International Labour Review

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Latest documents

• Full and productive employment in developing economies: Towards the Sustainable Development Goals, by Rizwanul ISLAM
• ISO 45001 and controversial transnational private regulation for occupational health and safety

  This article analyses the genesis of the ISO 45001 standard on occupational health and safety, a new initiative of transnational private regulation. The authors draw a picture of controversy from interviews with stakeholders involved in its design, approval and initial dissemination, and from a qualitative content analysis of the internal documentation of the committee responsible for its approval. Like its predecessors relating to environmental management – ISO 14001 – and corporate social responsibility – ISO 26000 – this new standard raises serious concerns among stakeholders given that it deals with substantive political, social and legal issues.

• Employment effects of skills around the world: Evidence from the PIAAC

  Using an international survey that directly assesses the cognitive skills of participants, the author studies the effect of skills on employment in 32 countries. On average, a 1 standard deviation increase in numeracy is associated with an 8.4 percentage point increase in the probability of being employed, reducing the probability of being out of the labour force and unemployed by 6.4 and 2.1 percentage points, respectively. After controlling for numeracy, the estimated employment effect of years in education falls by one third, from 2.7 to 1.8 percentage points. Notably, the employment effect of skills is more pronounced in countries with higher unemployment.

• Research handbook on labour, business and human rights law, edited by Janice R. BELLACE and Beryl TER HAAR
• The future of work: Meeting the global challenges of demographic change and automation

  This article explores future job creation needs under conditions of demographic, economic and technological change. The authors first estimate the implications for job creation during 2020–30 of population growth, changes in labour force participation and the achievement of target unemployment rates, by age and sex. Second, they analyse the job creation needs by country income group and, lastly, examine the effects of accelerated automation. Projections indicate that shifting demographics will account for a far greater share of the estimated global need for 340 million jobs over 2020–30 than automation.

• Does deregulation decrease unemployment? An empirical analysis of the Spanish labour market

  Spain underwent two major labour reforms in 2010 and 2012 under the assumption that deregulating the labour market and decentralizing collective bargaining would automatically reduce unemployment (deregulation hypothesis). This article highlights the impact of demand and the sectoral structure of the economy to explain the behaviour of this variable (structural hypothesis). Analysing subnational panel data, the authors assess the capacity of these two hypotheses to explain unemployment trends. Their results cast doubt on the deregulation hypothesis and indicate the importance of cyclical and structural factors.

• Issue Information – TOC
• To what extent is social security spending associated with enhanced firm‐level performance? A case study of SMEs in Indonesia

  Although the relationship between social protection and enterprise performance is much debated in the literature, evidence is particularly limited in the case of small and medium‐sized enterprises in developing economies. Using census data from 2010 to 2014, this article examines how the provision of social security influenced business performance in Indonesia. The author finds that increased social security spending of 10 per cent is associated with a per‐worker revenue gain of up to 2 per cent. Moreover, profits are not found to decrease with increased social protection coverage, suggesting that increasing worker benefits may be a worthwhile business investment.

• Freedom of association in the Bangladeshi garment industry: A policy schizophrenia in labour regulation

  The right to freedom of association is fundamental for the establishment of labour unionism as an institution. While the Government of Bangladesh requires enabling legal provisions for unionization in its garment industry, regulation to ensure the right to freedom of association has proved ineffective in upholding labour unionism. This article highlights the need for legislation capable of drawing on the complementary skills and resources of the Government, factory owners, labour unions and global brands to secure a sustained commitment and contribution towards the socio‐economic and political dimensions of labour relations in Bangladesh's ready‐made garment industry.

• How does labour share respond to risk? Theory and evidence from the Chinese industrial sector

  This study discusses the role of firm risk in the declining labour share in China. Based on the model developed by Holmström and Milgrom (1987), the authors demonstrate that lower firm risk can motivate workers to work harder, leading to higher output per worker and average wage. However, increased output will lower the labour share. Using data from the Chinese Industrial Enterprises Database for the period 1998–2007 and the World Bank's Investment Climate Survey 2005, empirical evidence supports this hypothesis and performs robustly across various model specifications and proxies for firm risk, indicating a positive correlation between labour share and firm risk.

Featured documents

• Avoiding the employment relationship: Outsourcing and labour substitution among French manufacturing firms, 1984–2003

  Using a comprehensive data set for French manufacturing firms with over 20 employees, the authors quantify the use of outsourcing and show how it has spread since the mid‐1980s, leading to the substitution of external labour for in‐house labour. Empirical analysis suggests that firms outsource in...

• The scars of youth: Effects of early‐career unemployment on future unemployment experience

  Does early‐career unemployment cause future unemployment? The authors approach this question using German administrative matched employer–employee data that track almost 700,000 individuals over 24 years. Instrumenting early‐career unemployment with firm‐specific labour demand shocks, they find...

• Distribution effects of the minimum wage in four Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay

  This article provides a comparative analysis of the distribution effects of the increase in the real value of the minimum wage in Latin America during the 2000s in four Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay. Using semiparametric techniques to estimate counterfactual density ...

• Shifting the Beveridge curve: What affects labour market matching?

  This article explores short‐run determinants of the matching between labour demand and supply by identifying shifts in the Beveridge curves for 12 OECD countries between 2000Q1 and 2013Q4. Using three complementary methodologies (visual examination, cointegration techniques and non‐linear...

• The economic significance of laws relating to employment protection and different forms of employment: Analysis of a panel of 117 countries, 1990–2013

  The authors use time series econometric analysis applying non‐stationary panel data methods to estimate the relationships between employment protection legislation and legal protection of different forms of employment (part‐time, fixed‐term and agency work), and economic outcomes, with a data set...

• Minimum wage violation in central and eastern Europe

  This article analyses minimum wage violations over the period 2003–12 in ten central and eastern European countries which all have national statutory minimum wages. Using European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU‐SILC) data and the methodology proposed by Bhorat, Kanbur and...

• Employment regulation, game theory and weak employee voice in liberal economies

  This article analyses the impact of information and consultation regulations – specifically the European Information and Consultation Directive – on worker participation or “employee voice” in liberal market economies (LMEs), providing both empirical and theoretical insights to complement existing...

• Closing the gender gap in education: What is the state of gaps in labour force participation for women, wives and mothers?

  The educational gender gap has closed or reversed in many countries. But what of gendered labour market inequalities? Using micro‐level census data for some 40 countries, the authors examine the labour force participation gap between men and women, the “marriage gap” between married and single...

• Does climate action destroy jobs? An assessment of the employment implications of the 2‐degree goal

  The Paris Agreement lays out the objective of keeping global warming below 2 °C. The goal can be achieved by increasing both the share of renewables in the energy mix and energy efficiency. Such action entails a transformation of the energy sector, which, given its linkages with the rest of the...

• Employment effects of skills around the world: Evidence from the PIAAC

  Using an international survey that directly assesses the cognitive skills of participants, the author studies the effect of skills on employment in 32 countries. On average, a 1 standard deviation increase in numeracy is associated with an 8.4 percentage point increase in the probability of being...