The Center for China and Globalization (CCG) has joined the institutions supporting the Global Labor Organization (GLO). This was agreed during a recent visit of GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann at CCG with CCG President Henry Wang. Wang, who is also a GLO Fellow,and Zimmermann have collaborated in the past over a long period. GLO will support the 2020 International Conference on Global Migration and Talent Mobility, CCG is organizing in Beijing on June 12-14, 2020 together with Metropolis China and Metropolis Asia. Zimmermann was the local organizer of the 2008 International Metropolis Conference in Bonn.
The Center for China and Globalization (CCG) is a leading Chinese non-government think tank based in Beijing. It is dedicated to the study of Chinese public policy and globalization. CCG’s research agenda centers on China’s growing role in the world, drawing from issues of global governance, global trade and investment, global migration, international relations, and other topics pertaining to regional and global development. CCG is a not-for-profit and non-governmental organization registered with the civil affairs system of Chinese authorities. It is independently funded by research grants and donations from private and corporate donors. For years, CCG has been ranked by the Think Tank and Civil Society Program (TTCSP) at University of Pennsylvania as one of the world’s top 50 independent think tanks.
Zimmermann with CCG President Henry Wang on December 12, 2019
Left: CCG-GLO collaboration discussions at the CCG headquarter on December 12, 2019 Right: Zimmermann speaking at the 2008 Metropolis conference in Bonn.
Junsen Zhang( Chinese University of Hong Kong) has been one of the editors of the Journal of Population Economicssince 2001. After 19 years of dedicated work he moves on to work as one of the co-editors of the Journal of Human Resources. To enable a smooth transition, his position was already filled earlier this year by appointing Shuaizhang Feng (Jinan University). The whole editorial team is very grateful for the strong and very successful collaboration with Junsen Zhang for nearly two decades and wish him all the best for his future. Although he leaves his position on December 31 this year, the editorial team still looks forward to further collaborations with him. Alessandro Cigno(University of Florence) and Oded Galor (Brown University) remain in their positions as editors. Editor-in-Chief Klaus F. Zimmermann thanked Junsen Zhang for his inspiring and effective work which helped significantly to establish the high reputation and impact the Journal has today. Zimmermann expressed also his gratefulness for a long-term friendship and the insightful advice he received from him over the years.
On this occasion, we publish an interview with Junsen Zhang on journal editing.
Question: What motivates a productive researcher like you to act as a journal editor? Junsen Zhang: I view it as a social responsibility with an honor.
Question: What is your current research focus and how does this relates to your editorial role? Junsen Zhang: Family economics. I have been handling submissions related to that, especially with applications to China.
Question: Is the profession publishing too much? Junsen Zhang: To the extent that many papers are not highly cited, perhaps the economics profession is publishing too much. But ex ante, we are not very sure which papers would be highly cited, so we need to publish more. Also, the rejection rates for most economics journals are still extremely high. Thus, overall, I do not think the publishing amount is excessive.
Question: What makes in your view a good academic journal? Junsen Zhang: Good editors to have sound judgement on high quality, impactful research, and a fast review and publication process.
Question: What are the current trends in the journal business? Junsen Zhang: More evidence-based research with good theoretical or conceptual underpinning, moving away from lengthy papers, and fast turnaround.
With GLO FellowJunsen Zhang spoke Klaus F. Zimmermann, GLO President & Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Population Economics.
GLO Southeast Asia Lead, Professor Niaz Asadullah of the University of Malaya, Malaysia, delivered the keynote lecture on “Ending Global Poverty by 2030: Progress and challenges”.
The other keynote speaker was Dr. Peter Abrahamson, a Professor of Sociology from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr. Abrahamson spoke on “Leaving Nobody Behind: Poverty and Social Exclusion in the 21st Century”.
The conference provided a great platform for researchers, academics, scholars, and educators from across the world to share their research findings on issues relating to poverty, labor and sustainable development. Presentations were organized in multiple technical sessions under the following themes: (i) FOCUSING ON OUTCOMES (ii) MEASURING POVERTY AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION, and (iii) GENERAL ISSUES REGARDING POVERTY AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION.
For young researchers, ICPSD hosted an intensive and interactive journalpublication workshop where participants received first hand tips on writing scientific papers and scholarly publications. Workshop was led by Dr. Peter Abrahamson and Professor Niaz Asadullah. Both shared their experience as editors of different social sciences SSCI journals.
The conference ended on 6 December with a Round Table discussion on “Eliminating the Inequality Gap: Driving the World for Sustainable Development”. All participants were required to prepare a plan of action for inequality reduction in their respective region and contrast this other each other. This lively session was moderated by the conference co-chair Dr. PeterAbrahamson and Professor Niaz Asadullah.
The conference was a huge success and provided a refreshing experience for young researchers from Southeast Asia to interact with senior scholars and share their research findings on an international platform. GLO looks forward to partnering with TIIKM and other organizers for similar events in the region in 2020.
Keynote speakers: GLO Southeast Asia LeadNiaz Asadullah (left) and PeterAbrahamson
Professor Asadullah moderating the session on inequality reduction
Debate: From the left: Professors Abrahamson & Asadullah ; Anthropologist Professor Samia Huq of BRAC University ; and Dr J N Mbata of UNDP, Malawi.
Dear GLO Members and Friends: Season’s Greetings, happy holidays and a healthy & successful New Year 2020! Many thanks for the large support GLO has experienced in 2019 from you!
In the spirit of the GLO Mission, the GLO VirtYS program’s goal is to contribute to the development of the future generation of researchers, who are committed to the creation of policy-relevant research, are well equipped to work in collaboration with policy makers and other stakeholders, and adhere to the highest standards of academic integrity. This goal is achieved through the process of working on a specific research paper within the duration of the program, which is 9 months, and interact with the GLO VirtYS cohort and advisors.
Under the leadership of GLO VirtYS Program Director Olena Nizalova, the participants have virtually met with GLO officials and advisors on November 15 for a warm welcome and first interactions.
Olena Nizalova
From a large number of excellent applications 7 participants were chosen, many more than the originally planned 3-5.
Ömer Tuğsal Doruk (advisor: Francesco Pastore; GLO cluster: School-to-Work Transition)
Under political pressure of the Hungarian Government, the Central European University (CEU) has left this year Budapest for Vienna. Leaving behind a wonderful and perfect infrastructure, the university has found an attractive new place in Austria’s capital. The matter represents an important chapter in the global fight for academic freedom and evidence-based policy-making. The Global Labor Organization (GLO) had early on first followed and later on reflected the issue, always supportingCEU‘s case. CEU’s Martin Kahanec gave GLO’s Klaus F. Zimmermann an interview about the current state of this development.
Martin Kahanec, a prominent European economist, is currently Mercator Senior Visiting Fellow at Bruegel, Brussels, and was just selected by the Board of Trustees of Academia Europaea, the European Academy of Humanities, Letters and Sciences, as a member of its Section Committee of Economics, Business and Management Sciences. He is a Professor and former Acting Dean (2017-2019) of the School of Public Policy at the CEU. He is also Founder and Scientific Director of CELSI, Bratislava, a GLO Fellow, and a former Chairperson of the Slovak Economic Association (2016-2018).
Klaus F. Zimmermann is the GLO President, and has been the George Soros Chair at the School of Public Policy, in Spring 2019 in Budapest. Kahanec and Zimmermann have worked and published together over a longer period.
GLO: What can we learn from the CEU experience for academic freedom?
Kahanec: Let me mention three key lessons from this experience. First, never take freedom, and academic freedom in particular, for granted. Second, do not rely on politicians for its protection, it has become just one of the many tokens they are playing with. And there are many tokens they value more, such as political support in the European Parliament, or a military deal. Even worse, for some types of politicians an attack on an academic institution wins voters’ support. Third, we might lose a battle or two, but we will prevail as long as we do not give up nurturing and defending academic freedom. Free, open societies provide for innovation, critical thinking, and the pursuit of happiness and prosperity, and as such are more competitive and prevail in the long run.
GLO: How will this affect academic capacity building in Eastern Europe?
Kahanec: As the Hungarian government is trying to convince the general public that the expulsion of CEU is not a loss for Hungary, it downplays its academic excellence and invests in domestic capacity building – but including pro-Orban institutions only. It also facilitates the opening of branches of foreign schools – from carefully selected countries – in Hungary. For example, PM Orban recently personally supported the opening of Shanghai’s Fudan University campus and an elementary and high school connected to Turkish President Erdogan in Budapest.
But many of the
prominent academics are leaving Hungary and yet more will decide not to come or
return to, or cooperate with, Hungary. As many prominent Hungarian academics
realized early on, the attack on academic freedom was not to be confined to CEU
– it has affected the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and many Hungarian
universities. In the long run, this will be a huge blow to the Hungarian
academe. As the attack on CEU in several ways follows the script already
applied in Russia and Turkey, it is clear there are negative spillovers. How
the contagion will spread to the rest of Europe will also depend on how the
European political elites will respond. So far they have a worryingly poor track
record.
GLO: Will there be a chance for CEU to return back?
Kahanec: We are determined not to abandon Hungary and keep the Budapest campus. We will use it for non-teaching activities. As for our degree programs, my personal opinion is ‘never say never’.
GLO: How supportive is the EU and its Commission for CEU?
Kahanec: Some attempts to save CEU have been made, but they all have been eventually utterly ineffective. The EU has very limited instruments to protect democracy and freedom, let alone academic freedom, in its member states. The EU treaties did not really foresee, let alone provide safeguards against, rogue governments in its member states.
GLO: How well can CEU adjust in Vienna?
Kahanec: This will not be trivial, but we take this crisis as an opportunity to reinvent the university and to update its mission in order to even more strongly respond to the deep challenges societies around the globe are facing. We are opening new programs in Vienna, and I am proud to have stood, as the dean of CEU’s School of Public Policy, at the cradle of the new Masters’ program in International Public Affairs – the first graduate degree program that Central European University accredited in Austria to establish CEU in its new home in Vienna. And I must say, I am deeply impressed by, and grateful for the support from Austrian academics and institutions. There will be many challenges, but I am confidently looking forward to CEU’s future in Austria.
The Second GLO – Renmin University of China Conference on Labor Economics in Beijing took place in the North Hall, Century Hall, RUC, 7-8 December 2019. More details: Report 1 and Report 2. The full program and further conference pictures are below.
Keynote speakers of the event were GLO FellowsShi Li of Zhejiang University and Xi Chen of Yale University. Conference organizers were GLO Fellows Corrado Giulietti and Jun Han.GLO Director Matloob Piracha also gave a paper, and GLO Fellow Zhong Zhao and GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann had addressed the conference. The event is part of the GLO China Research Cluster, which is lead by Corrado Giulietti, who is also a GLO Research Director.
Conference activists from the left : Zhong Zhao, Shi Li, Klaus F. Zimmermann, Jun Han, Matloob Piracha, Corrado Giulietti & Xi Chen.
Zhao, Li, Zimmermann
Han, Piracha, Giulietti
Chen
Saturday, December 7, 2019: First day
Morning, speakers, conference openings and keynote Giulietti, Zimmermann of GLO and Zhao, Han of Renmin University of China
Keynote of Shi Li on wage gap changes in China between urban and rural migrant workers
Morning Speakers From the left: Jing Wu, Tobias Haepp and Chuhong Wang
Debate
Afternoon, keynote and session speakers Corrado Giulietti & Xi Chen
Afternoon speakers from the left: Zhangfeng Jin, Yunqi Zeng, Xiangiang Zou, Jun Han & Zhuang Hao
Sunday, December 8, 2019: Second day
Speakers Li Dai, Wang Yue & Matloob Piracha
Debate and farewell Chuhong Wang, Klaus F. Zimmermann & Corrado Giulietti
A new GLO Discussion Paperis providing evidence that heterogeneity in populism does not follow a left/right divide.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: We present an exploratory machine learning analysis of populist votes at municipality level in the 2018 Italian general elections, in which populist parties gained almost 50% of the votes. Starting from a comprehensive set of local characteristics, we use an algorithm based on BIC to obtain a reduced set of predictors for each of the two populist parties (Five-Star Movement and Lega) and the two traditional ones (Democratic Party and Forza Italia). Differences and similarities between the sets of predictors further provide evidence on 1) heterogeneity in populisms, 2) if this heterogeneity is related to the traditional left/right divide. The Five-Star Movement is stronger in larger and unsafer municipalities, where people are younger, more unemployed and work more in services. On the contrary, Lega thrives in smaller and safer municipalities, where people are less educated and employed more in manufacturing and commerce. These differences do not correspond to differences between the Democratic Party and Forza Italia, providing evidence that heterogeneity in populism does not correspond to a left/right divide. As robustness tests, we use an alternative machine learning technique (lasso) and apply our predictions to France as to confront them with candidates’ actual votes in 2017 presidential elections.
A new GLO Discussion Paper firstly measures poverty among refugees.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: The increasing growth of forced displacement worldwide has led to the stronger interest of various stakeholders in measuring poverty among refugee populations. However, refugee data remain scarce, particularly in relation to the measurement of income, consumption, or expenditure. This paper offers a first attempt to measure poverty among refugees using cross-survey imputations and administrative and survey data collected by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Jordan. Employing a small number of predictors currently available in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees registration system, the proposed methodology offers out-of-sample predicted poverty rates. These estimates are not statistically different from the actual poverty rates. The estimates are robust to different poverty lines, they are more accurate than those based on asset indexes or proxy means tests, and they perform well according to targeting indicators. They can also be obtained with relatively small samples. Despite these preliminary encouraging results, it is essential to replicate this experiment across countries using different data sets and welfare aggregates before validating the proposed method.
A new GLO Discussion Paper shows that in Portugal employee representatives foster firm performance through increased training of workers.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: Employee representatives in firms are a potentially key but not yet studied source of the impact of unions and works councils. Their actions can shape multiple drivers of firm performance, including collective bargaining, strikes, and training. This paper examines the impact of union rep mandates by exploiting legal membership thresholds present in many countries. In the case of Portugal, which we examine here, while firms employing up to 49 union members are required to have one union rep, this increases to two (three) union reps for firms with 50 to 99 (100-199) union members. Drawing on matched employer- employee data on the unionized sector and regression discontinuity methods, we find that a one percentage point increase in the legal union rep/members ratio leads to an increase in firm performance of at least 7%. This result generally holds across multiple dimensions of firm performance and appears to be driven by increased training. However, we find no effects of union reps on firm-level wages, given the predominance of sectoral collective bargaining.
A new GLO Discussion Paper shows that the China-drivenfall in IT prices has increased the demand for high wage occupations and reduced the demand for low wage occupations.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: I use data from the World Input-Output Database and show that trade in information technologies (IT) has a significant contribution to the growth in foreign intermediate goods in 2001-2014 period. China has become one of the major foreign suppliers of IT and has strongly contributed to the rise in trade in IT. The growth in IT imports from China is associated with lower IT prices in sample European countries. The fall in IT prices has increased the demand for high wage occupations and reduced the demand for low wage occupations. From 20 to 95 percent of the variation in the demand for occupations stemming from the fall in IT prices can be attributed to the trade with China.
Gautam Hazarika (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley), Chandan Kumar Jha (Le Moyne College, Madden School of Business), and Sudipta Sarangi (Virginia Tech) will receive the 2020 Kuznets Prize for their article (please click title for FREE READ LINK)
which was published in the Journal of Population Economics (2019), 32(4), pp. 1101-1123. The annual prize honors the best article published in the Journal of Population Economics.
The award will be given to the authors during the ASSA 2020 meeting in San Diego, USA, at a reception on Friday, Jan. 3, 2020, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM, at the Marriott Marquis San Diego, Coronado Room, hosted by the Institute for Economic and Social Research (IESR) of Jinan University.
Biographical Abstracts
Gautam Hazarika is presently Associate Professor of Economics at
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, the newest branch of the University
of Texas system. He completed his undergraduate education at the University of
Delhi’s St. Stephen’s College, and his Ph.D. at the University of Rochester. His
research has spanned labor and development economics. He is presently conducting
research in economic anthropology. Dr. Hazarika’s research has appeared in such
journals as American Journal of
Agricultural Economics, Review of
Income and Wealth, the Journal of
Development Studies, and, recently, the Journal
of Population Economics.
Chandan Kumar Jha is an Assistant Professor of
Finance at the Madden School of Business, Le Moyne College. He holds a Ph.D.
and an M.S. from Louisiana State University. His research interests lie in the
areas of economic growth and development, political economy, and finance and
development. His current research topics include corruption, gender inequality,
financial risk, and economic and financial reforms. He has published several
research articles in many reputed journals such as the Journal of Economic Behavior &
Organization, the Journal of Population Economics, International Review of
Finance, and Information
Economics and Policy.
Sudipta Sarangi is currently
Department Head and Professor of Economics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University. His research interests range from network theory to
development economics. He studies how gender differences affect economic
activity, as well as the origins of gender inequality. His work on networks
focuses on the strategic formation of social and economic networks and how
participation in multiple networks affects social outcomes. He is a research
associate of DIW Berlin, GATE, University of Lyon-St. Etienne and the Lima
School of Economics. He serves on the editorial boards of Journal of
Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Public Economic Theory
and Studies in Microeconomics.
Hazarika
Jha
Sarangi
Abstract of the Winning Paper
“This paper examines the relationship between
ecological endowments in antiquity and contemporary female to male sex ratios
in the population. It is found that there are proportionately more missing
women in countries whose ancestral ecological endowments were poorer. This
relationship is shown to be strong even after ancestral plough use, the timing
of the Neolithic Transition, and many other potentially confounding factors are
controlled for. Similar results are also obtained using district-level data
from India.”
About the Kuznets Prize
The Journal of Population Economics awards the ‘Kuznets Prize’ for the best paper published in the Journal of Population Economicsin the previous year. Starting from 2014 the Prize has been awarded annually. Papers are judged by the Editors of the Journal.
Simon Kuznets, a pioneer in population economics, Professor Emeritus at Harvard University and the 1971 Nobel Prize laureate in economics, died on July 10, 1985. Professor Kuznets was born 1901 in Pinsk, Belarus, and came to the United States in 1922. He earned his Bachelor of Science in 1923, a Master of Arts degree in 1924 and his doctorate in 1926, all from Columbia University. During World War II he was Associate Director of the Bureau of Planning and Statistics on the War Production Board, and he served on the staff of the National Bureau of Economic Research from 1927 to 1960. Mr. Kuznets was a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania for 24 years and Professor of Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University from 1954 until he joined Harvard University in 1960. He retired in 1971 and was given the title of George F. Baker Professor Emeritus of Economics. He was a former president of the American Economic Association and the American Statistical Association.
Previous Winners
The Kuznets Prize (please click titles for READ LINKS FOR FREE) has previously been awarded to:
2016: Loren Brandt (University of Toronto), Aloysius Siow (University of Toronto), and Hui Wang (Peking University) for their article “Compensating for unequal parental investments in schooling,” Journal of Population Economics 28: 423-462.
Period 2010-2012: Richard W. Evans (Brigham Young University), Yingyao Hu (Johns Hopkins University) and Zhong Zhao (Renmin University) for their article “The fertility effect of catastrophe: US hurricane births“, Journal of Population Economics 23: 1-36.
The 2020 Annual Congress of the Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES/SGVS) onJune 18-19 takes place at the University of Zürich organized by the Department of Economics. GLO Fellow and GLO Country Lead Switzerland Rainer Winkelmann heads the Organizing Committee that includes also GLO Fellow David Dorn.
Paper submission deadline: February 1, 2020.All fields of economics and statistics are welcome. PDF Call for Papers.
There will be keynote lectures and special sessions on the topic of Digital Transformation with speakers including: Christina Caffarra (CRA), Hal Varian (Google) and John van Reenen (MIT).
CALL FOR PAPERS: 2020 Annual Congress of the Swiss Society for Economics and Statistics, June 18-19, 2020, Zurich, Switzerland.
The Department of Economics at the University of Zürich is proud to host the Annual Meeting of the Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES/SGVS) on June 18 (Thursday) and June 19 (Friday), 2020.
Topics
Submissions of papers across all fields of economics and statistics are
welcome. In addition, there will be keynote lectures and special sessions on
the topic of Digital Transformation. Speakers include: Christina
Caffarra (CRA), Hal Varian (Google) and John van Reenen (MIT).
Paper submission
Authors are invited to submit their preliminary or complete papers electronically (PDF files only) to: https://www.sgvs.ch/conferences/sses2020 Paper submission deadline: February 1, 2020.
Papers will be selected by a Program Committee consisting of a panel of
scholars from member institutions of the SSES. The submitting authors will be
notified of the Program Committee’s decision by April
1, 2020, at the latest.
The registration deadline for the conference is May 1, 2020.
Contributed Sessions
In addition, there will be a possibility to propose contributed sessions
(with 3-4 speakers each) on a specific topic. If you are interested, please
write an email with the topic and the names of the contributors by December 31, 2019 at the latest to: rainer.winkelmann@econ.uzh.ch. These proposals will be evaluated and you will be informed about the
decision by January 15, 2020.
SSES Young Economist Award
Authors who wish to be considered for the 2020 SSES Young Economist
Award should indicate this when submitting their paper.
Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics
A selection of contributions related to the special theme will be
published in a proceedings volume of the Swiss Journal of Economics and
Statistics (http://www.sjes.ch).
Organizing Committee Rainer Winkelmann (Chair), David Dorn, Marek Pycia, Florian Scheuer, Ulrich Woitek
The Second GLO – Renmin University of China Conference on Labor Economics in Beijing took place in the North Hall, Century Hall, RUC 7-8 December 2019. More details and full program.
Conference organizers were GLO Fellows Corrado Giulietti and Jun Han. The event is part of the GLO China Research Cluster, which is lead by Corrado Giulietti, who is also a GLO Research Director.
The conference was opened on December 7 by Corrado Giulietti, Jun Han, GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann, and Deputy Dean and GLO Fellow Zhong Zhao.
Keynote speakers were GLO FellowsShi Li of Zhejiang University and Xi Chen of Yale University. The conference saw 15 further paper presentations, one of them by GLO Director Matloob Piracha on Sunday, the second day of the event.
DAY 1; December 7
Zhong Zhao
Shi Li
From the left: Corrado Giulietti, Jun Han, Matloob Piracha, Xi Chen, Xianqiang Zou, and Zhangfeng Jin
GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann started his December visit to Beijing on December 5 to participate in a one-day event on:
For the Future: International Conference on Vocational Education and Training Development
The event took place in the Conference Center, Beijing International Hotel, Beijing/China. It was hosted by the China Development Research Foundation (CDRF) and The Chinese Society of Technical and Vocational Education (CSTVE) and supervised by the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China and the Development Research Center of the State Council.
Next to following an intensive program with over 300 participants, Zimmermann was the Luncheon Keynote Speaker on the topic “Vocational Education & Training: Socio-Economic Sustainable Development“.
Key topics:
Vocational systems and youth unemployment
A roadmap to vocational education and training
General education versus vocational education
Challenges in the digital age
Central messages:
The Youth-to-Adult Unemployment Ratio of Germany With Its Dual Vocational Training System is Far Below Others in the Western World.
Vocational systems are a valued alternative beyond the core of general education.
Vocational high school graduates have better employment outcomes than general high school graduates.
The dual system is more effective in helping youth transition into employment than alternative academic or vocational training.
In the digital age, ICT skills are obviously important, but success comes with the development of non-cognitive skills.
Selective references:
Klaus F. Zimmermann, Costanza Biavaschi, Werner Eichhorst, Corrado Giulietti, Michael J. Kendzia, Alexander Muravyev, Janneke Pieters, Núria Rodríguez-Planas & Ricarda Schmidl (2013), Youth Unemployment and Vocational Training”, Foundations and Trends® in Microeconomics (2013), 9: 1-157.
Werner Eichhorst, Núria Rodríguez-Planas, Ricarda Schmidl & Klaus F. Zimmermann, A Roadmap to Vocational Education and Training in Industrialized Countries, Industrial and Labor Relations Review (2015), 68: 314-337.
Pierre Cahuc, Stéphane Carcillo, Ulf Rinne & Klaus F. Zimmermann, Youth Unemployment in Old Europe: The Polar Cases of France and Germany, IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, (2013), 2:18
Huzeyfe Torun & Semih Tumen, Do Vocational High School Graduates Have Better Employment Qutcomes Than General High School Graduates?, International Journal of Manpower (2019), 40: 1364-1388.
Shubha Jayaram, Tara Hill & Daniel Plaut, Training Models for Employment in the Digital Economy, Results for Development Institute (2013).
The new European Union Commission under the leadership of Ursula von der Leyen started working on December 1, 2019 with the aim to re-vitalize Europe.
GLO Fellow Jo Ritzen is a Professorial Fellow of UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance.UNU-MERIT is a joint institute of the United Nations University (UNU) and Maastricht University. Ritzen is a former Minister of Education, Culture, and Science of the Netherlands, served in the Dutch Cabinet at the Maastricht Treaty, is a former Vice President of the World Bank and a former President of Maastricht University.
On December 3, Jo Ritzen presented his new book at the Campus Brussels of Maastricht University on the future of Europe: Una segunda oportunidad para Europa (A Second Chance for Europe) calls upon to rethink and reboot the European Union, obviously right in time for the fresh start of Europe, Ursula von der Leyen attempts to organize.
On this occasion, GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann was visiting Brussels to prepare a European strategy for this organization. Zimmermann, Professor Emeritus of Bonn University, a Honorary Professor of Maastricht University and Co-Director of POP at UNU-MERIT, was also participating in the book launch; he was chairing the event and was moderating the respective policy panel.
The book was first introduced in Spanish by Salvador Pérez-Moreno, Professor of Economic Policy, University of Malaga, and discussed in Spanish by Javier López, Member of the European Parliament. Then Zimmermann moderated the panel discussion in English between Jo Ritzen, SalvadorPérez-Moreno and Javier López.
MORE DETAILS on the book. The video of this event is available HERE.
From the right: López, Ritzen, Pérez-Moreno and Zimmermann.
After a Christmas shopping tour on the Grand Place, he was visiting Bruegel, the economic think tank, to discuss research and policy projects with GLO Fellow Martin Kahanec. Kahanec, who is a Professor at the Central European University (CEU) in Vienna & Budapest and a Mercator Senior Visiting Fellow at Bruegel, acts also as the GLO Cluster Lead for EU Mobility.
Labor market issues will play the major role at the Second GLO – Renmin University of China Conference in Beijing on 7-8 December 2019. Keynote speakers of the event are GLO FellowsShi Li of Zhejiang University and Xi Chen of Yale University. This continues the very successful tradition started with the first conference. See program and event pictures of the 2018 event. The 2019 program is now out (LINK), see also below. Conference organizers are GLO Fellows Corrado Giulietti and Jun Han.GLO Director Matloob Piracha will give one of the many contributed papers. GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann will attend and address the conference. The event is part of the GLO China Research Cluster, which is lead by Corrado Giulietti, who is also a GLO Research Director. Place: North Hall, Century Hall, RUC.
A new GLO Discussion Paper finds for The Netherlands that retirement of partnered men positively affects mental health of both themselves and their partners, while single men experience a drop in mental health.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: We study the retirement effects on mental health using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design based on the eligibility age to the state pension in the Netherlands. We find that the mental effects are heterogeneous by gender and marital status. Retirement of partnered men positively affects mental health of both themselves and their partners. Single men retiring experience a drop in mental health. Female retirement has hardly any effect on their own mental health or the mental health of their partners. Part of the effects seem to be driven by loneliness after retirement.
An article in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Population Economicsreveals that former residents of the German Democratic Republic have a smaller present bias than former residents of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Journal of Population Economics 33 (2020), 349–387 GLO Discussion PaperNo. 306, 2019.
GLO FellowMarkus Pannenberg
Author Abstract: We use the separation and later reunification of Germany after World War II to show that a political regime shapes time preferences of its residents. Using two identification strategies, we find that former residents of the German Democratic Republic exhibit a significantly less pronounced present bias when compared with former residents of the Federal Republic of Germany, whereas measures of patience are statistically indistinguishable. Interpreting the years spent under the regime as a proxy for treatment intensity yields consistent results. Moreover, we present evidence showing that present bias predicts choices in the domains of health, finance, and education, thereby illustrating lasting repercussions of a regime’s influence on time preferences.
An article published in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Population Economicsfinds that assortative mating in education has become stronger in the United States, which has contributed to the observed rise in inequality.
Journal of Population Economics 33 (2020), 307–347
Author Abstract: In this paper, we describe mating patterns in the USA from 1964 to 2017 and measure the impact of changes in marital preferences on between-household income inequality. We rely on the recent literature on the econometrics of matching models to estimate complementarity parameters of the household production function. Our structural approach allows us to measure sorting along multiple dimensions and to effectively disentangle changes in marital preferences and in demographics, addressing concerns that affect results from existing literature. We answer the following questions: Has assortativeness increased over time? Along which dimensions? To what extent can the shifts in marital preferences explain inequality trends? We find that, after controlling for other observables, assortative mating in education has become stronger. Moreover, if mating patterns had not changed since 1971, the 2017 Gini coefficient between married households would be 6% lower. We conclude that about 25% of the increase in between-household inequality is due to changes in marital preferences. Increased assortativeness in education positively contributes to the rise in inequality, but only modestly.
Despite a measured strong cross-sectional relationship between income and health, a new article in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Population Economicsfinds no necessary connection between changes in income inequality and changes in health inequality.
Journal of Population Economics 33 (2020), 197–231
GLO FellowHannes Schwandt
Author Abstract: We develop a method for comparing levels and trends in inequality in mortality in the United States and France between 1990 and 2010 in a similar framework. The comparison shows that while income inequality has increased in both the United States and France, inequality in mortality in France remained remarkably low and stable. In the United States, inequality in mortality increased for older groups (especially women) while it decreased for children and young adults. These patterns highlight the fact that despite the strong cross-sectional relationship between income and health, there is no necessary connection between changes in income inequality and changes in health inequality.
A new article in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Population Economicssuggests that migrant social networks in host cities mitigate adverse mental health challenges of Chinese rural-urban migrant workers.
Journal of Population Economics 33 (2020), 155–195 GLO Discussion PaperNo. 370, 2019.
GLO FellowsXin Meng & Sen Xue
Author Abstract: Over the past two decades, more than 160 million Chinese rural workers have migrated to cities to work. They are separated from their familiar rural networks to work in an unfamiliar, and often hostile, environment. Many of them thus face significant mental health challenges. This paper is the first to investigate the extent to which migrant social networks in host cities can mitigate these adverse mental health effects. Using unique longitudinal survey data from Rural-to-Urban Migration in China (RUMiC), we find that network size matters significantly for migrant workers. Our preferred instrumental variable estimates suggest that a one standard deviation increase in migrant city networks, on average, reduces the measure of mental health problems by 0.47 to 0.66 of a standard deviation. Similar effects are found among the less educated, those working longer hours, and those without access to social insurance. The main channel of the network effect is through boosting migrants’ confidence and reducing their anxiety.
The number of deaths from the HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to fall. This is particularly true in Africa with a striking example in South Africa, where new infections and deaths have both been reduced by 40 percent since 2010. However, the problem is still worrisome in the South of the USA and in Eastern Europe. (See the three figures below.)
The Journal of Population Economics has published a number of economic research articles on the disease and the societal consequences. The 2019 Kuznets Prize of the Journal was devoted to a recent article:
A new article in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Population Economicssuggests that intergenerational altruism explains between 24 and 42% of the African American northward migration.
Journal of Population Economics 33 (2020), 115–154
GLO FellowJohn Gardner
Author Abstract: It is widely believed that many migrations are undertaken at least in part for the benefit of future generations. To provide evidence on the effect of intergenerational altruism on migration, I estimate a dynamic residential location choice model of the African American Great Migration in which individuals take the welfare of future generations into account when deciding to remain in the Southern USA or migrate to the North. I measure the influence of altruism on the migration decision as the implied difference between the migration probabilities of altruistic individuals and myopic ones who consider only current-generation utility when making their location decisions. My preferred estimates suggest that intergenerational altruism explains between 24 and 42% of the Northward migration that took place during the period that I study, depending on the generation.
A new article in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Population Economicssuggests that foreign aid may reduce asylum inflows from poor countries in the short run, but inflows from less poor economies show a positive but weak relation with aid. Aid is not an effective instrument to avoid migration flows.
Journal of Population Economics 33 (2020), 79–114 GLO Discussion PaperNo. 378, 2019.
GLO FellowMarina Murat
Author Abstract: This paper measures the links between aid from 14 rich to 113 developing economies and bilateral asylum applications during the years 1993 to 2013. Results show that asylum applications are related to aid in a U-shaped fashion with respect to the level of development of origin countries, although only the downward segment proves to be robust to all specifications. Asylum inflows from poor countries are significantly and negatively associated with aid in the short run, with mixed evidence of more lasting effects, while inflows from less poor economies show a positive but non-robust relationship to aid. Moreover, aid leads to negative cross-donor spillovers. Applications linearly decrease with humanitarian aid. Voluntary immigration is not related to aid. Overall, the reduction in asylum inflows is stronger when aid disbursements are conditional on economic, institutional and political improvements in the recipient economy.
Are new immigrants causing persistent voting effects? The lead article in the January 2020 issue of the Journal of Population Economics suggests that the voting effects are short-term only.
Read more in:
Read free the Lead Article of issue 1 (2020) of the Journal of Population Economics :
Author Abstract: In this paper, we test the hypothesis that the causal effect of immigrant presence on anti-immigrant votes is a short-run effect. For this purpose, we consider a distributed lag model and adapt the standard instrumental variable approach proposed by Altonji and Card (1991) to a dynamic framework. The evidence from our case study, votes for the UK Independent Party (Ukip) in recent European elections, supports our hypothesis. Furthermore, we find that this effect is robust to differences across areas in terms of population density and socioeconomic characteristics, and it is only partly explained by integration issues.
Interested researchers are cordially invited to submit their abstracts or papers for presentation consideration at the 31st EBES Conference – Warsaw, which will take place on April 15-17, 2020 hosted by the Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, Warsaw/Poland, with the support of the Istanbul Economic Research Association.
This is aGLO supported conference.EBESis theEurasia Business and Economics Society, a strategic partner and institutional supporter of GLO. GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann is also President of EBES.
Invited Speaker
EBES is pleased to announce that distinguished scholar Professor Brian Lucey will join the conference as keynote speaker:
Professor Brian Lucey is a well-known researcher in the finance field. He
is professor of finance at the School of Business, Trinity College Dublin and
editor of Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance; International Review
of Financial Analysis; and Finance Research Letters. He also is an associate
editor of Journal of Banking and Finance. He worked as an economist in the
Department of Health and Central Bank in Ireland and has more than 150
peer-reviewed papers which were published in reputable finance journals
including Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money;
Journal of Banking and Finance; Journal of Financial Stability; and Journal of
Multinational Financial Management.
Board Prof. Klaus F. Zimmermann, UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, The Netherlands, & GLO. Prof. Jonathan Batten, Monash University, Australia, & GLO Prof. Iftekhar Hasan, Fordham University, U.S.A. Prof. Euston Quah, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Prof. John Rust, Georgetown University, U.S.A., & GLO Prof. Dorothea Schäfer, German Institute for Economic Research DIW Berlin,Germany, and GLO Prof. Marco Vivarelli, Università Cattolica Del Sacro Cuore, Italy, & GLO
Abstract/Paper Submission
Authors are invited to submit their abstracts or papers no later than February 12, 2020.
Qualified papers can be published
in EBES journals (Eurasian Business Review and Eurasian Economic Review) or
EBES Proceedings books after a peer review process without any submission or
publication fees. EBES journals (EABR and EAER) are published by Springer and
both are indexed in the SCOPUS, EBSCO EconLit with Full Text, Google Scholar,
ABS Academic Journal Quality Guide, CNKI, EBSCO Business Source, EBSCO
Discovery Service, EBSCO TOC Premier, International Bibliography of the Social
Sciences (IBSS), OCLC WorldCat Discovery Service, ProQuest ABI/INFORM, ProQuest
Business Premium Collection, ProQuest Central, ProQuest Turkey Database,
ProQuest-ExLibris Primo, ProQuest-ExLibris Summon, Research Papers in Economics
(RePEc), Cabell’s Directory, and Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory. In addition,
while EAER is indexed in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (Clarivate
Analytics), EABR is indexed in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and
Current Contents / Social & Behavioral Sciences.
Furthermore, high qualified
papers will be invited to be submitted for publication in regular issues of the
Review of Managerial Science (SSCI) and they will go through a review process.
However, presentation at the EBES Conference does not guarantee publication in
the Review of Managerial Science.
Also, all accepted abstracts will
be published electronically in the Conference Program and the Abstract Book
(with an ISBN number). It will be distributed to all conference participants at
the conference via USB. Although submitting full papers are not required, all
the submitted full papers will also be included in the conference proceedings
in a USB. After the conference, participants will also have the opportunity to
send their paper to be published (after a refereeing process managed by EBES)
in the Springer’s series Eurasian Studies in Business and Economics (no
submission and publication fees).
This will also be sent to
Clarivate Analytics in order to be reviewed for coverage in the Conference
Proceedings Citation Index – Social Science & Humanities (CPCI-SSH). Please
note that the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and
20th (Vol. 2) EBES Conference Proceedings are accepted for inclusion in the
Conference Proceedings Citation Index – Social Science & Humanities
(CPCI-SSH). 20th (Vol. 1), 21st and subsequent conference proceedings are in
progress.
Important Dates
Abstract Submission Start Date: November 1, 2019 Abstract Submission Deadline: February 12, 2020 Reply-by: February 14, 2020* Registration Deadline: March 13, 2020 Announcement of the Program: March 17, 2020 Paper Submission Deadline (Optional): March 13, 2020** Paper Submission for the EBES journals: July 15, 2020
* The decision regarding the acceptance/rejection of each abstract/paper will be communicated with the corresponding author within a week of submission. ** Completed paper submission is optional. If you want to be considered for the Best Paper Award or your full paper to be included in the conference proceedings in the USB, after submitting your abstract before February 12, 2020, you must also submit your completed (full) paper by March 13, 2020.
Contact Ugur Can, Director of EBES (ebes@ebesweb.org); EBES & GLO Dr. Ender Demir, Conferene Coordinator of EBES (demir@ebesweb.org); EBES & GLO
The paper studies the migrant-native differences in wealth among older households in Europe which is significant and to the advantage of the natives. The importance of origin country, age at migration, and citizenship status in reducing the gap is shown.
Author Abstract: This study uses a matching method to provide an estimate of the nativity wealth gap among older households in Europe. This approach does not require imposing any functional form on wealth and avoids validity-out-of-the-support assumptions; furthermore, it allows estimation not only of the mean of the wealth gap but also of its distribution for the common-support sub-population. The results show that on average there is a positive and significant wealth gap between natives and migrants. However, the average gap may be misleading as the distribution of the gap reveals that immigrant households in the upper part of the wealth distribution are better off, and those in the lower part of the wealth distribution are worse off, than comparable native households. A heterogeneity analysis shows the importance of origin, age at migration, and citizenship status in reducing the gap. Indeed, households who migrated within Europe, those who moved at younger ages rather than as adults, and those who are citizens of the destination country display a wealth gap that is consistently smaller over the entire distribution.
The article finds thatparents compensate disadvantaged children with greater cognitive resources using data fromprimary school-aged Ethiopian siblings.
Author Abstract: A small but increasing body of literature finds that parents invest in their children unequally. However, the evidence is contradictory, and providing convincing causal evidence of the effect of child ability on parental investment in a low-income context is challenging. This paper examines how parents respond to the differing abilities of primary school-aged Ethiopian siblings, using rainfall shocks during the critical developmental period between pregnancy and the first 3 years of a child’s life to isolate exogenous variations in child ability within the household, observed at a later stage than birth. The results show that on average parents attempt to compensate dis-advantaged children through increased cognitive investment. The effect is significant,but small in magnitude: parents provide about 3.9% of a standard deviation more in educational fees to the lower-ability child in the observed pair. We provide suggestive evidence that families with educated mothers, smaller household size and higher wealth compensate with greater cognitive resources for a lower-ability child.
Gender pay gaps are still of much concern, in particular in the United States. A paper published in the Journal of Population Economics adds to our understanding how the gender gap is shaped by multiple different forces such as parenthood, gender segregation, part-time work and unionization.
GLO Fellows Francesco Pastore & Allan Webster The paper is also GLO Discussion Paper No. 363, 2019.
Author Abstract: This study examines the gender wage gap in the USA using two separate cross-sections from the Current Population Survey (CPS). The extensive literature on this subject includes wage decompositions that divide the gender wage gap into “explained” and “unexplained” components. One of the problems with this approach is the heterogeneity of the sample data. In order to address the difficulties of comparing like with like, this study uses a number of different matching techniques to obtain estimates of the gap. By controlling for a wide range of other influences, in effect, we estimate the direct effect of simply being female on wages. However, a number of other factors, such as parenthood, gender segregation, part-time working, and unionization, contribute to the gender wage gap. This means that it is not just the core “like for like” comparison between male and female wages that matters but also how gender wage differences interact with other influences. The literature has noted the existence of these interactions, but precise or systematic estimates of such effects remain scarce. The most innovative contribution of this study is to do that. Our findings imply that the idea of a single uniform gender pay gap is perhaps less useful than an understanding of how gender wages are shaped by multiple different forces.
“A Second Chance for Europe” calls upon us to rethink and reboot the European Union. The discontents of globalization threaten European values and call for a new economic order. EU Member States are backsliding on the rule of law and control of corruption. There is a need to rethink immigration policy. The debt overhang of some Euro countries is unsustainable.
Given the sum total of these vulnerabilities, the book argues that the EU may not survive beyond 2025 in its present form. It puts forward a number of workable solutions: a European economic model to secure full employment, a stronger European Court of Human Rights, a points-based immigration system, clear exit options from the Eurozone and an Open Education Area with a common second language. These solutions may reduce the number of EU countries in the core-EU, but would increase cohesion and overall sustainability.
“Una segunda oportunidad para Europa” nos llama a repensar y reiniciar la Unión Europea. El descontento con la globalización amenaza los valores europeos y pide un nuevo orden económico. Los Estados Miembros están retrocediendo en el mantenimiento del estado de derecho y el control de la corrupción. Existe la necesidad de repensar la política migratoria. La deuda pública de algunos países de la Eurozona es insostenible.
Teniendo en cuenta la suma de estas vulnerabilidades, el libro argumenta que la Unión Europea podría no sobrevivir más allá de 2025 en su forma actual. El libro propone una serie de soluciones: un modelo económico europeo para asegurar el pleno empleo, un Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos más fuerte, un sistema de inmigración por puntos, opciones claras de salida de la Eurozona, y un Área de Educación Abierta con un segundo idioma común. Estas soluciones podrían reducir el número de países de la UE en el núcleo de la Unión, pero incrementarían la cohesión y la sostenibilidad general.
INVITATION: The United Nations University – MERIT and Maastricht University Campus Brussels invite to the book launch of
Una segunda oportunidad para Europa edited by Jo Ritzen
on December 3, 2019, 16:00-18:00. Venue: Maastricht University Campus Brussels | Avenue de Tervueren 153, 1150, Brussels. The event will be in both Spanish and English.
Presentation of the book in Spanish by Mr. Salvador Pérez-Moreno, Professor of Economic Policy, University of Malaga
Comments in Spanish by Mr. Javier López, Member of the European Parliament
Discussion in English between Prof. Moreno, Prof. Inmaculada Serón-Ordoñez, Lecturer of Translation and Interpretation at Pablo de Olavide University, Seville, and Mr. Javier Lopez, led by Prof. Klaus F. Zimmermann, President of the Global Labor Organization (GLO), UNU-MERIT and Bonn University
Drinks
ABOUT THE EDITOR
Jo Ritzen is a professorial fellow in the International Economics of Science, Technology and Higher Education at United Nations University-MERIT and its School of Governance. UNU-MERIT is a joint institute of the United Nations University (UNU) and Maastricht University. Prof. Ritzen is a former Minister of Education, Culture, and Science of the Netherlands, served in the Dutch Cabinet at the Maastricht Treaty, a former Vice President of the World Bank and former President of Maastricht University. Jo Ritzen is also a Fellow of the Global Labor Organization (GLO).
Jo Ritzen (right) & Klaus F. Zimmermann
How to order the book: https://www.edicionespiramide.es/libro.php?id=5928108 https://www.amazon.fr/Una-segunda-oportunidad-para-Europa/dp/8436841166
The issue is now available online. Three articles are open access. All articles listed below have a READ LINK which allows free reading. These links can be freely used on websites and in the social media. The link enables to READ the article. For the concept behind read more: https://www.springernature.com/gp/researchers/sharedit
A new GLO Discussion Paper finds in line with the literature on vocational education programs that internship experience has a positive effect on labor market outcomes.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: The literature on workplace learning in secondary education has mainly focused on vocational education programs. In this study, we examine the impact of internship experience in secondary education on a student’s schooling and early labor market outcomes, by analyzing unique, longitudinal data from Belgium. To control for unobserved heterogeneity, we model sequential outcomes by means of a dynamic discrete choice model. In line with the literature on vocational education programs, we find that internship experience has a positive effect on labor market outcomes that diminishes over time, although within the time window of our study, we find no evidence for a null or negative effect over time.
A new GLO Discussion Paper studies female entrepreneurship as a possible growth driver. It finds that tertiary education makes entrepreneurial training of females effective.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, policymakers have been increasingly striving to support female entrepreneurship as a possible growth driver. This paper contributes to reconciling mixed findings in the literature on the effectiveness of entrepreneurial training with an analysis that links training and human capital, including tertiary education and non-cognitive skills, with gender gaps in entrepreneurial performance in Africa. We have found that while financial literacy training directly benefits men, it does not raise the sales level of women entrepreneurs. Instead, tertiary education has a direct positive link with the performance of women. Consistent with our theoretical model where different skills are complements, tertiary education can act as a channel that makes training effective. Regarding non-cognitive skills, evidence shows that women entrepreneurs who are tenacious achieve stronger sales performance. Our results underscore the importance of incorporating tertiary education and entrepreneurial training programs focused on a balanced set of skills, including non-cognitive skills, among policies for women entrepreneurs.
Azita Berar is Director Policy of the Global Labor Organization (GLO), and Senior Fellow, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva.
Youth Policies: time to change the policy narratives!
by Azita Berar
Recent waves of unrelenting protests, in major cities around the world, express shared grievances and demands for change, even if each has its specificities. Anger against inequalities, social injustice and corruption, and loss of trust in institutions and their leadership rekindle demands for decent job opportunities, access to quality public services, democratic participation and reform of institutions. For most observers, these protests look like a resurgence of the stalled “Arab spring” uprisings, of the “indignados” outbursts, or of the “occupy movement” of the early years of the current decade. Then and now, multiple social-economic groups took part in the protests. But, then and now, youth, who have particularly experienced the downward spiral in economic and social opportunities, are at the forefront of mobilizations demanding systemic changes. The outbreaks, whatever the immediate reason that sparked each, are a reminder that the predicaments of youth transitions, in work, society and polity, brought to the fore by the 2008 global financial crisis, remain unresolved. Reviewing the policy responses put in place in this decade, we argue for a change in the prevailing policy narratives around youth at the national and global levels. In particular, we advocate for: a) recognizing the structural nature of the crisis that calls for a systemic response, and b) undoing the present compartmentalization of policy responses and c) dissociating the security and development discourses whose merger prevents and disorients the search for effective solutions. ____________________
What we should know
The 2008 global financial and economic crisis, and the recession that it triggered, generated an unprecedented impact on youth in labour markets, characterized then as the “scarred generation” or “lost generation”.[1] Attention to youth employment heightened again during the Arab uprisings, which started in Tunisia in 2010 and then spread to several countries in the Middle East and North Africa.[2] Emphasis was laid first and foremost on the scale and length of youth “unemployment” hitting newcomers to labour markets starting their transition from school to work. More sophisticated diagnoses applying a range of unconventional indicators of quality of jobs, revealed a more profound and pervasive youth “employment” crisis than that expressed in open unemployment. The lack of “decent work” was brought out. Emphasis was laid on the millions of young women and men who have jobs that are unstable, temporary, low-paid, do not give access to social protection and most importantly do not allow for upward social mobility.
The latest global indicators show that youth continue to be disproportionately represented among the informal workers, the working poor, and the low paid workers.[3] Together with the new SDG indicator for youth who are neither in employment, education nor training (NEET), these trends monitored over a decade bring out a gradual and steady structural deterioration in the terms and conditions of youth integration in labour markets.
This crisis is affecting not only the most disadvantaged or low skilled but also tertiary education graduates. It is no surprise therefore, that the Future of work is looked at with angst, including by the most educated generation of youth that the world has ever had.[4]
The global reach of the current youth employment crisis is unprecedented. Hardly any country in the world, across regions and levels of income, is left immune to one manifestation or another of the predicament. The issue is of concern as much to countries where youth represent more than half of the total population as to those where ageing is advanced (Japan, Italy). It touches post-industrial disaffected cities in the Global North as much as rural and informal economies in the Global South.
Policy response to the 2008 crisis, short-lived coordinated macro-economic stimulation measures at the global level,[5] followed by a longer entrenched period of austerity measures, did not address issues at the core of the youth employment crisis. At best, it stabilized the situation in some countries, preventing further aggravation of the crisis and alleviating some of the burden for the most vulnerable groups. Available studies however show that even the best did not attain the needed scale and impact.
Numerous youth initiatives were also launched in the current decade, by governments, including some in partnership with the private sector, and by regional and international organizations. Reviews show that large gaps persist however, between policy announcements and actions and between actual investments and the scale of the challenge at hand. Most actions focus on the most vulnerable and at times, on the most vocal. Few systematic and transparent evaluations are carried out of the effectiveness of implemented policies and programmes.
Time to change the policy narratives
Aside from the effectiveness of and accountability for different approaches and initiatives, we argue that the predominant policy narratives either misdiagnose the nature of the crises in youth transitions, or are incoherent and compartmentalized. And sometimes, they defeat the purpose they want to serve and add to layers of discrimination and polarization of and amongst youth. Three points are made in this regard.
First , the crisis has become structural. While low or negative growth episodes affect youth employment, observations since 2008, clearly confirm that the phenomenon is not only conjunctural. Fluctuations in indicators can not be explained by cycles of boom and bust and policy response to the recessions alone. The new waves of disruptive technological transformations associated with Industry 4.0 do not provide the explanation either, since they did not yet produce a massive impact in developing economies.
The crisis is within the global economic model that is not delivering on social and intergenerational upward mobility. Youth are particularly exposed as new and latecomers into the labour market under highly competitive and polarizing forces. At the start of their multiple transitions in society, youth feel most deeply the widening gap between aspirations and opportunities open to them. Their interface with the labour markets in particular shapes other transitions in the society and their vision of the institutions.
Recognizing the structural nature of the crisis, it is clear that anything short of a systemic “new deal”, defined at national and global levels would not measure up to the challenge. Several versions of the new deal have been recently proposed for policy debate.[6] They include green new deals or investments in the care economy that aim to stimulate the innovation and decent job creation potential, on the one hand, and the redistribution of social protections and access to services, on the other.
Secondly, we need to reverse the compartmentalization in youth policy narratives. Most surveys and diagnostic studies carried out in very different contexts have pointed to the multi-dimensional nature of the youth employment challenge in all local contexts. Yet, there is a marked preference and obstinate inclination by policy makers, public and private, to emphasize and address one factor only in each situation to the exclusion of others. The “over-bloated” public sector employment in the Middle East and North Africa for example, or the business environment for start-ups, lack of level playing field for small and medium enterprises (SME), skills mismatches, the proliferation of tertiary education at the expense of vocational and apprenticeship schemes or youth behavior and unrealistic expectations, are among factors that are typically singled out. Such single-minded analyses have led to unifocal and distorted policy interventions, at a time when inter-sectoral, mutually coherent and balanced diagnoses and responses are called for.
The third trend is the increasing securitization discourse that has taken shape in national and international contexts. Unlike in the previous narrative, where youth’s potential of creativity and innovation is constrained by the environment and/or their own misguided behavior, in this one, youth, in particular the unemployed, disenfranchised and the migrant among them, are seen as a threat to security and public order. Hence, responses that prioritize security, repression and exclusion which can further encroach upon rights and restrain civic and political spaces for participation. Turning the securitization narrative on its head is to give space for the expression of frustrations and to lay a rights-based platform for dialogue and for seeking positive solutions. It is the multiple insecurities that young women and men experience that should be addressed as a matter of immediate priority.
Recent waves of mass protests in major cities show that deeply entrenched frustrations will not go away by themselves. Populations no longer accept makeshift and partial solutions. They are not ready to operate within the existing parameters of the exercise of power established by ruling elites and the institutions that serve them. While all generations are concerned with the range of existential questions at hand, youth are clearly leading the civic movements claiming more inclusive and sustainable models of development and governance. Changing the policy narratives on the role and place of youth in work, society and polity is a necessary first step in the search for real responses to their predicament. __________________
[1] ILO, Global Employment Trends for Youth- the update, 2011. [2] UNU-WIDER, Youth unemployment and the Arab Spring, 2011 [3] ILO, Global Employmenment Trends for Youth 2017: Paths to a better working future. [4] UNESCO, Global Education Monitoring Report 2019. [5] Except for China which sustained stimuli packages for a longer period. [6] For example: Marianna Mazzucatto’s « mission oriented” investment and innovation; UNCTAD, Trade and Development report 2019. Financing a Global Green New Deal; N. Klein, On Fire: The ( Burning) Case for a Green New Deal. 2019; J. Rifkin, The Green New Deal, 2019.
NOTE: The opinions expressed here are those of the author and not of the GLO, which has no institutional position.
The Department of Economics at Macquarie University in collaboration with Macquarie University Centre for Health Economy (MUCHE) and Global Labor Organization (GLO) was organizing an international conference on the “Economics of Health, Inequality and Behaviour (WEHIB)” in Sydney/Australia over 11-13 November 2019. The multidisciplinary conference aimed to foster dialogue among social scientists on the nexus between health, behavior, and inequality across developed and developing societies.
The event was organized at the University under the leadership of GLO FellowKompal Sinha, a Senior Lecturer and HDR Director at the Department of Economics of Macquarie University. Sinha is also an Associate Editor of the Journal of Population Economics and the GLO Research Cluster Lead for Development, Health, Inequality and Behavior. The cluster is keen to develop the event further as its trade-mark.
Keynote speakers at the conference were Lisa Cameron (University of Melbourne), Andrew Jones (University of York), and Klaus F. Zimmermann (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University & GLO). The conference started on November 11 with an address by Hon Chris Bowen MP, Shadow Minister for Health, followed by the keynote speech of GLO – President Klaus F. Zimmermann on “Arsenic in drinking water: health challenges and responses”. (See also.) Lisa Cameron (University of Melbourne) spoke on November 12 about “Crime against morality: unintended consequences of criminalising sex work” and Andrew Jones (University of York) on November 13 about “Equity, opportunity and health”. Next to the 4 keynotes, the event included 18 fine contributed papers, among others by GLO Fellows Cahit Guven (Deakin University), Alfredo Paloyo (University of Wollongong), Michael Palmer (University of Western Australia) and Jaai Parasnis (Monash University).
The conference ended on November 13 with a farewell speech by the Head of the Economics Department, ProfessorElisabetta Magnani, who also had welcomed the participants at the opening ceremony. Everybody was pleased with the wonderful event, with the place and service, the excellent meeting and working conditions, the very high quality of papers presented, and the lively discussions.
Former communist party members often become successful entrepreneurs. A new GLO Discussion Paper is the first study to separate the causal effect of former Communist party membership from self-selection.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: After the collapse of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe, former party members were particularly likely to start businesses and become entrepreneurs. However, it remains unclear whether this entrepreneurial activity was driven by the resources, information and opportunities provided by former party membership or because people with specific individual attributes were more likely to become party members (self-selection). This study is the first to separate the causal effect of former Communist party membership from self-selection. Using individual-level Life in Transition–III survey and instrumental variables analysis, we find that, in Central and Eastern European countries, membership of former Communist party has facilitated business set-up but not business longevity. Our results also suggest evidence of negative self-selection, meaning that people who joined the former ruling party tended have fewer of the traits associated with entrepreneurship such as motivation, risk tolerance, and entrepreneurial spirit. We show that former Communist party membership still matters for business practices, business ethics, and the nature of doing business in transition economies.
In traditional couple formation males seem to attach more value to attractiveness and women seem to focus on earnings potentials. A new GLO Discussion Paper finds in an online dating field experiment that job status or job prestige does not play a role for initial contact interest for both sexes.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: Research exploiting data on classic (offline) couple formation has confirmed predictions from evolutionary psychology in a sense that males attach more value to attractiveness and women attach more value to earnings potential. We examine whether these human partner preferences survive in a context of fewer search and social frictions. We do this by means of a field experiment on the mobile dating app Tinder, which takes a central place in contemporary couple formation. Thirty-two fictitious Tinder profiles that randomly differ in job status and job prestige are evaluated by 4,800 other, real users. We find that both males and females do not use job status or job prestige as a determinant of whom to show initial interest in on Tinder. However, we do see evidence that, after this initial phase, males less frequently begin a conversation with females when those females are unemployed but also then do not care about the particular job prestige of employed females.
A new GLO Discussion Paper discusses the US gun-related murder rate and places it in an international perspective, where the US rate is 27 times the average rate for 22 other developed countries; and the gun ownership rate is over five times higher so that the murder rate per gun is 5 times higher.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: This paper examines the US gun-related murder (GM) rate and places it in an international perspective. The data show that the US GM rate is 27 times the average rate for 22 other developed countries (ODC). Its gun ownership rate is 5.4 times that of ODC and the murder rate per gun is 5 times that of ODC. Thus, as is done in the paper, an effective reduction of the US GM rate requires an analysis of both the high gun ownership rate and the high murder rate per gun. The paper examines about fifteen gun-policy reforms – including their impact, cost, structure for maximum benefit – and other reforms affecting the GM rate. It also looks at the GM impact of immigration and of programs that provide alternative life pursuits for young men at risk. It further presents a number of policy implications and some new proposals designed to reduce the GM rate. Four appendices provide 1) results from two recent opinion polls on gun-policy reforms, 2) a detailed analysis of the relationship between gun ownership and the GM rate, 3) calculations of gun buyback costs, and 4) a correction of existing results on the Brady Bill’s impact on gun ownership.
The GLO Discussion Paper of the Month of October investigates the economic effects of sector-wide bargaining agreements in Portugal, finding that extensions may contribute to unemployment and firm closure.
Author Abstract:Many governments extend the coverage of collective agreements to
workers and employers that were not involved in their bargaining. These
extensions may address coordination
issues but may also distort competition by imposing sector-specific
minimum wages and
other work conditions that are not suitable for some firms and workers.
In this paper,
we analyse the impact of such extensions along several economic margins.
Drawing on
worker- and firm-level monthly data for Portugal, a country where
extensions have been
widespread, and the scattered timing of the extensions, we find that,
while continuing
workers experience wage increases following an extension, formal
employment and wage
bills in the relevant sectors fall, on average, by 2%. These results
increase by about 25%
across small firms and are driven by reduced hirings. In contrast, the
employment and
wage bills of independent contractors, who are not subject to labour law
or collective
bargaining, increases by over 1% following an extension.
GLO DP Team Senior
Editors: Matloob Piracha (University of Kent) & GLO; Klaus F.
Zimmermann (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University and Bonn University). Managing Editor: Magdalena Ulceluse, University of Groningen. DP@glabor.org
The Department of Economics at Macquarie University in collaboration with Macquarie University Centre for Health Economy (MUCHE) and Global Labor Organization (GLO) are organizing an international conference entitled the Economics of Health, Inequality and Behavior (WEHIB). It takes place at Macquarie University, Sydney/Australia, 11-13 November 2019. This multidisciplinary event aims to foster dialogue among social scientists on the nexus between health, behavior, and inequality across developed and developing societies.
The event is chaired by Kompal Sinha, a Senior Lecturer and HDR Director at the Department of Economics of Macquarie University. Sinha is also an Associate Editor of the Journal of Population Economics and the GLO Research Cluster Lead for Development, Health Inequality and Behavior. Keynote speakers are Lisa Cameron (University of Melbourne), Andrew Jones (University of York), and Klaus F. Zimmermann (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University & GLO).
A new GLO Discussion Paper reviews this timely issue for the digital labor markets where labor-intensive services are traded by matching requestors (employers and/or consumers) and providers (workers).
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: This critical and scoping review essay analyses digital labour markets where labour-intensive services are traded by matching requesters (employers and/or consumers) and providers (workers). It first discusses to what extent labour platform can be treated as two-sided or multi-sided markets, and the implications of these classifications. It then moves to address the legal and regulatory issues implied by these technologies. From a theoretical point of view, using a framework where innovation is not neutral in the labour market, platforms have implications for the quantity of jobs, for the kind of skills and tasks which are exchanged, and in terms of bargaining power of the contracting parties. It includes a critical evaluation of the empirical evidence from a variety of sources.
A new GLO Discussion Paper revealsthat in the Netherlands good social contacts and a good mastery of the native language enhance immigrants’ economic performance.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: Using longitudinal data on immigrants in the Netherlands from the survey ‘Social Position and Use of Public Facilities by Immigrants’ (SPVA) for the years 1991, 1994, 1998, 2002, we examined the impacts of social contacts and Dutch language proficiency on adult foreign-born men’s earnings, employment and occupational status. On average, social contacts and a good mastery of the Dutch language enhance immigrants’ economic performances. The effects are much stronger for immigrants with low-skill-transferability than for immigrants with high-skill-transferability, are stronger for economic migrants than for non-economic migrants, and are stronger for white-collar workers than for blue-collar workers. Contact with Dutch people and Dutch organisations unambiguously enhances all aspects of immigrants’ economic performance, however, no evidence is found for a positive effect of co-ethnic contact on employment status. To deal with the endogeneity between Dutch language ability and earnings, an interaction term between age at migration and a dichotomous variable for a non-Dutch-speaking origin is used as the identifying instrument. The selectivity issue of survey respondents was tackled as well to validate the main findings. The study has a strong policy implication for integration policies in the Netherlands, or more broadly in the immigrant receiving countries.
A new GLO Discussion Paper demonstrates that the Italian occupational structure is strongly hierarchical, with the locus of power distinct by the locus of knowledge generation.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
GLO Fellows Dario Guarascio & Maria Enrica Virgillito
Author Abstract: Which type of work do Italians perform? In this contribution we aim at detecting the anatomy of the Italian occupational structure by taking stock of a micro-level dataset registering the task content, the execution of procedures, the knowledge embedded in the work itself, called ICP (Indagine Campionaria sulle Professioni), the latter being comparable to the U.S. O*NET dataset. We perform an extensive empirical investigation moving from the micro to the macro level of aggregation. Our results show that the Italian occupational structure is strongly hierarchical, with the locus of power distinct by the locus of knowledge generation. It is also weak in terms of collaborative and worker involvement practices, and possibility to be creative. Our analysis allows to pinpoint the role exerted by hierarchical structures, decision making autonomy, and knowledge as the most relevant attributes characterizing the division of labour.
A new GLO Discussion Paper surveys evidence in the literature that trans people’s self-esteem and self-respect can be enhanced by policy makers’ positive actions to promote inclusivity at the workplace.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
GLO Fellows Nick Drydakis, Katerina Sidiropoulou and Anna Paraskevopoulou
Author Abstract: This study provides empirical patterns regarding trans people’s self-esteem-oriented reflections during observations of positive workplace actions. The case of a 2015 UK workplace guide is utilized to fulfill our aims. We adopt Rawls’ political philosophy framework in order to evaluate whether trans people’s self-esteem-oriented concepts might be enhanced by policy makers’ positive actions. The study does find that trans people’s self-esteem and self-respect are enhanced by policy makers’ positive actions to promote inclusivity in the workplace. Due to these actions trans people feel more accepted, valued and trusted by the government. We suggest that if a workplace policy is perceived to be recognizing trans people’s worth this may be internalized, resulting in positive self-evaluations by trans people. In addition, we present empirical patterns from HR departments which have been aware of the workplace guide. HR officers suggest that the workplace guide informs their strategies, and positively affects the creation of a more inclusive workplace culture, the corporate profiles of their firms and staff organizational behaviours (such as, achieving results, fostering collegiality, reducing complaints) and addresses LGBT business and trans staff-members’ needs. We suggest that if employers adopt policy makers’ positive workplace policies aiming to increase inclusivity, they may be able to realize positive organizational outcomes in their firms.
Contributions to school-to-work transitions: vocational training, skill mismatch and policy
The persistently high youth unemployment rates in many countries are of major concern in society and a challenge for researchers to provide evidence for policy-making (Francesco Pastore and Zimmermann, 2019; Zimmermann et al., 2013). Recent interest has concentrated on a better understanding of the role of specific institutional features of different school-to-work transition (SWT) regimes in affecting the youth labor market performance (Pastore, 2015a, b).
To foster this academic debate, the Global Labor Organization (GLO) had created in 2017 the GLO School-to-Work Transition Cluster under the leadership of Francesco Pastore. From this initiative, a first set of seven research papers were published in a special issue on “Advances on School-to-Work Transitions” (International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40, No. 3) edited by Francesco Pastore and Klaus F. Zimmermann. In a second round, seven additional contributions in this special issue, Part II, deal with the role of vocational training, overeducation and skill mismatch and labor market conditions and policy for the SWT. We provide a brief guide into the value added to our understanding of this important process.
Vocational training
A significant part of the literature expects from vocational education or training an important role in SWT. Is it more important than general education? This crucial question is addressed by Huzeyfe Torun and Semih Tumen (Do vocational high school graduates have better employment outcomes than general high school graduates?). They attempt to reveal causal effects of vocational high school education on employment relative to general high school education using Turkish census data. Initial OLS estimates support the superiority of vocational training for employment performance, but the findings get only qualified backing by instrumental-variable (IV) estimates. While the effects are still positive when IV methods are employed, they are only statistically significant for measures capturing the availability of vocational high school education but not for the inclusion of town-level controls or town fixed effects.
If vocational training is relevant, it should be the focus of
significant policy measures. An innovative study by Elena Cappellini,
Marialuisa Maitino, Valentina Patacchini, Nicola Sciclone (Are
traineeships stepping-stones for youth working careers in Italy?)
documents the role of traineeships as an active labor market policy in
Italy. The evaluation study relies on administrative data where a
counterfactual approach was used to compare trainees to unemployed young
people registered with Public Employment Services with respect to
employment success measured as hiring, job quality and persistence. The
paper concludes that traineeships may delay the transition to work, but
can open youngsters’ perspectives for a quality career in the long term.
To broaden and complete the picture, Irene Brunetti and Lorenzo Corsini (School-to-work transition and vocational education: a comparison across Europe) examine the impact of the types of vocational education across 11 European countries using the 2009 and 2014 European Union Labor Force Survey. Eichhorst et al. (2015) had classified vocational education and training strategies into school-based vocational education and training (as part of upper secondary education), formal apprenticeships, and dual vocational training: Which vocational systems show better results? Multinomial probit models provide indications that dual vocational training speeds up SWT and the vocational focus is particularly effective here.
Overeducation and skill mismatch
Skill mismatches including overeducation are important aspects of SWT
affecting labor market success in many ways. Two further studies
dealing with those issues in a more global country setting are involving
data from the Lebanon and Kyrgyzstan. Ghassan Dibeh, Ali Fakih and
Walid Marrouch (Employment and skill mismatch among youth in Lebanon)
were estimating a bivariate probit model where employment status and
skill mismatch perceptions for the labor market were jointly modeled.
Employability and skill mismatch were found jointly determined for males
and the core region only.
Kamalbek Karymshakov and Burulcha Sulaimanova (The school-to-work
transition, overeducation and wages of youth in Kyrgyzstan) study
overeducation and the impact on wages using Mincer type OLS regressions.
The propensity score matching method is applied to deal with potential
unobserved heterogeneity. Mismatch in the SWT process is studied
employing the Kaplan-Meier failure analysis. Tertiary education
correlates highly with being employed with a good match. Overeducated
workers reflecting the required level of education for a certain
position receive lower wages than those with suitable matches. However,
those individuals judging their education or qualifications to be larger
than necessary have higher wages.
Labor market conditions and policy
Are local labor market conditions an important driver of
post-compulsory schooling decisions and how this vary by gender? Elena
Francesca Meschi, Joanna Swaffield and Anna Vignoles (The role of local
labour market conditions and youth attainment on post-compulsory
schooling decisions) investigate this using the 2006/2007 wave of the
Longitudinal Study of Young People in England survey coupled with
individual-level attainment and school-based data available through
national administrative databases and local labor market data. Their
nested logit model shows that the most relevant factors behind
post-compulsory schooling decisions are expected wages, current
educational attainment and attitudes to school and parental aspirations.
How can labor policy foster the fast integration of young individuals
into the labor market? Stefan Sonke Speckesser, Francisco Jose Gonzalez
Carreras and Laura Kirchner Sala (Active labour market policies for
young people and youth unemployment: An analysis based on aggregate
data) provide a paper using European Union 27 countries Eurostat data
for 1996–2012. The findings suggest that wage subsidies and job creation
programs have reduced youth unemployment effectively. However, the
20–24-year-old unemployed benefit more than the very young.
References
Eichhorst, W., Rodríguez-Planas, N., Schmidl, R. and Zimmermann, K.F. (2015), “A roadmap to vocational education and training in industrialized countries”, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 68 No. 2, pp. 314-337.
Francesco Pastore, F. and Zimmermann, K.F. (2019), “Understanding school-to-work transitions”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 3, pp. 374-378.
Pastore, F. (2015a), The Youth Experience Gap: Explaining National Differences in the School-to- Work Transition, Springer International Publishing, Heidelberg.
Pastore, F. (2015b), “The European Youth Guarantee: labor market context, conditions and opportunities in Italy”, IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Vol. 4.
Zimmermann, K., Biavaschi, C., Eichhorst, W., Giulietti, C., Kendzia, M.J., Muravyev, A., Pieters, J., Rodrìguez-Planas, N. and Schmidl, R. (2013), “Youth unemployment and vocational training”, Foundations and Trends in Microeconomics, Vol. 9 Nos 1-2, pp. 1-157.
Pastore, F. and Zimmermann, K. (2019), “Contributions to school-to-work transitions: vocational training, skill mismatch and policy”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1361-1363. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-11-2019-420
Torun, H. and Tumen, S. (2019), “Do vocational high school graduates have better employment outcomes than general high school graduates?”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1364-1388. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-11-2017-0314
Cappellini, E., Maitino, M., Patacchini, V. and Sciclone, N. (2019), “Are traineeships stepping-stones for youth working careers in Italy?”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1389-1410. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-03-2018-0099
Brunetti, I. and Corsini, L. (2019), “School-to-work transition and vocational education: a comparison across Europe”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1411-1437. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-02-2018-0061
Dibeh, G., Fakih, A. and Marrouch, W. (2019), “Employment and skill mismatch among youth in Lebanon”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1438-1457. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-02-2018-0073
Karymshakov, K. and Sulaimanova, B. (2019), “The school-to-work transition, overeducation and wages of youth in Kyrgyzstan”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1458-1481. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-02-2018-0054
Meschi, E., Swaffield, J. and Vignoles, A. (2019), “The role of local labour market conditions and pupil attainment on post-compulsory schooling decisions”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1482-1509. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-11-2017-0303
Speckesser, S., Gonzalez Carreras, F. and Kirchner Sala, L. (2019), “Active labour market policies for young people and youth unemployment”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 8, pp. 1510-1534. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-03-2018-0100
On October 31, 2019 GLO President Zimmermann arrived in Ningbo after his visit at Lexin University in Shanghai. At the University of Nottingham Ningbo/China, Globalisation and Economic Policy Centre (GEP), he participated on November 1-2 at the 11th GEP China Conference: “Globalisation with Chinese Characteristics: The Belt and Road Initiative, International Trade and FDI”. He investigated the upcoming B&R research presented at the meeting, followed on November 1 the “World Economy China Lecture” of Justin Yifu Lin (Peking University) on “The Rise of China and the Belt and Road Initiative” and gave on November 2 his own “Distinguished GEP China Lecture” on “Global Labor Challenges and the B&R Initiative”. GLO Fellow Minghai Zhou of the University of Nottingham Ningbo had introduced Zimmermann and chaired his lecture and the following intensive discussions. Zimmermann also gave a longer interview to a team of student journalists from the Ningbo Economic Review. Full Conference Program. More details and pictures on the Ningbo visit see Report 1 and Report 2.
As Zimmermann outlined in his keynote, the globalization of work is a necessary process in the evolution of human specialization of work to improve efficiency and to increase welfare. In the face of adjustment costs during transition and development, societies may ignore this for some time, but this comes with welfare losses. The keynote lecture discussed the role of global labor in the context of the great human challenges of our time: demography, urbanization, the technological revolutions at the work place, climate change, migration, and populism. The lecture contributed to the understanding of these challenges, and how global labor can foster welfare. While the benefits of labor mobility are more and more debated around the globe, in particular in the United States, Europe, and Australia, the Asian and African nations follow a different approach. China is the most mobile nation of the globe. Through its internal migration and the B&R initiative it strongly contributes to general welfare. But China needs to observe the global labor challenges, in particular the aging issue and the international migration pressures to be able to act properly. It has security issues as well as it needs food and natural resources.
On his recent trip to China, GLO President Klaus F. Zimmermann had reached Shanghai on October 28. There he met his local hosts at theShanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance, Wenxuan Hou, Chair in Corporate Finance, University of Edinburgh Business School and Lixin University, and Yun Zhang, Associate Dean of the School of Finance, Lixin University. He was also warmly welcomed by the President of the University, Li Shiping. They discussed the perspectives of higher education and models of international collaboration. On October 29, Zimmermannprovided a general lecture on the merits of global labor economics. The event was chaired by GLO Fellow Wenxuan Hou. China is the most mobile country of the world; it needs globalization to deal with the challenges of demographic change and security as well as the need of food and natural resources.
President Li Shiping (left) & Associate Dean Yun Zhang (right)
A new GLO Discussion Paper reveals a predominance of empirical results in the academic literature supporting a negative association between students’ frequency of smartphone use and their academic success.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: We present the first systematic review of the scientific literature on smartphone use and academic success. We synthesise the theoretical mechanisms, empirical approaches, and empirical findings described in the multidisciplinary literature to date. Our analysis of the literature reveals a predominance of empirical results supporting a negative association between students’ frequency of smartphone use and their academic success. However, the strength of this association is heterogeneous by (a) the method of data gathering, (b) the measures of academic performance used in the analysis, and (c) the measures of smartphone use adopted. The main limitation identified in the literature is that the reported associations cannot be given a causal interpretation. Based on the reviewed findings and limitations, directions for further research are discussed.
A new GLO Discussion Paperreviews the growing body of research in economics which concentrates on the education gender gap and its evolution, over time and across countries.
The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.
Author Abstract: This paper reviews the growing body of research in economics which concentrates on the education gender gap and its evolution, over time and across countries. The survey first focuses on gender differentials in the historical period that roughly goes from 1850 to the 1940s and documents the deep determinants of the early phase of female education expansion, including pre-industrial conditions, religion, and family and kinship patterns. Next, the survey describes the stylized facts of contemporaneous gender gaps in education, from the 1950s to the present day, accounting for several alternative measures of attainment and achievement and for geographic and temporal differentiations. The determinants of the gaps are then summarized, while keeping a strong emphasis on an historical perspective and disentangling factors related to the labor market, family formation, psychological elements, and societal cultural norms. A discussion follows of the implications of the education gender gap for multiple realms, from economic growth to family life, taking into account the potential for reverse causation. Special attention is devoted to the persistency of gender gaps in the STEM and economics fields.
