Evidence-based policy making
IZA World of Labor is an online platform that provides policy analysts, journalists, academics and society generally with relevant and concise information on labor market issues. Based on the latest research, it provides current thinking on labor markets worldwide in a clear and accessible style. IZA World of Labor aims to support evidence-based policy making and increase awareness of labor market issues, including current concerns like the impact of Covid-19, and longer-term problems like inequality.
Migration and female genital mutilation
Can migrants help change the social norm?
PMore than 100 million women and girls in the world have had their genitals cut for cultural, religious, or other non-medical reasons. Even though international organizations condemn female genital mutilation (FGM), or cutting, as a violation of human rights, and most nations have banned it, it remains prevalent in many African countries, and is slow to decline. This persistence raises questions about the effectiveness of international and national laws prohibiting the practice as well as the potential role of returning migrants in changing embedded cultural norms. Does migration change migrants’ opinions and attitudes to this custom? If so, do they transfer the new norms to their origin countries?.
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Estimating the return to schooling using the Mincer equation Updated
The Mincer equation gives comparable estimates of the average monetary Returns of one additional year of education
Harry Anthony Patrinos , August 2024The Mincer equation—arguably the most widely used in empirical work—can be used to explain a host of economic, and even non-economic, phenomena. One such application involves explaining (and estimating) employment earnings as a function of schooling and labor market experience. The Mincer equation provides estimates of the average monetary returns of one additional year of education. This information is important for policymakers who must decide on education spending, prioritization of schooling levels, and education financing programs such as student loans.MoreLess -
Does increasing the minimum wage reduce poverty in developing countries? Updated
Whether raising minimum wages reduces—or increases—poverty depends on the characteristics of the labor market and Households
T. H. Gindling , August 2024Raising the minimum wage in developing countries could increase or decrease poverty, depending on labor market characteristics. Minimum wages target formal sector workers—a minority in most developing countries—many of whom do not live in poor households. Whether raising minimum wages reduces poverty depends not only on whether formal sector workers lose jobs as a result, but also on whether low-wage workers live in poor households, how widely minimum wages are enforced, how minimum wages affect informal workers, and whether social safety nets are in place.MoreLess -
Sexual harassment in the workplace Updated
The #MeToo movement brought heightened attention to sexual harassment and a search for new approaches to combat it
Joni Hersch , July 2024Workplace sexual harassment is internationally condemned as sex discrimination and a violation of human rights, and more than 140 countries have enacted legislation prohibiting it. Sexual harassment increases absenteeism and turnover and lowers productivity and job satisfaction. Yet, it remains pervasive and underreported, as the #MeToo movement starkly revealed in October 2017. Standard workplace policies such as training and a complaints process have proven inadequate. Initiatives such as bans on confidential settlements and measures that support market incentives for deterrence may offer the most promise.MoreLess -
Unemployment benefits and unemployment Updated
The challenge of unemployment benefits is to protect workers while minimizing undesirable side effects
Robert MoffittWonsik Ko , June 2024All developed economies have unemployment benefit programs to protect workers against major income losses during spells of unemployment. By enabling unemployed workers to meet basic consumption needs, the programs protect workers from having to sell their assets or accept jobs below their qualifications. The programs also help stabilize the economy during recessions. If benefits are too generous, however, the programs can lengthen unemployment and raise the unemployment rate. The policy challenge is to protect workers while minimizing undesirable side effects.MoreLess
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Sep 09, 2024
Employee Stock Ownership Plans boost job satisfaction in U.S. manufacturing sector
Study finds higher satisfaction with culture, leadership, and work-life balance in employee-owned firms -
Sep 04, 2024
AI and automation: How should we tax the future?
New study explores the challenges of taxing labor and capital in a rapidly changing world -
Sep 02, 2024
Female economists outshine males in shaping public opinion
New study challenges traditional notions of the gender authority gap -
Jul 30, 2024
Soft skills can mitigate hiring discrimination
Study finds that signaling teamwork ability reduces ethnic bias against disfavored job applicants in Malaysia
How fast internet is shaping local culture and harmful traditional norms?
Effects of parental death on labor market outcomes and gender inequalities
Are employers eager to hire the unemployed?
The surprising effects of education on family dynamics for men and women
Decoding gender bias: The role of personal interaction
10 years of IZA World of Labor
How political connections shape firm outcomes in Germany
Escaping the debt trap: Long-run effects of individual debt relief
Empowering local talent
ChatGPT in the workplace: Who's adopting and what's holding others back?
Small children, big problems
How perceived inequality shapes well-being
Reducing presenteeism
Essential yet vulnerable
Working from home increases work-home distances
Intergenerational mobility and credit
Mental health at scale
Parental investments
How differences in job search drive the gender earnings gap
From steel to skills
How human capital reshapes religious affiliation
From refugees to citizens
Transforming societies through education
The impact of abortion bans on birth rates
Reaching for gold!
Seasonal allergies and accidents
Redefining aging
Navigating innovation
Is vocational education and training (VET) an option to increase education and employment?
The parenthood penalty in mental health
How female leaders are transforming workplace dynamics
Managerial stress accelerates aging and increases mortality among CEOs
Traumas of the past
How Many Layoffs Could Be Avoided by Pay Cuts?
Were COVID and the Great Recession Well-being Reducing?
Closing the Gender Pay Gap: A Fresh Approach
Is Your Office Safe? Unpacking the #MeToo Numbers
Where are the fathers?
More accurate weather forecast and mortality
Why Degrowth won’t save the world
Exposure to war and its labor market consequences
Slow traffic, fast food: The effects of time lost on food store choice
Working from home during Covid and women’s job satisfaction
Do international tourist arrivals change residents’ attitudes toward immigration?
The child penalty for graduates
ChatGPT and IZA World of Labor
Does providing social services reduce the risk of repeated domestic abuse?
The direct and indirect effects of online job search advice
Ranking the happiness of countries and states
Telework during the Covid-19 pandemic
Mergers and the labor market
“If you have your health, you have everything”? The true value of health
Labor market concentration and competition policy across the Atlantic
The gift of a lifetime: The hospital, modern medicine, and mortality
The impact of limiting the outsourcing of jobs
Air pollution and the labor market
Judging affirmative action
Working from home around the world
Job loss during Covid-19 in sub-Saharan Africa
Pass-through and consumer responses to alcohol tax increases
Does gender inequality in today’s labor market perpetuate gender inequality in future generations?
Paying for amenities at work
Can wage transparency alleviate gender sorting in the labor market?
Has the willingness to work fallen during the Covid pandemic?
The recent push toward unionization in the US
Religious diversity improves trust and performance
Effects of the Russia-Ukraine crisis on food prices and well-being
The four-day workweek
Immigration, employment, and innovation
Transgender people face significant economic challenges
The importance of extracurricular activities at school for future managers
School closures and effective in-person learning during Covid-19: When, where, and for whom
Cutting back on work during Covid: How was it done?
A persistent casualty of Covid-19: Children’s skill development
Digital payments surged during Covid-19 in the developing world. What are the opportunities for workers?
Labor markets in low-income countries: Challenges and opportunities
Who benefits when migrants return to developing countries?
How do widespread shocks affect people’s desires to redistribute income?
Employer market power in Silicon Valley
Microfinance and rural non-farm employment in developing countries during the Covid-19 crisis
How do labor market institutions affect job creation and productivity growth?
Can market mechanisms solve refugee crises?
Saving the planet and creating jobs
Masking, Covid-19, and social identity
Does health professionalism among bureaucrats help weather the Covid-19 pandemic?
Solving pension crises
Emigration and the wages of those who stay behind
The shadow economy and the Covid-19 pandemic crisis
How to support the self-employed in developing countries
Substance use and academic performance
Pandemics and the prospects for higher education in developing countries
The challenges of regulating the labor market in developing countries
What economic value is there in speaking another language?: An interview with Gilles Grenier
Household production, what is it and how do we value it?: An interview with Leslie S. Stratton
Low pay jobs, do they “scar” future job prospects?: An interview with Claus Schnabel
Tutoring: An effective solution to help disadvantaged children
The challenging plight of widows
International trade restrictions and the impact on GDP: An interview with L. Alan Winters
Job search during a pandemic recession
What does the Covid-19 R&D response tell us about innovation?
Helping the poor to comply with social distancing
Lifestyle and mental health disruptions during Covid-19
Does Covid-19 make us more averse to inequality?
Covid-19’s impacts on the US labor market
The impact of Covid-19 on the life insurance market was minimal
Labor issues in the Biden administration
Exposure to epidemics and trust in scientists
Measuring the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on domestic violence
Assessing the effect of online instruction on university students’ learning
Sexual harassment in the post-Covid-19 work environment
Covid-19 and fertility
How to play it safe? The gender gap in aversion to Covid-19 exposure
Pandemic meets pollution: The role of air quality for Covid-19
How was the US presidential election affected by the Covid-19 pandemic?
The impact of a Covid-19 lockdown on happiness
The impact of Covid-19 restrictions on small businesses in the US
What are lockdowns good for?
Labor issues in the US election
Covid-19 and US attitudes toward government and markets
Forgotten numbers: Non-fatal Covid-19 infections in the US
Excess deaths in care homes during the pandemic
Human mobility during the pandemic: Policy or information?
Economic effects of Covid-19: The importance of credit constraints
All in this together?: Inequality during Covid-19
Cognitive performance in the home office—What professional chess can tell us
Covid-19 shutdowns and the self-employed
Racial and ethnic disparities in the face of the coronavirus
The power of social capital during a pandemic
Does policy communication during Covid-19 work?
Behavior during a pandemic
University educated workers and their ability to deal with Covid-19 and future shocks
Four mistaken theses about universal basic incomes
Elections and the Covid-19 pandemic
Covid-19 and giving to charity
Lockdowns and traffic accidents
Effects of Covid-19 on spending and saving
Labor markets in the Covid-19 pandemic: Western Europe and the US
Can sports offer an insight into the future of the labor market?
Childcare during Covid-19
Can defined contribution pension plans reduce worker mobility?
Covid-19’s impact on the economy: Measuring GDP during a pandemic
So happy together?
Covid-19 and immigrant employment
Graduating during the Covid-19 recession
How can governments mitigate the global decline in labor income share?
The Covid-19 crisis exacerbates workplace injustices
Can inflation be accurately measured during a lockdown?
Measuring employment and unemployment—Primer and predictions
What is happening to unemployment in the post-Covid-19 labor market?
The CARES Act—Massive government intervention in the economic crisis
What are the challenges in using language proficiency to predict the economic integration of immigrants?
200 billion hours to spend: The Covid-19 opportunity to upskill
Did California’s shelter-in-place order work? Early coronavirus-related public health effects
Labor markets during the Covid-19 crisis: A preliminary view
Trends in Covid-19 infection: What New York City neighborhoods tell us
Trading off lives for jobs
Mitigating the work–safety trade-off
The sudden growth of employee autonomy during the coronavirus lockdown
Economic implications of postponing the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
Korea: A paragon of dealing with coronavirus
The coronavirus crisis and the next generation
Expectations about Covid-19 social-distancing measures in Italy and their impact on compliance
Coronavirus, telecommuting, and the labor market
The long-term consequences of missing a term of school
Health effects of the coronavirus recession
Pricing the lives saved by coronavirus policies
Pandemics and the labor market—Then and now
Fighting a coronavirus recession
Can financial education help workers save for retirement?
Coronavirus and the labor market
Is putting children in childcare good for them?
Is firms’ productivity affected by accession to the EU?
Is a highly educated workforce good for less educated workers?
What works for women’s work in low- and middle-income countries?
How much do children cost?
Do overtime hours and pay regulations promote wage and employment growth?
Should governments intervene in the assimilation of immigrants?
Self-checkout and Neo-Luddism
Is CEO pay economically justified?
Gender quotas for the board room?
Does studying abroad enhance employment opportunities?
How will climate change affect what we do?
Can we use trade policy to achieve gender equality?
Low social mobility in Latin America may hinder economic growth
Making teacher certification work for developing countries
New European Parliament and Commission for a more ambitious framework for social and employment policies
Labor market issues in India’s parliamentary elections 2019
When is the right time to start tracking students?
The economic consequences of secularization
Labor issues in the 2019 Australian election
Parental leave policies as good HR practices
Does government spending crowd out charitable behavior?
Why the sudden interest in employee ownership?
Will punishing the unemployed cure unemployment?
Immigrant entrepreneurship: The evidence so far
Labor issues in the 2018 US election
A data tax for a digital economy
Working in family firms
Should genetics shape policy?
Minimum wages hurt young people
Workplace sickness absence
Should divorce be cheap and easy?
Income inequality and social origins
Integrating refugees into the labor market
Disability and labor market disadvantage
Self-inflicted wounds of closed borders
What do we know about female criminality and how to control it?
Should policymakers worry about a declining female labor force participation rate?
The importance of appropriate tools for evaluating labor market reforms: The case of Italy
Does an increase in imports improve the well-being of poorer individuals?
Why does poverty persist across the generations?
Are happy workers more productive?
Can universal preschool increase the labor supply of mothers?
Can jobs reduce recidivism?
Are smaller classes better?
Does increasing the minimum wage reduce poverty in developing countries?
Wage subsidies may not help to increase employment among older workers
Labor market issues in the German election
How candidates’ looks affect their election chances
The impact of repealing “Obamacare” on children’s academic performance
Gender diversity in teams
The unhappiness of the US working class
Refugee resettlement in the EU
Public versus private job placement services
Environmental regulations and business decisions
Labor market issues in the 2017 French presidential election
Immigration and native workers' health
Not bad at all—the true state of the US labor market
Equal pay legislation and the gender wage gap
Reducing unemployment is always on the government agenda
Do/can firms benefit from training apprentices?
If 2016 was the year of political earthquakes, then what might the rest of 2017 bring?
Designing social protection for women
Green energy and jobs
The union wage premium: Is it real?
Job insecurity is bad for our health
Political participation in a digital economy
Brexit and the American election
What can be done to reduce workplace sexual harassment?
Internal hiring vs external recruitment?
Do employees profit from profit sharing?
How much do we work?
Does performance-related pay improve productivity?
6 key points on European youth unemployment
Impatience, schooling, and happiness
How can knowledge and new ideas be turned into jobs?
Are home births safe for everyone?
Does having a child in your teens change your economic future?
Weighing more and earning less: The hidden individual costs of obesity
Brexit: Implications for UK labor
Brexit: An American politico-economic view
The return on investment on migration: What’s in it for business?
A rural-urban political divide: Is it caused by labor-market outcomes?
Incentives for prosocial activities—Do they work?
How might self-driving cars change the lives of workers?
Can market mechanisms help solve the refugee crisis?
International Workers' Day, 2016
Commentary on high minimum wage proposals
The immigration jump: Are more immigrants good for the economy?
A note from the new Editor-in-Chief, Professor Daniel Hamermesh
Does corruption promote emigration?
Three reasons immigrants are valuable for the host country
Not everything that counts is measured: the UK debate on job security
Smart policy toward high-skill emigration: An interview with Michael Clemens
What does the evidence tell us about sexual harassment in the workplace?
Does education prepare you for working life?
Do case workers really help the unemployed? An interview with Michael Rosholm
Explainer: why some European countries do more than others to help refugees
5 reasons why immigrants do not take natives' jobs
Let the children play
What if there were no national borders?
It pays to be beautiful: Investments in appearance lead to success in the workplace
We can't blame the loss of mid-level jobs purely on robots
The FutureWork Opinion Series - David Robalino
The FutureWork Opinion Series - Klaus F. Zimmermann
The FutureWork Opinion Series - Colm Harmon
The FutureWork Opinion Series - Alexander Kritikos
The FutureWork Opinion Series - Pierre Cahuc
The FutureWork Opinion Series - Olga Nottmeyer
My husband and I were equal partners—then we had a baby
Reflections on International Workers’ Day
Is obesity the new smoking?