Papers and Briefs

February 2024

  1. Report

    Algorithmic Management practices in regular workplaces: case studies in logistics and healthcare

    19 February 2024

    An analysis of algorithmic management in logistics and healthcare, examining its global impact on job quality and work organization

  2. ILO Working paper 108

    Youth employment policies: Patterns and trends in two unique data sets

    19 February 2024

    Youth employment challenges are always a critical concern for policymakers. There is recurring and mounting evidence that labour market challenges, such as unemployment, informality, lack of social protection and inactivity, disproportionately affect youths.

  3. ILO Working paper 105

    What Is Driving Wealth Inequality in the United States of America? – The Role of Productivity, Taxation and Skills

    15 February 2024

    This paper assesses the drivers of wealth inequality. While inequality between skilled and unskilled workers is due to differences in educational attainment, within-group inequality is due to differences in productivity across firms. Workers in more successful firms are paid more than their peers with the same level of education and skills in less successful firms.

  4. ILO Working paper 107

    Employment and wage disparities between rural and urban areas

    13 February 2024

    This study uses household survey data from 58 countries around the world to compare the labour market outcomes of rural and urban workers, taking into account the specific socio-demographic characteristics of rural populations. It also provides an overview of the legal frameworks that can be used to address rural-urban employment and wage disparities.

  5. Country Study

    The employment effects of industrial symbiosis networks in the South African informal sector

    08 February 2024

    This report deals with the employment effects of industrial symbiosis in the provinces of Gauteng and the Western Cape in South Africa. It focuses on the textile and construction value chains and formalization.

January 2024

  1. ILO Working paper 102

    A Technological Construction of Society: Comparing GPT-4 and Human Respondents for Occupational Evaluation in the UK

    19 January 2024

    The paper systematically compares GPT-4's evaluations of occupations with those from a high-quality human survey in the UK, finding high correlation but also highlighting the potentials and risks of using LLMs in sociological and occupational research.

December 2023

  1. Research Paper

    Platform work in developing economies: Can digitilisation drive structural transformation?

    31 December 2023

    This paper discusses the expansion or penetration of digital economic activity in the context of developing economies, and what this may mean for economic or structural transformations for countries in the global South.

  2. ILO Working paper 100

    The platform economy and transformations in the world of work: The case of delivery platform workers in Santiago, Chile

    05 December 2023

    This paper examines the experiences of delivery workers on digital labor platforms in Chile and analyses the implications of the platform business model. It highlights challenges in working conditions and algorithmic management practices, which are crucial to address for ensuring decent work, as Chile moves towards implementing a new law to regulate platform work.

November 2023

  1. Country Study

    Employment effects of industrial symbiosis in the Tanzanian sugar sector

    27 November 2023

    This study investigates the impact of transitioning to a circular economy through industrial symbiosis on employment in the Tanzanian sugar industry. Data were gathered via company surveys and semi-structured interviews involving key stakeholders, including academics, government ministries, producers, and industry regulators. On-site visits to three sugar factories were conducted for survey administration.

  2. ILO Working paper 98

    Mortality from COVID-19 in the US : Did unions save lives?

    08 November 2023

    This paper combines data from the NVSS with the CPS into a unique dataset to answer the question on whether unions saved lives during the COVID-19 Pandemic. It finds that if the United States had the union density of 35 percent that it had in 1954 instead of today’s rate of 10 percent, the COVID-19 mortality rate for working people would have been 19 per 100,000 instead of the 26 actually observed.