Status Analysis and Trend Prediction for the Labor Costs of Chinese Construction Industry
Chinese huge low-cost labor force provided motive power for the development of construction industry in the past decades. However, Chinese labor costs soar quickly in recent years, which bring pressures to construction enterprises. In order to analyze the problems of rising labor costs of Chinese construction industry in depth, a questionnaire survey is conducted among construction workers and project managers. According to the result of the investigation and statistical data, the rising actuality and influence factors of labor costs in Chinese construction industry are analyzed comprehensively. Then the medium and long term prediction of labor cost is carried out by using GM (1, 1) grey model. The results show that the average pay of Chinese construction workers rose quickly over the past 5 years. Changes of supply–demand relation of labor force, soaring prices and the rapid economic development, and other aspects are the reasons causing the labor costs increase. The average daily pay of Chinese construction workers will keep rising in coming years, and will achieve 337 RMB yuan by 2020. The research results present valuable reference basis for construction enterprises to grasp the development trend of labor costs and takes steps to address the labor cost pressures.
A different approach to construction labour in Turkey: comparative productivity analysis
This paper reports an investigation of construction labour productivity described as numerical values. First, a general knowledge is given about labour productivity. Then, the system which is the source of the man hour values in Turkey, is introduced and criticism of it is carried out. To this aim, labour productivity rates of 82 work items were obtained by a questionnaire applied to planning engineers, site managers, sub-contractors, architects and consultants of 32 large-scale construction firms in Turkey. The results were evaluated by one sample t-test, and hence, today's situation of the construction sector in Turkey on labour productivity was displayed.
Did the metamorphosis from Export Processing Zones to Special Economic Zones improve the efficiency of trade enclaves in India?
In this paper, the efficiency of seven conventional Special Economic Zones in India is analyzed, by adopting a stochastic production frontier technique, for the period between 1986–1987 and 2007–2008.Results indicate that although the efficiency scores of these enclaves have improved over the years, specifically with the introduction of the SEZ policy (2000–2001), it is far below the threshold level as identified in the literature. Besides, one can also observe a discrepancy emerging between better export earning zones and efficient zones. On the determinants side, policy intervention and large geographical area, accompanied by clustering of units, are found to have impacted the efficiency scores of these enclaves positively.