重新思考“雇佣”:新制度经济学的解释及评述

Reinvestigating the Concept of Employment: A Review and Critique on New Institutional Economics Perspective

近年来,非标准用工数量的增长及用工形式的多元化现象引发了学者的广泛关注,学者针对这些用工模式的性质、形成的原因及未来发展趋势提出了不同的观点。在这一背景下,重新反思"雇佣"这一概念极为必要。本文梳理了新制度经济学中有关"雇佣"的主要理论学说,并就这些理论学说对于理解当今工作世界变化的贡献和局限进行论述。针对当下对"用工形式"的热烈讨论,本文主张应该持有更为开放的态度,将关注点集中于工作质量、工作条件和劳资关系等核心问题上来。

The growing trend of atypical employment or alternative work arrangement has gained wild attention from scholars. Lots of studies have been conducted and different opinions were given with related to the nature of atypical employment, the reason of its booming status and its future. This article holds that it is crucial to reinvestigate the concept of employment to provide a solid ground for the discussion. Specially, this article reviews theoretical explanations on firm’s decision making on employment under the perspective of new institutional economics. It also gives a critique on to what extent these theoretical insights could contribute our understanding of the atypical work trend. This article argues that a more inclusive view should be held on issues of employment variety, with more attention paid on job quality, labor’s working conditions and work relationship.