Working papers
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ILO Working paper 112
New technologies, e-government and informality
15 April 2024
This working paper studies the complex relationship between technology adoption and informality, leveraging recent cross-country data to analyse the effects of mobile phone subscriptions, internet access, automation and e-government on informal employment, vulnerable employment, and the shadow economy's GDP share.
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ILO Working paper 111
Intergenerational trends in educational and income mobility in the United States of America since the 1960s
05 April 2024
This paper examines the evolution of educational and income mobility in the US since the 1960s, showing increased upward mobility for low-income individuals and decreased downward mobility for children of college graduates, highlighting the role of parental income in securing intergenerational wealth and the creation of a wealthy, educated elite.
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ILO Working paper 110
Measuring labour market transitions of youths in Thailand: Evidence from rotation groups (2012–21) in the Labour Force Surveys
26 March 2024
This study analysed data covering a full decade of Thai economic activity. It is critical to recognize just how much has changed in the country over the intervening decade. Demographic change has resulted in overall population decline as well as a reduction in the number of people entering the labour force.
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ILO Working paper 109
Working conditions of subnational government workers in selected African countries
18 March 2024
This report provides a comprehensive evaluation of the institutional and labour relations regimes in six African countries: Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, and South Africa with a special emphasis on promoting decent working conditions for Local and Regional Government (LRG) workers.
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ILO Working paper 108
Youth employment policies: Patterns and trends in two unique data sets
19 February 2024
Youth employment challenges are always a critical concern for policymakers. There is recurring and mounting evidence that labour market challenges, such as unemployment, informality, lack of social protection and inactivity, disproportionately affect youths.
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ILO Working paper 107
Employment and wage disparities between rural and urban areas
13 February 2024
This study uses household survey data from 58 countries around the world to compare the labour market outcomes of rural and urban workers, taking into account the specific socio-demographic characteristics of rural populations. It also provides an overview of the legal frameworks that can be used to address rural-urban employment and wage disparities.
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ILO Working paper 106
Are platform workers willing to unionize? Exploring survey evidence from 14 European countries
06 February 2024
This study contributes to the understanding of unionization in the platform economy, both in terms of membership rates among different groups of platform workers and the potential for unionization among those who are not yet members. The findings are based on a unique cross-national and comparative survey, dedicated to the analysis of various forms of digitally-mediated work and trade union-related behaviour, which allows for an explicit link between the platform economy and the conventional economy.
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ILO Working paper 105
What Is Driving Wealth Inequality in the United States of America? – The Role of Productivity, Taxation and Skills
15 February 2024
This paper assesses the drivers of wealth inequality. While inequality between skilled and unskilled workers is due to differences in educational attainment, within-group inequality is due to differences in productivity across firms. Workers in more successful firms are paid more than their peers with the same level of education and skills in less successful firms.
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ILO Working Paper 103
New Forms of Employment and Labour Protection in China
20 February 2024
The objective of this paper is to provide a panoramic description and analysis of the diversity of the new forms of employment that have been emerging in China, with the focus on their background, the main types, the status quo of labour rights protection, and the government's responses to the challenges of labour regulations brought by NFE. Finally, on the basis of the above, the paper puts forward corresponding policy recommendations on how to improve workers' protection in new forms of Employment.
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ILO Working paper 102
A Technological Construction of Society: Comparing GPT-4 and Human Respondents for Occupational Evaluation in the UK
19 January 2024
The paper systematically compares GPT-4's evaluations of occupations with those from a high-quality human survey in the UK, finding high correlation but also highlighting the potentials and risks of using LLMs in sociological and occupational research.