William E. Cole

The urban subsistence labor force: Toward a policy-oriented and empirically accessible taxonomy

Abstract This paper responds to recent arguments that the informal sector is an extremely fuzzy concept and that the formal/informal dichotomy does not serve as a useful description of welfare or income. A taxonomic system is proposed that is intended to supplement but not replace the long-accepted formal/informal system. By focusing on labor force units rather than firms, the proposed system provides an analytical category that is equivalent to the urban working poor and thus has significant advantages for the study of such topics as income distribution, rural-urban migration, and poverty.

Simultaneity in the Study of Exports and Economic Growth

A number of empirical studies have concluded that exports promote economic growth. In each case, a single equation model was estimated by OLS with the magnitude of the export growth coefficient being consistently small, albeit significant. The present study of extensive cross-country data indicates the likelihood of simultaneous determination of exports and economic growth. The rate of growth of exports is then treated as an endogenous variable with the equation estimated by 2SLS in a number of cases in which various plausible combinations are assumed for the system. The 2SLS results generally amplify the earlier findings but tend to show that exports probably play a more important role than was previously indicated. [019, F43]

Management systems as technology: Japanese, US and national firms in the Brazilian electronic sector

Abstract This paper recognizes that technological change is an endogenous factor in many dynamic Japanese firms and that the change is promoted by unique soft technologies of organizational design and management systems. Certain key soft technologies are identified and attempts to transfer them to the Brazilian electronics sector are analyzed. Although the attempts have been incomplete, it is noteworthy that US multinationals and Brazilian national firms appear to have been more successful than subsidiaries of Japanese firms. Factors impeding full assimilation are identified for each of the three groups studied. It is also argued that successful transfer of these soft technologies would increase Brazils domestic technological capacity.

Labor Migration and Urban Employment in Developing Countries: The Impact of Population Growth and Property Institutions

In this chapter I will argue that the standard analyses of rural-urban migration and urbanization have limited explanatory power because they fail to take certain important variables into account. Specifically, the standard models have focused too narrowly on wage differentials to the neglect of population growth and institutional arrangements. By refracting migration data through models that are exclusively demand-pull in nature for cases where supply-push factors are obviously operating, analysts have come out with policy prescriptions that are palpably suspect.

Diseconomies of endogenous technological change in the globalizing continuous improvement firm

Abstract This paper is a contribution to the body of literature on the Japanese management techniques known as kaizen, or continuous improvement technologies. The topic is introduced with a brief review of the findings of several studies on kaizen and the experience of Japanese firms in transferring the kaizen technologies abroad, followed by an analysis of the process of endogenous technological change within the context of continuous improvement. It is argued that global versions of the CIF are subject to unique systemic problems, including: (1) a persistent increment to the cost of maintaining standardized processes; (2) a reduction in the rate of improvement creation due to a loss of synergism; (3) an increase in the time required to implement improvements, and reduced effectiveness of installed improvements; and (4) a likelihood that some improvements will fail to enhance customer value in markets other than the ones in which they originate. The widely varying experiences of the Japanese CIFs in transferring the continuous improvement technologies abroad are attributed, at least in part, to these internal systemic weaknesses of the global CIF. Furthermore, it is concluded that the strategic advantage of a globally dispersed CIF is reduced below that of a geographically concentrated CIF.

The Role of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation in War and Peace

AN APPRAISAL of the work of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation is not an easy task. There are no similar agencies with which comparisons of accomplishments might be made. Much of the work of the Commission has been done through other organizations. Many of its efforts have been in the field of education, specifically functioning in the attempt to change traditional racial attitudes, to improve interracial cooperation, and to increase understanding between races. These areas of knowledge and endeavor do not lend themselves readily to scientific measurement or objective appraisal. The entire culture of a people ties in so closely in shaping attitudes and in influencing action patterns that it is very difficult to segregate and to examine the influence of any single agency or institution from that of other institutions or the mass impact of the total culture. Method of Appraisal. Irrespective of these limitations, it is worth while to appraise as carefully as possible the work of the Commission. This has been done through interviews and correspondence with some 300 persons (1942), most of whom have observed or participated in the work of the Commission, have served on state or local interracial committees, or have shown an interest one way or another in race problems or southern problems. In addition, there has been consultation with Commission personnel and a somewhat detailed scrutiny of the publications and official minutes of the Commission. From these collective sources, there is evidence and testimony to the following accomplishments of the Commission:

Population Growth and Employment: Mexico's Past and Kenya's Future

In the coming decades, the broad outline of Kenyan development is quite likely to duplicate the Mexican experience of industrial and commercial progress for a minority combined with economic stagnation for the majority. While there are obvious differences in culture, history, and geography, there are basic similarities in industrialization strategy, agricultural structure, urban expansion, and population growth rate. A continuation of the current industrial, financial, and agricultural strategies, and an extrapolation of other variables along certain key paths, will almost surely lead Kenya to the same form of dualistic transformation that has gradually engulfed Mexico over the course of three decades. A rather important point which emerges from the following analysis is that only by a significant reduction in the population growth rate can that result be avoided.