Suchergebnisse

Current research studies in cellular manufacturing have considered environments constrained only by the machine resource, when in fact the flexibility of manufacturing cells is derived mainly from its allocation of the labor resource. This research specifically examines the labor resource in cellular manufacturing, also known as group technology (GT), through a series of simulation experiments on a hypothetical GT shop and recommends conditions under which different labor allocation strategies may be appropriate. The effects of various product routings and scheduling policies on labor allocation are also examined.

This article examines the differences between currently married and currently cohabiting couples in their household labor allocation in Italy, distinguishing the experience of both premarital cohabitation and previous unions with other partners. Results suggest that, on one hand, cohabiting couples present more equal arrangements of household labor time than married ones, but the more equal allocation of premarital cohabitation is not carried into marriage. On the other hand, contrary to hypothesis, the experience of previous unions does not mean more equal allocation of household labor in the current union either for marriages or for cohabitations.

We study the effects of a positive export shock on labor allocation between the informal, microenterprise sector and the formal firm sector in a low-income country. The United States-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement led to large reductions in US tariffs on Vietnamese exports. We find that the share of manufacturing workers in Vietnam in the formal sector increased by 5 percentage points in response to the US tariff reductions. The reallocation was greater for workers in more internationally integrated provinces and for younger cohorts. We estimate the gap in labor productivity within manufacturing across the informal and formal sectors. This gap and the aggregate labor productivity gain from the export-induced reallocation of workers across the two sectors are reduced when we account for worker heterogeneity, measurement error, and differences in labor intensity of production. (JEL F16, J24, O14, O17, O19, P23, P33)