Papers and Briefs

July 2022

  1. ILO Working paper 72

    Why should we integrate income and employment support? A conceptual and empirical investigation

    18 July 2022

    This paper conceptualizes, for the first time, the implementation of policy approaches that integrate active labour market policies within income support schemes, focusing on low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). We develop a conceptual framework to understand how integrated policies can address labour market challenges, exploring the theoretical effects they exert on selected labour market and social dimensions. We compare this to the empirical literature, which does not always find that policies are effective. To reconcile this discrepancy, we investigate the design and implementation of integrated approaches across LMIC and identify factors which contribute to their effectiveness.

  2. ILO Working paper 71

    How corporate social responsibility and sustainable development functions impact the workplace: A review of the literature

    11 July 2022

    This report sets out to analyse the emergence and distinctive impact of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development (CSR/SD) functions and professionals within organizations. By evaluating the literature on this topic, it seeks to clarify how leveraging the already established CSR/SD functions and professionals across organizations can contribute to the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) objective of achieving a future of work that provides decent and sustainable work opportunities for all.

June 2022

  1. Publication

    Historical perspectives on the International Labour Review 1921–2021: A century of research on the world of work

    22 June 2022

    This article analyses the history of the International Labour Review (ILR), which was created in 1921, based on the provisions of Article 396 of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, as a major periodical publication of the International Labour Organization (ILO). The article reviews, from various perspectives, the ILR’s transformation from an institutional multipurpose periodical to today’s modern academic journal, including its institutional journey, the role of the editors in charge and the professional and academic profiles of the ILR’s authors. It studies the ILR’s contribution to important academic and policy debates and its role for the ILO by examining from a historical perspective the contents, topics and geographical focus of the almost 3,000 signed articles published to date.

  2. ILO Working paper 68

    Methodological issues related to the use of online labour market data

    22 June 2022

    This paper provides a mapping of existing research that employs online labour market data in countries of different income levels. It discusses the potential of these data for understanding labour market phenomena, such as those related to skills, and examines available tools for dealing with issues of non-representativeness and data fluctuations.

  3. ILO Working paper 70

    A global analysis of worker protest in digital labour platforms

    21 June 2022

    This paper presents findings from the Leeds Index of Platform Labour Protest, a database of platform worker protest events around the world in four platform sectors: ride-hailing, food delivery, courier services and grocery delivery for the period January 2017 to July 2020. The findings show that the single most important cause of platform worker protest is pay, followed by employment status, and health and safety.

May 2022

  1. ILO Working paper 65

    Skills and employment transitions in Brazil

    31 May 2022

    This paper analyses employment transitions and workers’ skills in Brazil between 2003 to 2018, developing a novel procedure to derive a measure of occupational distance and internationally comparable skill measures from occupations’ task descriptions. Against a number of outcomes, workers using non-routine cognitive skills are found to perform better, while routine and non-routine manual workers are worse off in the labour market. Overall, there have been signs of routine-biased technological change and employment polarization since the 2014 Brazilian economic crisis.

  2. ILO Working paper 64

    Gendered Safety Nets and Growing Inequality: Pandemic-induced Recession in India

    31 May 2022

    In the absence of adequate social security for migrant workers, the recession induced by the COVID-19 pandemic forced the mass return of millions of circular migrants who were supported by their rural households of largely left-behind women. In addition, the recession rendered destitute small traders and operators of microenterprises, and reduced the incomes of small-scale farmers.

  3. ILO brief

    Industrial symbiosis networks as part of a circular economy: Employment effects in some industrializing countries

    11 May 2022

    Industrial symbiosis networks as an expression of the circular economy can constitute a valuable contribution to developing economies’ efforts to build a solid industrial sector in a sustainable manner.

  4. ILO Working paper 61

    Key workers in Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic

    05 May 2022

    The study is an analysis of the experience of key workers in Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic. It finds that although the pandemic reshaped the work environment, workers’ concerns regarding the future were not tied directly to concerns about COVID-19, but rather to larger concerns about working conditions and income security that existed prior to the crisis.

April 2022

  1. ILO Working paper 60

    Mobile internet, skills and structural transformation in Rwanda

    25 April 2022

    We study the impact of mobile internet rollout on Rwanda’s labour market. Areas with higher mobile internet coverage experience an increase in employment opportunities, especially towards high skilled and high-value-added activities.