Documents supply and demand 9 results

"This article compares two theoretical and methodological approaches in labour economics: the supply-side view, identified with neoclassical economics, and the demand-side approach, linked to institutional views. The objective is to discuss the hypothesis of the end of jobs from both perspectives. After examining and comparing the two conflicting views on several issues of labour economics and labour markets, the paper examines the connections between the employment relationship and the nature of the knowledge needed to perform the tasks assigned to the job and concludes that both views share a convergent conclusion on this issue. The paper then discusses some implications for public policies and organizational policies."

"Cet ouvrage présente une vue d'ensemble, claire et précise, de l'analyse économique du monde d'aujourd'hui.

Grâce à une confrontation permanente des faits (fonctionnement des marchés, politiques économiques et sociale, croissance, conjoncture, échanges internationaux de biens, de services et de capitaux, crises financières, etc.) et des développements les plus récents de la théorie économique, Économie contemporaine permet aux lecteurs non seulement de disposer des bases essentielles de l'analyse économique, mais aussi de tester le pouvoir explicatif des thèses économiques dominantes."

"The main objective of this paper is to analyze the problem of population ageing in terms of the cessation of professional activity (and especially premature labour market withdrawals) in order to provide the various public and private administrations active in these fields with some food for thought. Results show that employer-driven obligation to stop working (owing to business closure, redundancy, dismissal, early retirement, etc.), marital status (married/widowed) and health status are the main reasons for the premature cessation of activity common to all four countries studied (Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom), while the desire to retire from the labour market or live off private wealth (voluntary cessation) has a significant effect only for Belgium and the Netherlands. However, the impact of this reason on the retirement age is much lower than that of departure enforced by the employer (2 to 3 times lower in these two countries)."

"How does one value something one cannot and often does not want to see? How do contemporary digital platforms and their infrastructures of connectivity, evaluation, and surveillance affect this relationship between value and visibility, when it is mediated through the problem of labor as at once a commodity and a lived experience? And how can these infrastructures be mobilized in projects that aim to build different kinds of platforms – the kinds that support the revaluation low-income service work? This essay addresses these questions by examining the gendered, racialized, and classed distribution of opportunities and vulnerabilities associated with digitally mediated service work, or what I call platform labor. The argument will unfold in four parts. First, I briefly situate the ‘on-demand' economy within the context of neoliberal socio-economic reforms that have, over the past four decades, shaped our present circumstances. Second, I argue that labor platforms should be understood as new players in the temporary staffing industry, whose devices and practices exacerbate the already precarious conditions of contingent workers in today's low-income service economy. They do so by (1) bolstering the immunity of platform intermediaries and clients, (2) by expanding managerial control over workers, and (3) by orchestrating a pervasive sense of fungibility and superfluity with respect to this workforce. Third, after a short overview of the gendered and racialized history of service work, I analyze how this history extends into the networked present of our platform economy. Finally, I address the potential of ethnography, on the one hand, and platform cooperativism, on the other, to critically empower low-income service workers operating through platforms."

"The concept of poor work is considered in broader terms and not limited to the condition of economic hardship faced by the worker. In the so-called gig economy the meaning of the term "poverty" lends itself to be understood first, as underpaid and poorly protected gig work, but also, and secondly, as a poverty of the underpinning concepts and theories that labor law can employ to frame the digital economy and to counteract the current storytelling related to digital innovations. The notion of subordination, for example, turns out to be a "poor" category and not very efficient to analyze new forms of working arrangements. In the final part, the "poverty" of work is tackled, that is the unemployment induced by the use of digital technologies."

"Die Corona-Krise hat die Welt hart getroffen. Hierzulande warten Betriebe auf Einzelteile, doch die Lieferketten sind unterbrochen. Menschen fragen sich in Anbetracht der schnellen Verbreitung der Krankheit, ob Lebensmittel aus anderen, vielleicht stark betroffenen Ländern sicher sind. Als Folge geschlossener Läden nehmen Textilhandelsunternehmen für sie produzierte Kleidungsstücke nicht ab und bestellen keine neuen. Textilfabriken in Asien schließen. Millionen Näherinnen werden entlassen, meist ohne Ausgleichszahlung und ohne Rücklagen, auf die sie zurückgreifen könnten.

Es stellt sich die Frage, was wir aus der Krise lernen können und wie die wieder anlaufende Welt, wie die wieder anlaufende Wirtschaft aussehen soll. Ist es nicht der richtige Zeitpunkt, resiliente Lieferketten anzustreben, die Menschen, Betrieben und Gemeinden an den Produktionsstandorten im globalen Süden stabile, gute Arbeits- und Verdienststrukturen sichern und damit wiederum die dt. und eur. Wirtschaft stabilisieren? Die künftige Architektur globalen Wirtschaftens muss neben der ökonomischen die soziale und ökologische Nachhaltigkeit stärken. Die Achtung von Menschenrechten und Umwelt iSd. UNO-Leitprinzipien Wirtschaft und Menschenrechte verdient in der Lieferkette einen festen Platz. Dafür braucht es klare Regeln. Der Beitrag beleuchtet die Vorteile eines dt. Lieferkettengesetzes und untersucht die zentralen materiellen Inhalte sowie geeignete Durchsetzungsmechanismen.

Resilient Supply Chain by Law?

The Corona crisis has hit the world severely. In these parts, companies wait for single components, but supply chains are interrupted. With view to the quick spreading of the disease, people ask themselves whether food imported from other countries, which are seriously affected, is safe. As a consequence of closed shops, textile trading companies refuse to accept clothing produced for them, and do not make new orders. Textile factories in Asia close down. Millions of seamstresses are made redundant, most of them without severance pay, or financial reserves to which they might take recourse.

The question comes up what we can learn from this crisis, and what is a world starting up supposed to look like, and what is an economy starting up supposed to look like. Isn‘t this the perfect moment to strive for resilient supply chains which ensure stable, good labour and wage-earning structures for people, companies and municipalities at the production sites in the global south, and in turn stabilize German and European economies? The future architecture of global economic activities needs to strengthen social and ecologic as well as economic sustainability. Respecting human rights and environment as defined by the UN guiding principles for economy and human rights deserve a central role within the supply chain. Precise rules are required here. This article sheds light on advantages of a German supply chain act, and investigates central substantive contents as well as suitable means of implementation."