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Academic Literature
Wage Increases and Labour Shortages in Sweden – How companies manage labour shortages
Nominal wage increases in Sweden have been unusually low in recent years, despite a strong outcome for the Swedish labour market. Several indicators point to demand for labour having exceeded supply, which according to the textbook should have led to higher wage growth. In this Commentary I show how survey- based indicators can have exaggerated … Continue reading
Effects of banning the Islamic veil in public schools in France – High school graduation rates improve for Muslim girls study finds
Immigration from Muslim countries is a source of tensions in many Western countries. Several countries have adopted regulations restricting religious expression and emphasizing the neutrality of the public sphere. A recent IZA discussion paper by Eric Maurin and Nicolas Navarrete explores the effect of one of the most emblematic of these regulations: the prohibition of … Continue reading
European Qualifications Framework (EQF) – A success story ?
In May 2017, Marianne Thyssen, the European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, stated that ‘The EQF is a success story. In the almost ten years since it was established, it has helped to make qualifications more transparent – and therefore more comparable – across Europe’. More than 10 years after its … Continue reading
Returns of Education – The returns to higher education have increased the most
The pattern of economic rates of return to investments in education can help us to understand the benefits of schooling. It was common knowledge that the returns to education were highest for the primary level of education and lower for subsequent levels. Recent evidence suggests that the pattern has changed. Since the 1980s, the returns … Continue reading
Labour Market Information (LMI) in Canada – Results more important when participants are assisted by a counsellor
According to a large meta-analysis, labour market information (LMI) is a critical ingredient in achieving career goals of individuals. This study aims to assess the effect of LMI use, with and without the help of a counsellor, taking into account the possible presence of differential effects according to client consultation needs (career choice or job … Continue reading
Visible Minority Immigrants Men in Canada – They experience frictions in the labor market that hinder their mobility
We examine the role of between- and within-firm mobility in the early-career outcomes of immigrant men. Among Canadian workers with less than 10 years of potential experience, we find that visible minority immigrants were significantly less likely to have been promoted with their initial employers than similar white natives but were just as likely to have … Continue reading
Cognitive Skills in US – The market generates quite strong rewards to literacy, problem-solving and especially numeracy proficiency
Skills are central to productivity growth and earnings. Studies find variations in human capital account for a large share of variations in economic growth. But, what is skill? How should we measure the levels of human capital in an individual and in a country? Until recently, the primary measures of skill were years of schooling … Continue reading
Having Parents with a College Degree – A social advantage associated with higher numeracy scores
In the public psyche and in academic discourse, it is widely believed that a college degree is the great equalizer. In other words, social origins may determine educational attainment, but educational attainment (especially a college degree) determines labor market outcomes and membership to the American middle class. This notion is supported by the empirical work … Continue reading
Labour Market Institutions – How to reconcile flexibility, productivity and security?
The future of work has received tremendous attention in recent years from scholars, politicians and the general public, fuelled by the rapid transformations of the world of work. Demographic shifts, technological innovation, institutional reforms and global economic integration are all changing the way people work. Technological innovations have a major impact on occupations and industries, … Continue reading
Skills and Productivity – Skills should be labour market relevant and skilled workers need to be matched with jobs
This paper analyses different dimensions of skills mismatch (notably ‘macro-economic skills mismatch ‘, ‘skills shortages ‘, and ‘on-the-job skills mismatch ‘) and their empirical relationship with labour productivity. Macro-economic skills mismatch arises when the skills distribution differs between the available workers and those that get hired. Skills shortages occur when employers encounter difficulties to fill … Continue reading
Individual Training Accounts in US – Programs do not accommodate workers from nonstandard work arrangements
This paper was commissioned by the Organisation for Economic and Co-operative Development (OECD) to describe the use of Individual Training Accounts (ITAs) under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and under its predecessor the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). An ITA is a voucher that an individual who has met the requirements to establish an ITA … Continue reading
Soft Skills and Productivity in Retail – A positive effects on total sales and numbers of transactions for all workers
The study of the interrelation between human capital accumulation, training and productivity has a long-standing tradition in economics (Becker, 1964). Among workers, on-the-job training is the building block of the human capital accumulation process. In fact, almost half of the human capital individuals accumulate in their lifetime is associated with investments and activities related to … Continue reading
Future of Work – Computerization of white collar jobs
For centuries, advances in labor-saving technology have been met with fear that such technology will eliminate jobs. In the computer era, seminal work by Autor, Levy, and Murnane (2003) clarified that certain jobs are most at risk from technology, in particular so-called routine jobs which are made up of tasks most easily substituted for by … Continue reading
Higher Education – Estimates of labour market outcomes vary considerably by subject area
In this study, we investigate the value of progression associated with different vocational qualifications disaggregated by subject area of study. Previous analyses of labour market outcomes by subject of study demonstrated that estimates of labour market outcomes vary considerably by subject area, but this is in part as a result of the choice of counterfactual. … Continue reading
US – The noninflationary unemployment rate threshold have declined toward 4% in recent years
Unemployment is running near its 50-year low, but inflation has not picked up as expected. This suggests that the unemployment rate consistent with stable inflation has fallen. Combining a conventional Phillips curve tradeoff between unemployment and inflation with a noninflationary unemployment rate that can change over time shows that estimates of this unemployment threshold have … Continue reading
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