Unequal exchange arises when spatial production of value is disjointed from its geographical distribution. A disaggregated monetary model of the world economy is presented on the grounds of Marx’s labor theory of value. All the forms of unequal exchange in international trade are explained, on the basis of a coherent definition of the forms of international value of traded commodities. Estimates of value transfers for recent years show the ongoing relevance of the unequal exchange in the modern capitalist world economy. JEL classifications: B51, D46, F63

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. AbstractWhat has been the dynamics of productivity in the Italian business firms in the aftermath of the crisis? And what has been the impact of training efforts upon such dynamics? In this work we address these questions exploring a unique Italian microlevel dataset which links information on the amount and the nature of training and the balance-sheet data. First, we document what we call a neo-dualist tendency with a leader-laggard dynamics entailing a widening support of the productivity distributions. Second, we analyze the relationship between productivities and training intensities by means of quantile regression analysis, also controlling for additive fixed effects by means of Canay (2011) technique. There is indeed some relationship in the whole sample which however gets weaker when disaggregating by sector and by size. Moreover, hardly any dynamic relationship appears, either between initial training intensities and subsequent productivity changes, nor between changes in both variables. Our results do not imply of course that training is not important, but that its effectiveness must be shaped by other firm-specific characteristics, plausibly associated with idiosyncratic organizational capabilities.

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Purpose: This paper examines two institutional aspects closely related: (i) the extent to which collective bargaining has been decentralized at firm or district level; (ii) the extent to which, at this level of bargaining, Performance Related Pay (PRP) have been used. Design/methodology/approach: On the basis of a unique database, which contains recent information on nationwide sample of firms, panel estimates aimed at identifying the main factors which have favoured the adoption of the second level of bargaining and PRP are presented. Findings. unions, after size, is the main factor associated to the probability of the second level of bargaining and PRP. Significant estimates are also found for training. Research limitations/implications-Further research based on additional data should enable us to identify causal effects. Practical implications: It offers new evidence to evaluate ongoing reform proposals to implement firm-level agreements more tailored to firms' specific needs. Originality/value our estimates are based on a unique dataset which contains recent information and a nationwide sample of firms, representative of the whole Italian economy (other studies on Italy are more limited in scope, since they focus on specific sectors or regions). Second, it addresses the question of training, an aspect so far not examined in relation to PRP in Italy.

We analyse the role that the liberalisation of temporary contracts plays in labour share in some EU countries. The empirical analysis mainly relies on the EUKLEMS database and applies a difference-indifference approach. Our results, focused on periods of different length (1996-2007 and 1996-2013), show that legislative innovations that favour the extensive use of temporary contracts negatively affect the labour share, likely because they lower employees' average compensations. We hypothesize that these labour reforms, which lead to enduring skill deficits and job instability, have influenced the functional distribution of income, thus failing to halt the erosion of the labour share of previous decades.

Abstract. This paper investigates empirically the relation between wage inequality, employment structure, and skill-biased change in Italy between 1993 and 2004. Applying quantile decomposition analysis, we point out that changes in wage inequality are mainly driven by a decrease in educational premia over time, whereas changes in employment structure play a negligible role. This evidence suggests that changes in wage inequality in Italy can hardly be interpreted in terms of a skill-biased change, and the evidence is further reinforced by a set of descriptive statistics showing that the increasing educational attainments of the workforce might have been crowded out by a stable trend in the demand for skills.

This paper analyses how Italian family firms have acted during the global great crisis in comparison to their nonfamily counterparts using a sample of almost 4,500 firms for 2007 and 2010. We study whether family control affects labour productivity, labour costs and competitiveness and how family and non-family firms have responded to the great crisis. Furthermore, we test whether the adoption of performance-related pay (PRP) for employees offers an efficacious strategy to mitigate the effects of the crisis. Quantile regression techniques have been used to test the heterogeneous role of PRP and its possible endogeneity has been taken into account in the empirical investigation. After the outbreak of the crisis, the distance in terms of the competitiveness of family firms (FFs) in relation to their nonfamily counterparts increased. However, we also find that family firms may take advantage of the adoption of incentive schemes, such as PRP, to encourage commitment and motivation from their employees more than nonfamily firms do. The positive role of PRP on labour productivity, coupled with a moderate influence of these schemes on wage premiums, enables them to regain competitiveness. In addition, for FFs located in industrial districts in which social rules prevail on formal rules, the adoption of PRP has exerted additional positive effects under hostile pressures, such as those characterizing the strong global crisis.