The handbook in “Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics” provides an integrated picture of knowledge about the economic and social behaviors and interactions of human beings in markets, households, companies, and societies. Submit your proposal today.

The Project

With a core basis in labor economics, human resources, demography, and econometrics, it will provide a large and complete summary and evaluation of the scientific state of the art. Some chapters have a policy focus or a multidisciplinary perspective. Long survey chapters on core knowledge are combined with shorter frontier research chapters. See below for a listing of all section topics with links to the published and requested materials.

This innovative research handbook contains 30 sections with about 20 chapters per section and an average of 20 pages in the range of 5,000 – 15,000 words per (10-30 pages) article. Each chapter is freshly produced, discussed, and evaluated for quality, and immediately published on the Springer Nature Handbook website, and will/can be regularly updated. A hardcover version of the handbook is also scheduled for 2027.

About 400 chapters are already available online or in production and will be available soon: List of published papers. The articles are divided into topical sections for orientation, as shown below.

Springer is part of Springer Nature, one of the world’s leading global research, educational, and professional publishers, created in 2015 through the combination of Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, Macmillan Education, and Springer Science+Business Media. The Handbook project is further supported by the Global Labor Organization (GLO).

What is Expected?

• Expected is an academic review and evaluation of the state-of-the-art of the literature, NOT a research article, focusing on all global knowledge with no focus on a particular country or region. The survey article can be written alone or with co-author(s) within a period of about 6 months.
• Quality control is taken by section editors, anonymous reviewers, and/or workshop discussions of draft papers.
• Technical instructions for authors are available HERE.
• Chapter proposals are invited and should contain title, abstract, link to CV or website revealing details of academic qualifications for the purpose. We look for senior authors at best in the suggested fields of study.
• Submit by email to office@glabor.org with the subject title “Handbook Proposal – Section Name”.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING THE PROPOSAL: March 9, 2026

What Topic to Submit?

• Submissions are possible for all sections below; when you click the section title, you will find lists of published articles as well as those titles in preparation and further suggestions for chapters. If you have any alternatives, please feel free to suggest them. SUBMIT indicates that suggestions are particularly welcome.

Handbook Part I

• Aging SUBMIT
• Behavioral Economics
• Conflict SUBMIT
• Covid-19
• Crime SUBMIT
• Development and Labor SUBMIT
• Discrimination SUBMIT
• Education; schooling; human capital SUBMIT
• Entrepreneurship SUBMIT
• Environment SUBMIT
• Family Economics
• Gender
• Household Economics
• Health SUBMIT
• Inequality and Poverty SUBMIT

Handbook Part II

• Institutions and International Organizations SUBMIT
• Macroeconomics of Human Resources SUBMIT
• Methods and Data SUBMIT
• Migration
• Personnel Economics and Human Resource Management SUBMIT
• Political Economy of Human Resources SUBMIT
• Program and Policy Evaluations SUBMIT
• Regional Labor, Urban Economics and Economic Geography
• Religion
• Risky Behaviors SUBMIT
• Sexuality SUBMIT
• Technological Changes and the Labor Market
• Wages SUBMIT
• Welfare, Well-Being, Happiness
• Worker representation, labor-management relations; labor standards SUBMIT