Lee Suk-Yin. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-71). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / 摘要 --- p.i / Abstract --- p.iii / Acknowledgement --- p.v / Table of Contents --- p.vi / Tables and Figures --- p.vii / Chapter Chapter One --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter Two --- Background and Literature Review --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1 --- Background Review --- p.5 / Chapter 2.2 --- Literature Review - Vaccination of FFLI --- p.12 / Chapter 2.3 --- Literature Review - Social impact and productivity loss of FFLI --- p.23 / Chapter Chapter Three --- Conduct of Survey --- p.29 / Chapter 3.1 --- Study Design --- p.29 / Chapter 3.2 --- Questionnaire --- p.32 / Chapter Chapter Four --- Data Description --- p.36 / Chapter 4.1 --- Participants --- p.36 / Chapter 4.2 --- Incidence and impact of FFLI during the three months period (February - April 2001) --- p.38 / Chapter 4.3 --- Incidence and impact of the most recent FFLI --- p.39 / Chapter Chapter Five --- Economic Loss --- p.45 / Chapter 5.1 --- Estimators - EDPH loss and Productivity loss --- p.45 / Chapter 5.2 --- Density Estimation --- p.50 / Chapter 5.3 --- Hypothesis Testing --- p.51 / Chapter 5.4 --- Sensitivity Analysis --- p.53 / Chapter 5.5 --- Regression Analysis --- p.54 / Chapter 5.6 --- Long Haul flights and Long flights --- p.57 / Chapter 5.7 --- Company Profit --- p.58 / Chapter 5.8 --- Society Loss - GDP --- p.59 / Chapter Chapter Six --- Discussion --- p.61 / Chapter Chapter Seven --- Conclusion --- p.67 / Reference --- p.69 / Tables --- p.72 / Figures --- p.83 / Appendix --- p.87

Japanese workers are facing a threat of literal death from working too hard. In 1978, karōshi, defined as death or severe disability from overwork, was added to the Japanese dictionary. Japan is recognized as having one of the worst working conditions in the developed world with awfully long working hours. This thesis deconstructs the underlying psychological, cultural and economic reasons that contribute to the long working hours in Japanese companies. Then, this thesis examines the previous and current efforts by the Japanese, South Korean and German governments to reduce working hours in their countries to prevent the fatal consequences of overwork. It concludes by recommending the Japanese government to continue the research on overtime and death, raise awareness through education and outreach, enforce strict labor laws, and to adopt a method of flexible working hours.

One of the main underlying sources of economic growth is productivity. An economy can grow by either accumulation of its inputs, namely labour and capital, or improvements in productivity. The latter implies that more can be produced with the same amount of inputs, generating a greater amount of income that can be distributed among the economy's population. With rising per capita incomes, an economy can provide higher living standards and well-being. This thesis analyses variations in economic and productivity trends among the states of Australia and the USA. It investigates whether disparities in GSP per capita, labour and multifactor productivity among the states have declined (converged) or widened (diverged), during this period. The analysis is undertaken at a national level as well as for specific industries to identify the sectoral sources of the various trends. Further, in an interstate analysis the performance of individual states is examined to identify those that may have had a major role in accounting for the observed trends. The analysis employs both cross - section and time - series techniques. Contrary to earlier studies, this thesis finds that lately the interstate dispersion of per capita incomes and productivity has stopped decreasing. In Australia, once the Mining sector (which is a special case) is excluded from the analysis, the levels of GSP per capita and labour productivity in the various states are found to have neither converged nor diverged. Convergence trends among the US states observed prior to the 1990s have not only slowed down but even reversed into divergence. Divergence in labour productivity started during the 1980s in the service industries and was followed by the Manufacturing sector (and here in particular by the Electronic and Electrical Equipment industry) during the 1990s. There appears to be a belt of states in the West (and a few states in the North-East) which started off relatively poorly but managed to catch-up with the richer states due to an above average growth performance in labour productivity and multi factor productivity. Some of these states did not only manage to catch-up with richer ones but continued to surge ahead, causing the observed increase in the interstate dispersion in recent years. Policy makers, especially those in the states that are falling behind need to develop policies that will lead to an increase in the rate of productivity growth. In order to achieve this they must foster industries, which are conducive to higher growth rates and adopt policies that would increase the productivity of the labour force. These policies will need to create an environment in which productivity enhancing innovation can be sustained. States need to engage in research and development activities to ensure the invention and the adoption of new technologies.

The Corporate Real Estate Executive has many factors to consider when selecting and outfitting workspace for the company's employees, most of whom are knowledge workers. There are many factors to consider other than cost including the office space design, the LEED or other green building characteristics of the space,the business context in which the company operates, and how all these factors work together to impact productivity. A workplace and productivity assessment tool was completed for four different companies to assess eight different productivity elements and how they interact to impact productivity. Two companies occupied LEED certified facilities, one company occupied a green building, and the fourth company was in conventional office space.

This dissertation consists of three essays in applied econometrics that analyze the strategic interactions between individuals and institutions. The first chapter examines the relationship between employee benefits and the performance of startups. Using national longitudinal data on startups, I find that an increase in the share of employee benefits in total compensation packages leads to increased productivity of startups. Results indicate that a 10 percent increase in the share of employee benefits leads to an increase ranging from 1.5 to 3.9 percent in productivity even if the returns to the employee benefits are heterogeneous across startups. I also find that an increase in the share of employee benefits increases the chance of survival of startups. The second chapter investigates the dynamics of employee screening and transitions from temporary to permanent employment. I analyze unique German data that contains specific information about the dynamics of the transition from temporary to permanent employment, I find that employers screen the abilities of employees only before they hire them. I find no evidence that employers screen the cognitive ability of employees during temporary employment. The third chapter examines the relationship between housing prices and the availability of curbside parking. Using a policy change in Istanbul as a quasi-experiment, this chapter explores the effect of Istanbul’s switch from informal and free curbside parking to formal and paid curbside parking on housing prices. In a differences-in-differences model coupled with a propensity score matching, we find that an exogenous change in the availability of parking leads to a statistically significant decrease in house prices. We estimate that house prices per square meter decrease by 13 percent in the neighborhoods where the city starts charging curbside parking spaces. However, rents stay the same compared to the other neighborhoods. / text

M. Tech. Human Resources Management / This study was conducted to determine whether there is a relationship between organisational culture and assignment fulfilment in an energy provider. Factors comprising organisational culture and assignment fulfilment will be established and discussed. By making use of a detailed literature review, three factors of organisational culture and assignment fulfilment were identified. These factors were used to structure a questionnaire. The following factors of organisational culture were identified: values, managing employee-employer relationships and leadership. Assignment fulfilment factors that were identified are job involvement, job satisfaction and organisational fulfilment. Correlation analyses were used to determine whether there is a relationship between organisational culture and assignment fulfilment. Correlation analysis proved that there is a negative correlation between organisational culture and assignment fulfilment, because when one variable increases the other decreases. It was proved that employees are not fulfilled in the organisation due to the culture of the organisation. An organisation needs to focus on leadership in order to improve the culture of the organisation.

M. Tech. Business Administration / The purpose of the study was to establish the relationship between job satisfaction and productivity at the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS), given the fact that the organisation has been characterised by various people issues since inception, and suffered three employee strikes during a period of five year. Many challenges, ranging from disruptions emanating from labour disputes, and financial challenges which adversely affected the organisation's overall performance, were experienced. Given the critical role that job satisfaction and productivity play in determining the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of organisations, it was paramount to understand what motivates them and to what extent they are satisfied by the organisations and other contextual variables.

In this collection of essays I study individuals' health related decision-making and the consequences of those decisions for health and labor market productivity.

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