Everlight Chemical and the Economic Ethics Research Center of Tamkang University recently held the “2023 Economic Ethics Forum” at Tamkang University. With the theme of “Employment and Economic Growth”, Zhuang Yi-Qi, professor of the Department of Economics of National Chengchi University, and Hong Xiao-Wen, associate professor of the Department of Industrial Economics of Tamkang University, were invited. Discussing the impact of population, labor, employment and tax policies on the gap between rich and poor and how to solve it.
Xu Hui-Huang, academic vice president of Tamkang University, delivered a speech, saying that Chen Ding-Chuan, honorary chairman of Everlight Chemical, has a noble business philosophy. He was actively involved in CSR and ESG before Taiwan promoted it, and has long-term support for his alma mater’s research on economic ethics.
The theme of this forum is the eighth item of the 17 “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” announced by the United Nations in 2015, “Employment and Economic Growth.”
Yang Li-Ren, Dean of Tamkang University School of Business and Management, said that in December last year (2022), the Department of International Business established the “Economic Ethics Research Center” with the sponsorship and support of Everlight Chemical, indicating that both parties continue to study economic ethics through industry-university cooperation and integrate for specific actions.
Chen Jian-Xin, chairman of Everlight Chemical, attended the speech and gave a detailed account of the economic ethics forum co-organized with the Department of International Enterprise of Tamkang University over the past ten years. It is expected that the Economic Ethics Research Center will be able to hold more academic activities and play the role of an important think tank in government policy formulation.
Gender-friendly working environment helps women enter the workplace
According to the 2022 World Inequality Report, the bottom half of the population owns only 2% of the world’s wealth, while the top 1% of the population owns 38% of the wealth, and the top 10% of the population owns 76% of the wealth. It shows that wealth inequality today seems to be as serious as it was during the heyday of Western empires in the early 20th century. To this end, Zhuang Yi-Qi, a professor at the Department of Economics at National Chengchi University, discussed economic development from the perspectives of population, labor, and employment, analyzing the relationship between manpower and technology, youth unemployment factors, the widening gap between rich and poor, and uneven generational distribution.
Faced with the problem of low birth rate, Zhuang Yi-Qi believes that the government’s monetary incentives have limited effect. Family ethics and marriage values should be created, and a more gender-friendly working environment should be provided to reduce women’s choice between family and workplace.
Faced with the problem of low birth rate, Zhuang Yi-Qi believes that the government’s monetary incentives have limited effect. Family ethics and marriage values should be created, and a more gender-friendly working environment should be provided to reduce women’s choice between family and workplace.
In addition, the establishment of universities has reduced the average quality and skills of college students, and the industrial structure has been overly concentrated in the electronic information industry, failing to create diversified demand for high-skilled labor, resulting in a misplacement of skills that does not match learning and application. Zhuang Yi-Qi proposed that improving labor supply and demand conditions to meet the needs of the country’s future development is the key to solving the youth employment problem.
Hong Xiao-Wen, associate professor of the Department of Industrial Economics at Tamkang University, studied the changes in the global Gini coefficient from 1980 to 2022 and found that the uneven distribution of income has an increasing trend. This phenomenon can easily lead to comparisons and emotional opposition among societies, leading to social systems and Disorder or political unrest. For example, income inequality in the United States led low-income people to consume in an over-leveraged manner, sowing the seeds of the 2008 financial crisis.
Hong Xiao-Wen conducted an in-depth analysis of the impact of tax policies on income distribution and proposed the most appropriate tax policy. Labor income should be subsidized. When the degree of leisure externality is higher, the income subsidy will be greater. Capital income should be subsidized. When the degree of competition increases, Subsidies for capital have also been reduced.
Everlight Chemical has cooperated with Tamkang University since 2010 and has held 13 consecutive forums to discuss topics such as happy economy, sustainable business operations, and circular economy. Chen Jian-Xin pointed out that the rapid development of the global economy has not only increased economic wealth, but also has many side effects. How to solve the gap between rich and poor and inequality is a serious and important issue when we face the world. It is also the main focus of the Economic Ethics Forum. It is expected that the research results can be provided to government departments as a reference for the formulation of economic policies. Everlight Chemical continues to support the Economic Ethics Forum, which not only makes Tamkang better, but also makes Taiwan more peaceful and the world more harmonious.