Labour Markets and Migration / Marchés du travail et migrations

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    Educational upgrading and returns to skills in Latin America : evidence from a supply-demand framework, 1990-2010
    (IZA, Bonn, DE, 2011) Gasparini, Leonardo; Galiani, Sebastián; Cruces, Guillermo; Acosta, Pablo
    This paper studies the evolution of wage differentials and trends in the supply of workers by educational level for 16 Latin American countries (between 1990 and 2000). Results show that within a context of constant rise in the relative supply of skilled and semi-skilled workers, the returns from completion of secondary education fell in the last two decades. The increase in returns from tertiary education experienced in the 1990s was reversed during the decade of 2000. The reversal trend in labor demand can be partially attributed to a recent boom in commodity prices that could favor an unskilled workforce.
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    Work and tax evasion incentive effects of social insurance programs : evidence from an employment based benefit extension
    (Center for Distributive, Labor and Social Studies (CEDLAS), Universidad Nacional de La Plata, AR, 2012) Bérgolo, Marcelo; Cruces, Guillermo
    The paper studies a large-scale expansion of employment-based benefits in the social insurance system of a middle-income country (Uruguay). Policy changes extended the coverage of a compulsory, in-work and payroll tax-financed health insurance program to the dependent children of private sector salaried workers, but only to full-time registered employees (those complying with payroll tax and social security contribution requirements). Results indicate that individuals that benefited from the reform responded to financial incentives, significantly increasing their labor force participation and hours of work. The incentive effects of public policies on both labor supply and tax evasion margins matter for developing and middle-income countries.
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    Scarring effects of youth unemployment and informality : evidence from Argentina and Brazil
    (Center for Distributive, Labor and Social Studies (CEDLAS), Universidad Nacional de La Plata, AR, 2012) Viollaz, Mariana; Ham, Andrés; Cruces, Guillermo
    This study looks at the role of early career labor market experiences on adult outcomes by analyzing how unemployment and informality during youth are related to adult unemployment, informality and wages in Argentina and Brazil. Findings show that youth unemployment and informality do affect adult labor market outcomes. However, state dependence and wage penalty effects are mainly present in the early years of adulthood and tend to disappear with the passage of time. These results are also different for adult individuals of different skill levels. Those with lower skills experience higher wage losses and larger persistence effects.
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    Exploring trends in labor informality in Latin America, 1990-2010
    (Center for Distributive, Labor and Social Studies (CEDLAS), Universidad Nacional de La Plata, AR, 2012) Tornarolli, Leopoldo; Battistón, Diego; Gasparini, Leonardo; Gluzmann, Pablo
    Labor informality is a pervasive characteristic of the labor markets in Latin America, and a central issue in the public policy debate. This paper discusses the concept of labor informality and implements alternative definitions using microdata from around 300 national household surveys in all Latin American countries. The analysis covers two decades: while labor informality, defined as lack of social protection related to employment, remained with few changes in the 1990s, there is a discernible downward pattern during the 2000s in most countries. These movements reveal a counter-cyclical behavior of labor informality, that may be linked to segmentation in the labor market.
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    Demographic change and its influence on development in Latin America and the Caribbean
    (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Santiago, CL, 2008) Jaspers-Faijer, Dirk; Schkolnik, Susana; Saad, Paulo; Miller, Tim; Huenchuan, Sandra
    This document reports on past trends, the current situation, and possible future scenarios in terms of regional population and demographic dynamics, to provide information towards policy to the governments of the region’s countries. As part of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) framework, this includes gender perspectives, the expansion of social protection, and the fostering of social cohesion. Demographic changes happen alongside economic and social development; within those contexts, development is occurring in an environment characterized by high and persistent inequity in all aspects of economic and social life.
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    Many faces of poverty : volume 1
    (Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies, De La Salle University, Manila, PH, 2009) Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies. PEP-CBMS Network
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    Reforms, growth and informal employment : policy brief
    (Consorcio de Investigación Económica y Social (CIES), Lima, PE, 2011) García, Norberto E.
    This paper develops policy proposals focused on accelerating the growth of formal employment, and for enhancing productivity and living standards of people working in the informal sector – both urban and rural. It discusses an economic policy framework dealing with the main employment problems affecting the formal and informal economies and labour markets of Peru. In a country where the informal sectors represent the bulk of employment, public policies should not only focus on formal sector development.
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    Do good things come out after recessions? : the productivity-business cycle interaction
    (DLSU Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies, Manila, PH, 2010) Alba, Michael; Dacuycuy, Lawrence B.
    The Philippines has endured a wave of recessions. While some have been shallow, resulting in minor deviations, others have been deep and devastating like those during the last years of the Marcos regime. Understanding the nature of the interaction between economic downturns and aggregate productivity has significant policy implications. Destruction/degradation of capital during recessionary years and anemic performance in replacing depreciated capital through sustained investment spending has reduced technological progress. Without the necessary upgrades brought about by significant investment expenditures, productivity growth is unsustainable. This is critically relevant for the Philippines, where the boom-bust cycle continues to hold sway.
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    Stubborn unemployment and employment vulnerability in the midst of economic growth: the Philippine case
    (DLSU Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies, Manila, PH, 2010) Cabegin, Emily Christi A.; Dacuycuy, Lawrence; Alba, Michael
    Using cross-section data for several years from the Labor Force Surveys and Family Income and Expenditure Surveys, the authors dissected the past two decades into economic growth episodes of 1991-1997 and of 2000-2006 to show the following findings: characterized by a worsening, already high, open unemployment rate, underemployment, and pervasive vulnerable employment unprotected by Labor Code, the Philippine economy presents a bleak picture for workers in marked contrast to the more inclusive nature of the growth episode in the 1990s, before the Asian financial crisis. Some policy options are recommended. Regulation of population growth is of increasing importance as job creation cannot keep up.
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    Challenges of firm-level adjustment, productivity, and workers' welfare under globalization : case studies, insights, and policy recommendations
    (DLSU Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies, Manila, PH, 2010) Sibal, Jorge V.
    This paper documents successful social partnership experiences of 16 companies in coping with increased competition due to globalization. It concludes that social partnership is beneficial to both employers and workers. Two major areas for social partnerships include policy implementation and formulation; for instance the Act to Strengthen Right to Self-Organization and Collective Bargaining needs active support by social partners to promote trade union organizing and collective bargaining associations. As well, employee representation in governing boards of government corporations should be expanded to other state corporations, and there should be a campaign of patronage for local products.
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    Industry churning, the labor market and workers' welfare
    (DLSU Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies, Manila, PH, 2010) Pascual, Clarence
    Workers bear a disproportionately large share of the cost of labor reallocation. This case study of displaced workers in the Philippines shows that job loss results in significant economic losses and drastic deterioration in workers’ welfare, and that these adverse outcomes can persist over the medium to long term. The low re-employment rate, a drop in the quality of employment and earnings for those who find work again, heightened economic insecurity, and a drastic decline in workers health status are among the most dramatic consequences of job loss. Feasible policy measures for protection of workers exist, and these should be enacted.
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    Globalization, adjustment, and employment drivers
    (DLSU Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies, Manila, PH, 2010) Villamil, Winfred M.; Reyes, Rachel C.; Hernandez, Joel
    This study is a comparative analysis of the relative performance of two key industries in the Philippines during the period when the country liberalized trade: the textile and garments industry, and information and communications technology (ICT)-based industries, consisting of the electronics industry and the business process outsourcing (BPO) services sector. The study aims to account for the factors that affected the differential performance of these industries, their efforts to upgrade in the face of stronger competition, and the implications of these efforts as drivers of employment.
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    Mesures de la qualité de l'emploi au Maroc : vers la construction d'un indicateur composite
    (Population Council, Cairo, EG, 2009) Abdelkhalek, Touhami; Ajbilou, Aziz; Benkassmi, Mohamed
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    Job quality in Jordan : an analysis based on a job quality index (JQI)
    (Population Council, Cairo, EG, 2009) Alhawarin, Ibrahim; Salamat, Mamdouh
    The study constructs a Job Quality Index (JQI) for Jordanian wage and salary workers for the period 2000–07. A persistent gender gap exists in favor of male workers, whose jobs are characterized by a higher JQI. Workers with a basic education or lower obtain considerably poorer jobs, generally characterized with lower JQIs. New entrants to the labor market and workers on the verge of retirement are more likely to have lower job quality in comparison with workers belonging to age groups in the middle of their work lives.
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    Trade liberalization, inter-industry wage differentials and job quality in Egyptian manufacturing
    (Population Council, Cairo, EG, 2009) AlAzzawi, Shireen; Said, Mona
    This paper investigates the impact of trade openness on wage and job quality outcomes in the Egyptian manufacturing sector over a period of rapid trade liberalization. We utilize newly available panel labor market survey data for 1998–2006, merge it (at the two-digit industry level) with trade variables that capture export orientation, import penetration as well as direct policy change relating to reduction of average tariffs, and use the merged data set to estimate a two-stage inter-industry wage and job quality premia model. Our results highlight that institutional factors of job quality (social security, medical insurance, a contract, paid casual leave, paid sick leave, and whether the worker is a member of a trade union) have the strongest correlation with the trade variables and the industry-specific characteristics used in the analysis. Tariff reduction per se, does not seem to have had a significant impact on either wages or job quality over this period. On the other hand, increased export orientation exerts a strong positive impact on wages, but a significant negative impact on all job quality indices in many specifications. Finally, industries with the highest import penetration levels have the lowest job quality, but those that had the largest increase in import penetration actually also saw large improvements in job quality. The above results underscore the clear distinction between wage and job quality outcomes in the Egyptian labor market, and the importance of separating the two when examining the effect of trade policy on labor.
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    Impact of labor market reforms on informality in Egypt
    (Population Council, Cairo, EG, 2009) Wahba, Jackline
    This paper examines the effect of the new labor law of 2003, which provides flexibility in the hiring and firing procedures since labor market inflexibility was seen as one of the obstacles to job creation in Egypt. The analysis focuses on the effect of the new law on formal employment (jobs with contracts) in the private non-agricultural regular waged sector. The findings suggest that the new law has had a positive impact on those who were employed in 1998 in the private non-agricultural sector and in the private non-agricultural waged sector. However, the effect was not significant for new entrants to the labor market looking for first jobs.
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    When there is no respect at work : job quality issues for women in Egypt’s private sector
    (Population Council, Cairo, EG, 2009) Barsoum, Ghada; Rashed, Ali; Hassanien, Dahlia
    The paper argues that women in Egypt face job quality issues that discourage them from continuing to work or even from entering the labor market. It provides an ethnographic account of the job quality of poor young females in the private sector in Egypt. The paper highlights young women’s valorization of jobs in the public sector and with the government. It discusses the advantages presented by the public sector in Egypt, why those jobs are valorized by women, and the strategies young women adopt in clinging to the hope of getting a public sector/government job, even as opportunities are rare.
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    Measuring and operationalizing job quality in Egypt
    (Population Council, Cairo, EG, 2009) Assaad, Ragui; Roushdy, Rania; Rashed, Ali
    This paper defines and measures job quality for both wage and non-wage workers and investigates the worker and enterprise-specific determinants of job quality. Although findings show that on the whole job quality appears to have declined in Egypt over the 1998 to 2006 period, it has in fact increased among wage and salary workers in the private sector, most noticeably among workers in microenterprises. The overall decline can be partially attributed to measurement issues related to non-wage workers, as well as to a compositional shift of the workforce away from what has been considered high-quality public sector employment.
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    Dynamics of job quality in Egypt : what are the good jobs and who gets them?; a 1998-2006 comparison
    (Population Council, Cairo, EG, 2008) Assaad, Ragui; Rashed, Ali
    Employment is expanding at a good pace and unemployment is declining; the proportion of good jobs has declined and that of poor jobs has increased among all workers. The presentation addresses the quality of jobs being created in the Egyptian economy. Among wage and salary workers, most good jobs have contracts, paid vacations and paid sick leave and all offer regular employment. Poor jobs have virtually none of the above features and are mostly irregular. A comparison is drawn between public and private sector employment, as well as trends over time.
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    Ethnographic data on the job quality and poverty in Egypt : a focus on youth
    (Population Council, Cairo, EG, 2008) Barsoum, Ghada