Papers and Briefs

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.

March 2022

  1. ILO Working paper 57

    (Un)Employment and skills formation in Chile: An exploration of the effects of training in labour market transitions

    24 March 2022

    This paper analyses the effects of training on labour market transitions in Chile, using individual-level panel data. It finds that training reduces post-training unemployment, but also shows that the equalizing effects of the training policies are not fully leveraged.

  2. ILO Working paper 56

    The current state of research on the two-way linkages between productivity and well-being

    17 March 2022

    Interest in the topic of well-being has burgeoned in recent years as the weaknesses of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita as a proxy for well-being have become more apparent. At the same time, the global economy has experienced a productivity slowdown, with negative implications for the most important long-term source of sustainable gains in living standards. The objective of this report is to survey the current state of research on the two-way linkages between productivity and well-being in the context of these developments The report discusses measurement issues related to both productivity and well-being, reviews the literature on the channels running from productivity to well-being, and discusses the literature on the linkages running from well-being to productivity.

January 2022

  1. Publication

    The evolution of labour law: Calibrating and comparing regulatory regimes

    13 January 2022

    Using a newly-created data set which measures legal change over time, the authors present evidence on the evolution of labour law in Germany, France, India, the United Kingdom and the United States. Their analysis casts light on the claim that “legal origin” affects the content of labour law regimes. While some divergence between common law and civil law countries is found at the aggregate level, a more complex picture emerges from consideration of specific areas of labour law. The authors discuss the potential significance of this relatively new measurement-based approach to understanding the forces that shape the evolution of labour law.

November 2021

  1. ILO brief

    Who moves and who stays? Labour market transitions under automation and health-related restrictions

    22 November 2021

    The world of work is changing. New technologies, demographic shifts and climate change are reshaping workplaces, jobs, organizations and enterprises. Labour market transitions during which people change their jobs or occupations, their work content, or simply their roles in an organization are likely to become more disruptive in the future (ILO, 2019).

October 2021

  1. ILO Working paper 40

    Financing human-centred COVID-19 recovery and decisive climate action worldwide: International cooperation’s twenty-first century moment of truth

    07 October 2021

    This Working Paper provides a concrete illustration of how the existing international financial architecture could be activated more fully to mobilize the large sums required to respond decisively to the “great divergence” in COVID-19 crisis recovery between advanced and developing countries as well as to the climate crisis.

August 2021

  1. ILO Working paper 39

    Welfare Effects of Unemployment Benefits when Informality is High

    05 August 2021

    We analyze for the first time how the high incidence of informal employment affects the welfare effects of unemployment benefits (UBs) outside of developed economies, exploiting matched administrative and survey data from the UB scheme of Mauritius. We find positive and large welfare effects, because the consumption drop at layoff exceeds what studies find for high-income countries, while the efficiency costs are comparatively low. In addition, UB recipients appear to move into informal employment out of economic necessity, rather than as part of a strategic choice.

July 2021

  1. ILO Working paper 38

    Freelance platform work in the Russian Federation: 2009–2019

    26 July 2021

    This paper traces the development of freelance platform work in the Russian Federation based on unique data from four online surveys conducted over the period 2009 and 2019 via the leading platform for creative and knowledge-based work and analyses the working conditions and well-being of the workers.

  2. ILO Working paper 37

    Trade and Decent Work: Adequate Earnings in the Mexican Manufacturing Industries

    13 July 2021

    This paper analyses the impact of non-preferential trade liberalization and exposure to globalization on “adequate earnings” in Mexico between 2003 and 2020, using data from the national labour force and manufacturing industries surveys. Trade liberalization and globalization contributed to a reduction in working poverty and low-wage workers.

June 2021

  1. ILO Working paper 36

    Trade agreements and decent work in Mexico: the case of the automotive and textile industries

    29 June 2021

    The study applies the framework of decent work indicators developed by the International Labour Organization (ILO), in combination with input–output analysis, to explore selected links between international trade and certain indicators of decent work in two industries of Mexico’s manufacturing sector: automotive and textile.