply Shift

by Qiao Wen

Sustainability 2022, 14(24), 16917; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142416917 - 16 Dec 2022

Viewed by 1228

Abstract

The wage gap between 4-year college (BA) and high school (HS) graduates narrows down among young workers from 2002 to 2009 in urban China, despite steadily increasing BA–HS wage gaps for older workers during the same time. This period corresponds to the labor market entry of a radically increasing number of college-educated labor stimulated by China’s higher education expansion program initiated in 1999. This study examines how cohort-specific relative supply of college-educated labor affects the cohort-specific college wage premiums and the overall BA–HS wage gaps in the labor market. Incorporating an aggregate labor supply model with imperfect substitution across labor with the same education level but in different age groups, changes in age-group-specific BA–HS wage gaps over time are decomposed into changes in aggregate and age-group-specific relative labor supply and demand factors. Findings suggest that the substantially expanded opportunities to attend college contribute to the falling BA–HS income inequality among young post-expansion cohorts: a 1-percent increase in the relative supply of BA-educated workers within one’s own cohorts depresses cohort-specific BA–HS wage gap by 0.2%. Policies that substantially boost educational attainment for certain cohorts could reduce education-related wage gaps for these cohorts and have spillover effects to the wage structure in the labor market. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Labor Economics and Sustainability)

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25 pages, 1337 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of the Transforming and Upgrading of China’s Labor-Intensive Manufacturing Industry on the Labor Market

by Zhihui Dai, Yue Niu, Hongru Zhang and Xiaodi Niu

Sustainability 2022, 14(21), 13750; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142113750 - 24 Oct 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3049

Abstract

The transforming and upgrading of China’s labor-intensive manufacturing sector is profoundly affecting the low-end labor market. However, there are few empirical studies that focus on labor-intensive manufacturing industries and that explore the impact of their transforming and upgrading on the labor market. Based on the wage and quantity of employment in the labor market, this paper examines the impact and the mechanism of the transforming and upgrading of China’s labor-intensive manufacturing industry on the labor market, using industry panel data from 2011 to 2019. The results show that the transforming and upgrading of labor-intensive manufacturing: (1) significantly improves the average wage of labor, but reduces the quantity of employment, and that this effect varies for different industry segments; (2) improves the average wage of labor through human capital factors and reduces the quantity of employment through labor productivity. The results suggest that we should focus on the impact of the transforming and upgrading of labor-intensive manufacturing on employment to achieve the synergistic development of employment quantity and quality, and ultimately promote sustainable labor market development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Labor Economics and Sustainability)

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12 pages, 579 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Role of Educating the Labor Force in Sustaining a Green Economy in MINT Countries: Panel Symmetric and Asymmetric Approach

by Nihal Ahmed, Adnan Ahmed Sheikh, Bilal Hassan, Sajjad Nawaz Khan, Ricardo Cosio Borda, Juan Martín Campos Huamán and Piotr Senkus

Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12067; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912067 - 23 Sep 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1639

Abstract

Over the years, the economies of Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey (the MINT countries) have had significant levels of economic growth. However, these countries have not been able to protect the quality of their environments simultaneously. As a result, the rising environmental indices in these nations cast a gloomy shadow over their capacity to continue their economic development. It has been shown that a more educated workforce may boost an economy’s absorption capacity and enhance the efficiency of green technology, both of which contribute to lower emissions of greenhouse gases. This article reports on research that examines the link between educating the labor force and environmental sustainability in the MINT economies. In order to conduct an empirical analysis of the data spanning the years 1995–2020, panel ARDL-PMG and NARDL-PMG techniques were used. First, the results of the ARDL-PMG demonstrate that a more highly educated workforce plays a vital role in mitigating CO₂ emissions. Moreover, the NARDL-PMG’s results demonstrate that a positive component of a highly educated workforce is a large negative influence on CO₂ emissions, whereas in the long run, the negative component of a highly educated workforce has a positive impact on CO₂ emissions over time. This article recommends that the MINT nations’ authorities boost education and training for their workforces in order to keep CO₂ emissions down. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Labor Economics and Sustainability)

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21 pages, 1125 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Impact of the Two-Child Policy on the Pension Shortfall in China: A Case Study of Anhui Province

by Jin Hu, Peter Josef Stauvermann and Juncheng Sun

Sustainability 2022, 14(13), 8128; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14138128 - 03 Jul 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1769

Abstract

The one-child policy was designed as a basic national policy in China and was written into the Constitution in 1982. The main content and purpose of the policy are to advocate late marriage, late childbearing and fewer births to control population growth in a planned way. Since the implementation of the basic national policy, its positive effect upon China’s economic development cannot be ignored, but after entering the 21st century, the problems related to population aging became obvious. Consequently, the basic pension system is confronted with great challenges. Under these circumstances, China initiated the two-child policy in 2016. This paper tries to forecast the change of pension shortfall after the implementation of the “two-child” policy in Anhui Province in China by establishing a pension revenue model, a pension expenditure model and a population prediction model. The prediction results reveal that the “two-child” policy helps to alleviate the pressure on the pension system, but the effect is limited and the “two-child” policy cannot change the trend of increasing pension shortfall in the long run. To reduce the burden on the pension system, the government can consider extending the pension contribution period and retirement age to make pension system sustainable. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Labor Economics and Sustainability)

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25 pages, 6393 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Estimating Education and Labor Market Consequences of China’s Higher Education Expansion

by Qiao Wen

Sustainability 2022, 14(13), 7873; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14137873 - 28 Jun 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1946

Abstract

China initiated a large-scale higher education expansion program in 1999. During the first three years of the expansion, postsecondary enrollment nationwide doubled. Leveraging the quasi-experimental nature of the program, I link administrative records on province-year level college admission quotas with individuals’ education and labor market information in 2013 from the Chinese Household Income Project, and employ a two-way fixed-effect model to estimate the expansion’s impacts on individuals’ education and labor market outcomes, and then use the expansion-induced variation in college access as an instrument for college education to estimate causal returns to college. Results show that the expansion substantially boosts individuals’ education outcomes, including completed years of schooling, and the probabilities of attending college and obtaining any postsecondary degrees. The expansion also improves individuals’ labor market outcomes, including probability of working, job stability, and hourly wage. My 2-stage least squares estimators imply that returns to education remain substantial in 2013. Returns to attending college and obtaining any postsecondary degrees are estimated to be 54–76 and 59–90 percent respectively. My analysis reinforces that enhanced access to college could raise individuals’ educational attainment and boost nations’ average level of human capital, and eventually benefit their labor market outcomes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Labor Economics and Sustainability)

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18 pages, 1859 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainability of Local Labour Market in South Africa: The Implications of Imports Competition from China

by Muftah Faraj and Murad Bein

Sustainability 2022, 14(12), 7168; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127168 - 11 Jun 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1429

Abstract

Using South African manufacturing and non-manufacturing industry employment, imports from China, growth in manufacturing and non-manufacturing industry, and workers’ earning data, we examined the impact of imports from China, growth in manufacturing and non-manufacturing industry on manufacturing and non-manufacturing industry employment and workers’ earnings. This study employed a Bayer and Hanck cointegration test to examine the cointegration among the variables, which found the existence of cointegration. In addition, the ARDL approach was employed to ascertain the long-run effect of the import from China, growth in manufacturing and non-manufacturing industry on the manufacturing and non-manufacturing industry employment and workers’ earning, while “Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS)”, “Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS)”, and “Canonical Cointegrated Regression (CRR)” estimators were employed for robustness. We found a negative long-run effect of imports from China on manufacturing sectors’ employment and workers’ earnings, while a positive of its effect was found on service industry employment. Moreover, growth in the manufacturing industry was found to have a positive long-run effect on manufacturing industry employment and workers’ earnings, while it has a negative long-run effect on service industry employment. As for the growth in the service industry, it was demonstrated to have a negative and positive long-run effect on manufacturing industry employment and non-manufacturing industry employment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Labor Economics and Sustainability)

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10 pages, 431 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Labor Markets and Sustainability: Short-Run Dynamics and Long-Run Equilibrium

by João Ricardo Faria and Franklin G. Mixon, Jr.

Sustainability 2022, 14(7), 4307; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14074307 - 05 Apr 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1577

Abstract

Many of the world’s economies experienced rapid structural changes due to globalization and other forces over the past 50 years. During this period, developing countries were the recipients of massive foreign direct investment, and their industrialization was accompanied by urbanization, city gigantism, and related environmental issues, such as pollution. Over time, investments in the education of the urban poor allowed their move from the industrial sector to the service sector. This growth of the service sector came at the expense of the industrial sector, which implied structural changes in cities and massive cleaning efforts. The objective of this study is to model these transitions in a simple dynamic framework. The economic model indicates that in the short run, urban growth is negatively impacted by environmental degradation and agglomeration costs, while service sector growth is negatively impacted by environmental cleaning costs. In the long run, optimal city and service sizes are both decreasing functions of environmental degradation and agglomeration and cleaning costs. Thus, sustainability ultimately determines the optimal city size. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Labor Economics and Sustainability)

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21 pages, 791 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Intergenerational Occupational Mobility, Labor Migration and Sustained Demographic Dividends

by Anqi Yu, Guankun Liu and Yuning Gao

Sustainability 2022, 14(5), 3110; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14053110 - 07 Mar 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2547

Abstract

Based on the 1% sample survey of the National Population Census (2015), this paper empirically analyzes the impact of intergenerational occupational mobility levels on labor migration in terms of push and pull factors. We found that increasing the degree of intergenerational occupational mobility has a significant “agglomeration effect” on registered and mobile labor: reducing the emigration willingness of household registered labor and increasing the immigration probability of labor from cities with a lower degree of intergenerational occupational mobility. Labor migration generally occurs from cities with lower intergenerational occupational mobility to cities with a higher degree of intergenerational occupational mobility. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that the agglomeration effect of a city on native labor is insignificant in east, northwest and northeast China. Rural laborers, highly educated laborers and rural laborers with high education levels are more likely to move from their registered cities. The mechanism analysis finds that improving the city’s comprehensive economic incremental competitiveness will enhance the city’s agglomeration effect on native labor, while increasing the degree of educational returns will strengthen the city’s agglomeration effect on mobile labor from cities with a lower degree of intergenerational mobility. Moreover, after using IV-probit, IV-2SLS and heteroscedasticity-based IVs to deal with endogenous problems, the above conclusions are still robust. Our findings may contribute to realizing sustained demographic dividends through internal migration. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Labor Economics and Sustainability)

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15 pages, 802 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Inequality in the Initial Wage of College Graduates at the College-Level Perspective

by Yanming Li, Kangyin Lu and Kaiyuan Wang

Sustainability 2021, 13(24), 13788; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132413788 - 14 Dec 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1822

Abstract

College graduates, as a labor force with high human capital accumulation, have the problem of initial wage inequality, which is worth paying attention to. Based on the collated micro-survey data form “Employment and Entrepreneurship Development Report of Chinese College Graduates”, which contains 339 samples from vocational colleges, 453 from common colleges, and 360 from key colleges, this study empirically analyzed the inequality of college graduates’ initial wages at the college level. We found that the initial wage income level of college graduates is significantly influenced by the college level. The higher the level is, the higher the initial wage. The initial wage of graduates from key colleges is the highest, and the income inequality between them and vocational college graduates is the most significant. Moreover, there are structural differences in the wage premium effect of the college level on college graduates with a change in wage level. In addition, the study found that there is an obvious gender wage difference among college graduates, and political status, academic ranking, and student cadre experience as well as the nature of the workplace all contributed to the formation of wage premiums to a certain extent. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Labor Economics and Sustainability)

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