About World of Labour

World of Labour is a comprehensive, reliable, and up-to-date information resource aimed at decision makers, advisors, interested citizens, and others who are concerned with issues in labour worldwide.

World of Labour is designed to be a readable online encyclopedia that contains articles dealing with issues related to people's working life. Our articles summarise state-of-the-art research and do so in such a way that they are easily readable by people who have no expert background on the subject or issue covered. The one-page summaries that lead the article provide an easy way for the reader to get a quick overview of the issues and what we know about them.

Political stakeholders in labour markets regularly face the challenge of responding to acute or systemic problems, and identifying new approaches. Evidence-based, scientific analysis can support and guide the process of identifying, evaluating, and implementing economic policy options.

World of Labour offers assistance by presenting empirically founded research on markets and related economic policy measures in an innovative way to meet the needs of stakeholders in labor markets worldwide.

World of Labour was launched by the IZA-Institute of Labor Economics in 2014. IZA's activities received support from Deutsche Post Foundation until 2025. In 2026 the World of Labour became part of LISER-Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research.

World of Labour content is regularly cited by key media outlets and policy-making organizations.
 

Editorial Board

World of Labour benefits from the dedicated work of its authors and editorial board. Our Editor-in-Chief is Pierre Cahuc, who coordinates the wide thematic array of our online compendium. Olga K. Nottmeyer serves as Managing Editor of World of Labour and ensures its high publishing standards.

All articles are solicited and handled by experts in each field—view the full editorial board here.

 

Publication policies

World of labour articles require careful selection of authors and topics, rigorous peer review, and professional editing. World of Labour upholds the highest ethical standards in its publication practices and follows an open-access policy. In addition, World of Labour recognises the importance of proper citation of data.

Please find below further information on all these aspects and view our FAQs in case of further questions.
 

Authors and review process

Authors, who are well-known experts in their field, are invited based on their expertise and contribute free of charge. We ask each of our authors to follow our publication policies. Each World of Labour article is subject to single-blind peer review. In addition, each article goes through thorough editing, a process which may include some rewriting to bring the article in line with our unique, recognisable style, and to make sure that the article fits the needs of our target audience.

Both peer review and editing ensure that our articles meet our high-quality standards and refer to the most relevant empirical research findings. Especially peer review is a critical element of scholarly publication and the integrity of what we publish is central to our mission.

To ensure their currency, the Editorial Board continually reviews articles. If new evidence has been published that would substantially change the conclusions of an article, then the board commissions a new updated version from the original and/or additional authors. If new evidence is available yet does not substantially change the conclusions of an article then we will simply add the new evidence to the additional references section of that article. You can view version information about an article under the Versions panel, displayed on the bottom right-hand side of each article. From this panel, you will be able to view previous versions of articles.
 

Code of conduct

Our work is based on common values of transparency, mutual respect, integrity and reliability. In order to uphold the high standards of excellent research, and provide a healthy and open work environment, LISER adheres to the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity.

Open access statement

All articles published by World of Labour are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication, without subscription charges or registration barriers.

Authors of articles published in World of Labour are the copyright holders of their articles. For authors who are US government employees or are prevented from being copyright holders for similar reasons, World of Labour can accommodate non-standard copyright lines. Please contact the World of Labour Office if further information is needed.
 

Open science, FAIR data

We are a strong proponent of Open Science and the FAIR principles in regards to data. Data should be F(indable), A(ccessible), I(nteroperable) and R(eusable) as well as properly cited acknowledging the author's sources, to make identifying data easier, to promote the reproduction of research results, and to allow the impact of data to be tracked.