| Employment has long been a major theretical issue in economic research, and an important practical issue associated with the national economy and the people’s livelihood. The starting point of choosing employment as the theme of my dissertation is based on the author’s own experiences of being a disabled person and all the hardship I went through on my way of schooling and working, and my practice of serving the disabled people at the community level for more than a dozen years. I therefore well understand how important employment means for disabled persons and their families. Employment is the basic way for disabled persons to realize their rights of living and development, and the issue involving human society’s undertanding and rethinking. The international communities generally believe that the vast majority of disabiled persons have some work ability, which can be vitalized through proper evaluation, training, placement and support. Evidences show that most of the disabled persons have work ability and intelligence that can match that for the healthy people. The employment of the disabled persons remains a challenging issue worldwide. The development of special human resources worthes paying more attention by the governments and the academic communities. Special human resources defined in this paper are the working-age population with some disability but able to work. In China, the history of utilizing special human resources can be traced back to the western Zhou period. Since the founding of new China, the development of special human resources is guaranteed by the law, and supplemented by economic incentives and supportive social policies. These measures played an active role in such development. After the reform and opening up, the rapid progress of China’s cause for disabled persons has accelerated the development of the special human resources. Through long-lasting efforts of the government and the society, the employment of special human resources remains stable and sometimes makes new progresses. The development of special human resources presents a wider range of industrial and occupational distribution, more job opportunites and overall improvement in job security.But as a worldwide challenge, the World Report on Disability published by the World Health Organization and the World Bank in 2011, reveals that in the 34 OECD member states, the employment rate of disabled persons (44%) was just over half of the employment rate for the general population (75%). So was the situation in China during the period arround the economic transition. In 1988, of the 17 thousand letters and visits received and handled by China Disabled Persons’ Federation, about 70% were related to the appeals for employment. During 2007-12, employment rate for the disabled remained around 45%. In 2012, the registered urban unemployment rate for the disabled persons was 9.2%, more than double the unemployment rate of 4.2% for the general population. Meanwhile development of the special human resources have the structural imbalance with restrained development space and the relatively low quality.For a long time, the developed countries have been trying more effective pattern for the development of the special human resources. Under the background of economic transformation in China, the special human resources development will usher in a new era. During the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period, the state implements the strategy of assigning high priority to employment, providing historic opportunity of promoting employment of the disabled persons. The denial of the development of special human resources will significantly increase the burden of social welfare and deter economic growth. As argued by the World Bank Report, the price of excluding disabled persons from the workplace can be expensive, estimating that the world’s GDP losses amounting to between $1.37 trillion and $1.94 trillion. Taking into account of China’s socioeconomic and cultural context and resource constraints, it is of great theoretical and practical importance to study how to maximize the value of the large stock of the special human resources.The main content and conclusions of this paper can be sumerized in the following five aspects:1. An analysis on the present situation and the future trend of the special human resources development under the background of economic transition. Based on the investigation of the literature and empirical data on the development of the special human resources, the paper conducts empirical analysis by utilizing the data released from the National Disabled Person Sampling Survey in, respectively,1987 and 2006, and from the monitoring of the current situation of the disabled persons in the country since 2007. The paper intends to inquire into the current situation and future trend of the development of the special human resources under the background of economic transformation.The research finds that the special human resources has not been fully and effective developed before and after economic transition. Inspite of the trend of increasingly diversified distribution and forms of employment, and improved job opportunities, the employment of the disabled persons has remained lower with slower growth as compared with that of the general population, in the meanwhile facing the problems of the structural imbalance, restrained development space and the relatively low quality.But under the background of economic transformation in China, the special human resources development will usher in a new era. The demographic bonus that China has enjoyed in the development of the past decades is phasing out, the increasing dependency ratio and heavier social burden are providing new motivation for the development of special human resources. Economic transition, readjustment of industrial structure and the emerging new technology and new business model are creating new space for the development.2. The comparative analysis between special human resources and the general population. From the demographic perspective, the paper conducrs intertemporary and cross-sectional analysis on the similarities and differences in the demographic characteristics between the disabled and the general population, and their impact on the realization of the labor value.The research finds that, before and after economic transition the special human resources with labor ability as a share in the total population is basically the same, but the absolute amount grew with the growth of the disabled persons. The labor ability of special human resources have obvious structural differences and bring complexity and difficulty for the development of special human resources.The overall quality of special human resources has remained lower, and at a lower growth rate as compared with the general population. The gap between the two groups is gradually widening with the improvement in education attainment, meanwile the average years of schooling is still far lower than the general population. Special human resources development has been restrained by their quality.Demographic characteristics of special human resources is the decisive factor affecting their ability to work, their opportunities to access education and to enhance the quality of human resources. Together with the family incomes, such characteristics also affects their possibility and degree of the recovery of their labor ability.3. Upgrading of labor value of the special human resouces and their supply decision analysis. Utilizing the data collected from the questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews, based on the major theme of special human resources development, the paper applies the econometric modeling to analyze the way and obstacles in the upgrading of the labour value, to study the microscopic mechanism of decision-making on the supply of special human resources.The research finds that although disability have different degrees of impact on labor ability of the specific human resources, but through upgrading labour value can not only recover their ability to work, even form a comparative advantage in some way. The starting point of upgrading labour value decided by the attitude facing life setback, and the way is persistently self-compensation and mining, the goal is the recovery, promotion and market return of labor ability.Compared with the invesetments in the ordinary human resources, the cost of upgrading labour value of special human resources consists of rehabilitation, education and social integration. Special human resource labor supply decisions are the trade-off between labor income and upgrading cost, the expected degree of recovery, improvement and social integrataion through such upgrading, and impacts on the realization on the potential of their labor value. Rehabilitation, education cost and family burden ratio are the important factors affecting the decision-making for labor supply. Therefore, the upgrading of labour value also needs external environment support.4. The analysis of the labor value realization and the decision on the demand for special human resources. Through the questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews, using econometric modeling, the paper analyzes the cost of employing special human resources and factors affecting demand, intending to describe the microscopic mechanism of decision-making on the demand for special human resources.The research findings show that compared with the ordinary human resources, the cost for enterprise to employ special human resources consists of three components:the cost naturaly associated with the disabled persons, the cost ralted to the risks which tend to be unforeseeable, in addition to the wages for the compensation of ordinary labor. The first component is unavoidable. The second component can be greatly reduced with the better match of the special human resources with jobs and improvement in the social enviromnent. But different categories of disability have significant impats on the employers’costs. As long as there is proper institutional arrangement and social environment, the productivity of the majority of special human resources can be competetive. Education attainment or professional skill is the truly main factor affect decision-making for demand. The actual realization of the special human resources depends on the proper match between the labor and jobs.Factors influencing decision-making for demand include scale of the demand, compatibility degree and special policies for special human resources and social environment. Decision-making for demand for the special human resources is mainly based on labor demand and the costs. Ultimately demand decision-making should be trade-off between the labor price after the deduction of the government subsidies and opportunity cost of refusing special human resources. The opportunity cost of refusing special human resources is to pay the special fees for the social security of the disabled. Therefore, to stimulate the demand for the special human resources by the market players has not only economic significance, but also social spillover effect.5. Policy suggestions to promote the special human resources development under the background of economic transition. Based on above-mentioned theory and empirical analysis, the paper makes policy suggestions in the following three dimentions:giving full play to the potential of special human resources, improving the market allocation efficiency of special human resources and increase the accumulation of social capital under the background of economic transformation.The innovation of this paper is mainly reflected in the following aspects:1.The innovation in the research angle. Based on human resources, labor economics and other related theory, the paper brings demographic characteristics and the human resources development into the unified research framework. Through the comparison of the disabled with the general population, the paper analyzes and summarizes their commonness and individuality. This can be a beneficial supplement for the related demographic research. Furthermore, from the perspective of human resources, the economic analysis of the employment for the disabled is a new attempt. The integrated perspectives is no doubt an innovation.2. The innovation of research content. The paper intends to describe microscopic mechanism of the upgrading of the labor value and its realization, explore the efficient path for its maximization, at the same time establish theoretical support and empirical evidence for the development of special human resources.
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