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The declining gender wage gap (GWG) and the wage-productivity decoupling (WPD) are two emerging phenomena for the United States since the 1980s. This article proposes an extension to the usual decomposition method of the profit rate to account for both the GWG and the WPD on aggregate income distribution. It then uses this framework to study the US manufacturing sector from 1960 to 2017. It suggests that gender wage inequality was a source of profitability, especially before 1986, but which was slowly petered out. Since 2001, increases in the profit share have mostly been due to the WPD. These results highlight the relevance of gender-based inequality in the more traditional analysis of the profit rate dynamics. JEL Classification: B51, E11, E25, J16 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a short-run neo-Kaleckian model to investigate the interplay of the functional and personal distribution of income and their impact on growth. Personal distribution becomes relevant in light of the institutionalist hypothesis of consumption emulation, which makes aggregate saving dependent on the concentration of wages and profits. A more equal distribution of wages and/or profits increases aggregate demand and the rate of capacity utilization. But the wage- or profit-led demand regime crucially depends on the difference between the propensity to save out of profits and that out of wages, as well as on the impact of changes in the profit and wage shares on the concentration of personal incomes. Preliminary evidence on Italy over the period 1980s–2010s highlights that demand regimes might be a relatively short-term and cyclical characteristic of that economy, with changes in the demand regime partly explained by changes in personal income distribution. JEL Classification: E11, D31, B52 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work looks at the contribution of profit-rate analysis to explain the industrialization process in economics. Using Indonesia for empirical study, we observe a link between the profit rate and international industrialization strategy. Elements of profit rate are discussed, including profit share, labor coefficient, and capital productivity. Elements of the industrialization process are also examined; specifically, gross import substitution, domestic supply growth, and ratio of import substitution. New period categorizations are made, demonstrating changes in the long run. We argue that profit-rate fluctuation has served to explain the success or failure of the industrialization process. This paper identifies two dimensions to this process. First, it argues that industrialization is achieved if the domestic market is established as indicated by a higher profit rate in the period when import substitution is high. Second, the establishment of a home market can occur by adopting the import substitution strategy, including output, investment, and labor. The adoption of import substitution can tackle the sectoral analysis of industrialization because it assumes the formation of a production pattern in domestic economy. JEL Classification: E220, E230, E240, E310, O110, O140 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assessed the effectiveness of Nepalese Community Forestry Program (CFP) in increasing local perceptions of equity in benefit sharing. Our aim is to inform emerging forest policy that aims to mitigate climate change, promote biodiversity conservation, and address poverty and livelihood needs. We collected data from 1,300 households from nationally representative samples of 65 CFP communities and 65 non-CFP communities. By using a robust method of covariates matching, we demonstrate the unique and positive effect of the CFP on perception of equity in benefit sharing at national level and among poor, Dalits, indigenous and women-headed households and in the hills (except Terai). Our results suggest the need to continue the current benefit-sharing practices in CFP except in the Terai, where such practices need to be reviewed. However, caution should be taken in implementing emerging carbon-focused forestry so that it does not alter the CFP management sufficiently to conflict with equity goals and upend the generally positive effects on equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between gender equality and economic democracy in worker cooperatives in the United States. A specific method for analyzing women’s status in worker cooperatives is proposed. Preliminary findings from a small-scale survey of U.S. worker cooperatives in 2001 are presented, showing that despite the egalitarian nature of cooperatives several gender inequalities persist. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The recent recovery continued a trend that started in the mid-1970s of a growing divergence between capital and labor incomes. This trend appears to be largely due to a shift in the balance of corporate governance. A growing concentration of financial assets among institutional investors was juxtaposed by a declining unionization rate. Consequently, institutional investors had the incentives and increasingly the ability to allocate a growing share of corporate resources towards capital, particularly in the form of share repurchases and dividend payouts instead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the attributes of a successful contracting model for the financing and support of nonprofit organizations. It describes how, through government initiative, a program can be built in which transaction costs are minimized through a cooperative approach to contracting based on mutual trust. It shows how investment in a long-term, trust-based, cooperative relationship underlined by professional standards and a continuous focus on a common mission by all levels of actors within and without government can provide the impetus for a system in which high standards of service are maintained, accountability is organic, and organizations feel supported in their mission but not controlled. The example presented is a provincial government program for the prevention of family violence in Manitoba, Canada, but the features that make it successful can be applied widely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Profit sharing has recently returned to public prominence and is becoming increasingly popular in British industry. Although it is commonplace to view the previous incidences of profit sharing in terms of the cycle of control thesis, this perspective cannot explain the present enthusiasm. This paper re-examines the cycle of control theory's ability to predict the timing, the contextual conditions and the managerial motives for the introduction of profit sharing. Two case studies are presented in order to show ways in which management have used profit sharing; these studies raise serious doubts about the explanatory value of the cycle of control thesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent leaders of the USSR and China saw the inherited Stalinist blueprint as defective for managing state enterprises. To remedy enterprise inefficiencies, various reforms were begun. Review of the Soviet and Chinese pre reform economic designs indicates that the misuse of resources was prompted by unconditional state support of enterprises coupled with guaranteed employment and flawed incentive criteria. Perestroika plans in both countries were directly aimed at undoing these relationships. Leaders' expectations of soaring inflation and mounting unemployment, however, have put the restructuring plans on hold. It seems that Soviet and Chinese citizens want the gains of reform without the pains, but neither nation S economy is likely to fulfill that wish. Drawing on the Soviet and Chinese experience, some guidelines for U.S. firms' renewal efforts are suggested. Secure employment was not the culprit in the command economies. Indeed, job security offers U.S. companies substantial advantages. And in the Soviet and Chinese experience, it can be seen that organizational reward systems may foster or hinder productivity gains. It is concluded that job security, when meshed with some form of profit sharing, provides the necessary situational context for members' support of productivity and quality improvement programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]