Call for Papers

Labour Market Transitions of Young Women and Men: Innovative research from 30 ‘school-to-work transition survey’ (SWTS) datasets

The ILO “Work4Youth” Project and the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) invite researchers to submit proposals for innovative research papers relevant to labour market transitions of young women and men in developing countries, making use of one or several of the recent “school-to-work transition survey (SWTS)” datasets from 30 countries. The deadline for submission is Wednesday 30 September 2015.

News | tbd | 06 August 2015
Contact(s): w4y@ilo.org
This is an ILO call for papers which will culminate at the second Global Research Symposium on “Labour Market Transitions of Young Women and Men: Innovative research from 30 ‘school-to-work transition survey’ (SWTS) datasets” to be held during March 2016.

The authors of the best eight papers will be invited to present their work at the Global Symposium and will be considered for official ILO publications.

Key information about the Call for Papers
  • Organizers: ILO Youth Employment Programme and the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
  • Submission deadline (proposals): 30 September 2015
  • Notification of acceptance: 1 November 2015
  • Submission deadline (full paper): 31 January 2016
  • Language: Proposals and full papers should be submitted in English. The Research Symposium will be held in English only.


Scroll down the page to learn about instructions for submission and timelines

Background: 

Young people face several challenges when entering the labour market particularly in developing economies. Not only do they need to find a job, and preferably one that corresponds to their level of qualifications, they also want to develop a foundation for a lasting, stable employment relationship that helps them to progress in life. To characterize these challenges and to support policy-makers in designing adequate instruments to support the transition of young people into employment, the ILO developed the School-to-work Transition Survey (SWTS), a household survey of young people aged 15-29 years.

The surveys offer a wealth of information on the characteristics of education, conditions of work, aspirations and labour market transitions of young people, captured in the survey’s unique assessment of respondents’ history of labour market activities. All related SWTS microdata files, as well as the current national, thematic and regional reports, are available on the Work4Youth website. All data are disaggregated by sex and rural/urban residency.

SWTS datasets are available for the following 30 countries:

  • Asia and the Pacific: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, Samoa, Viet Nam
  • Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, FYR Macedonia, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Serbia, Ukraine
  • Latin America and the Caribbean: Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Jamaica, Peru   
  • Middle East and North Africa: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Tunisia
  • Sub-Saharan Africa: Benin, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia
Access all the SWTS micro-data files 

About the Research Symposium:


Organizers: Work4Youth, ILO Youth Employment Programme, Employment Policy Department and the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Place: Geneva, Switzerand 

Date: 23-24 March 2016 
The Global Research Symposium on “Labour market transitions of young women and men: Innovative research from 30 ‘school-to-work transition survey’ (SWTS) datasets” is the second organized by the International Labour Organization (ILO) on the subject, after the successful event held in March 2014. The symposium will be co-hosted by The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).

The aim of the symposium is to promote the exchange of innovative research and ideas for translating its implications into policy and practice. The event will gather researchers from leading research institutions and development practitioners. The research discussed at the event will draw from the SWTSs implemented between 2012 and 2015 in 30 countries covering five regions of the world. In particular, the Symposium will be organized around the following three themes relevant to issues of labour market transitions of young people:
  1. Conditions of work
  2. Inequalities of opportunity
  3. Labour market transitions

 Awards:

  • Authors of eight papers will be invited to present their work at the main sessions of the second Global Symposium to be held during February 2016 (all expenses covered);
  • Depending on the quality of the piece, the selected papers will be published in an ILO research compendium under the ILO Work4Youth Publication Series in 2016 or as individual papers;
  • The two finalist papers will also receive an award of US$ 1,000 each.

Instructions for submission and timelines:


Those interested should submit a 2-3-page proposal to w4y@ilo.org by 30 September 2015.

The papers should address one or more of the three themes of the Symposium (1. Conditions of work; 2. Inequalities of opportunity; 3. Labour market transitions). For current analyses of the datasets, researchers are encouraged to review publications on the Work4Youth website.

Papers can be national, cross-country, regional or global in scope. The analysis should be based on one or several of the SWTS datasets made available on the Work4Youth website.

The proposal should include:
  • Full paper title;
  • Full name, affiliation, address, phone/fax/e-mail of one author for all correspondence;
  • Recent C.V. of principal author;
  • For all other authors, full name, affiliation and e-mail;
  • Identification of the relevant theme (1-3 above);
  • Short introductive summary (approximately 1,000 words);
  • Arguments regarding the paper’s relevance;
  • Methodology to be utilized;
  • Summary of the main findings and conclusions.

A Committee of Experts, consisting of prominent youth employment experts and labour market researchers from the ILO, IZA, the OECD and Academia (final list, tbc) will evaluate submitted proposals on the basis of their originality, suggested methodology and policy relevance.
The authors of the selected proposals will be contacted no later than 16 October 2015.

Finalized draft papers should be then submitted by 31 January 2016. The drafts will be peer reviewed and should be further adapted in advance of the Symposium.