Research On Heterogeneity,Bargaining Position And The Labor Protection Effect

As productivity increases and production mode change,especially with technological progress,market deepening,and platform economic development,labor relations have become complex and diverse.Academia has conducted extensive discussions on the safety and flexibility of the labor market under the current labor protection system.One of the focuses is whether the labor protection system characterized by " one-size-fits-all " is still reasonable and feasible.However,most of the relevant research is at the level of normative analysis.The policy proposal related to the classification adjustment of labor protection systems such as "for different types of employees" and "for specific types of employers" are mostly lacking empirical data support.The difference of labor protection effect has not yet formed an in-depth systematic empirical observation.Based on the view of bargaining position,this study mainly answers two questions:(1)What are the differences in the bargaining position of employee?(2)Are employee with a relatively low bargaining position under the current labor protection system receiving equal protection?The main content and conclusions of this research are as follows:(1)Explain that bargaining position is the basis for the labor protection system.The greater independence,scarcity,and specificity of capital factors relative to labor factors put employee in a disadvantaged position in the employment relationship.This is precisely the basis for the government to provide protection to disadvantaged employee by means of public power intervention-the labor protection system.The transition of our country from the "state-worker" relationship of administrative management in the period of planned economy to the "enterprise-worker" relationship of contractual legal management in the period of market economy is also based on the change in the status of labor and management.(2)Analyze the difference in the bargaining position of employers and the protection effect.According to the theory of human capital,the bargaining position of employee with high human capital is higher than that of employee with low human capital.According to the theory of labor supply and demand and the "capital-skill complementary hypothesis",the structural characteristics of labor supply and demand changes caused by technological progress will further strengthen the difference in the bargaining position.According to the labor market segmentation theory,household registration and ownership segmentation restrict the rights of rural employee and nonstate economic entities,resulting in the persistence of differences in the bargaining position of employers.According to the analytical framework of the new institutional theory,workers with low bargaining position cannot get the same protection as with workers high bargaining position.(3)Measure the bargaining position and compare the differences between different employers.According to the theory of wage bargaining,bargaining position is manifested as the degree to which employees and employers obtain surplus in wage bargaining.Based on CHNS1997-2015 and the Two-tier Stochastic Frontier Model the estimation results are as follows: The basic pattern of "strong capital and weak labor" has not changed,but recently the bargaining position of employee is improving;Rural employees with low human capital have relatively lower bargaining position,and employees employed by small-size or private enterprises have relatively lower bargaining position;Considering the characteristics of employers,the difference in bargaining position has changed.When urban employee employed by state-owned enterprises,their bargaining position is lower than employed by private enterprises,and compared with rural employee in non-state-owned enterprises,the difference has narrowed.Therefore,the bargaining position is essentially present in the specific employment relationship.(4)Empirically observe the difference of labor protection effect between employers with different bargaining positions.This study takes labor contract,minimum wage and social insurance as examples to observe the employment protection,wage protection,and social security respectively.The results are: low-human capital employee with relatively low bargaining positions have a lower chance of obtaining open-term labor contracts,and at the same time,they may enjoy less wage increases based on open-term labor contracts;the minimum wage has positive impact on wage,but the impact on rural employee with lower bargaining position is lower than the impact on urban employee;employee employed by state-owned enterprises have higher insurance premiums paid by their employers and less wage losses.However,it is the employee with a relatively higher bargaining position that can obtain employment opportunities in state-owned enterprises.To sum up,when the current labor protection system protects the rights and interests of some employee,there is still the problem of insufficient actual protection for employee with lower bargaining positions.Therefore,it is necessary for the labor protection system to shift from " one-size-fits-all " to classified adjustment.This study measure the differences in the bargaining position and the labor protection effects,which can support the future labor protection optimization design.Compared with related literature,the innovation of this study lies in:(1)Structured classification adjustment of labor protection systems within the logical framework of the difference in the bargaining position of heterogeneous employers to give a holistic explanation;(2)Observe implicit bargaining position with explicit wage bargaining,use the heterogeneous Two-tier Stochastic Frontier Model to measure the differences in the bargaining position of various employers,and provide quantitative judgments on the basis of theoretical explanations;(3)Take the representative clauses of the current labor protection system as an example,and compare the actual protection corresponding to the differences in the distribution of employers’ bargaining position,forming a more systematic observation.