IZA World of Labor - Search Result For

October 2019

Article

Do firms benefit from apprenticeship investments? Updated

Why spending on occupational skills can yield economic returns to employers

Robert Lerman

Economists have long believed that firms will not pay to develop occupational skills that workers could use in other, often competing, firms. Researchers now recognize that firms that invest in apprenticeship training generally reap good returns. Evidence indicates that financial returns to firms vary. Some recoup their investment within the apprenticeship period, while others see their investment pay off only after accounting for reduced turnover, recruitment, and initial training costs. Generally, the first year of apprenticeships involves significant costs, but subsequently, the apprentice's contributions exceed his/her wages and supervisory costs. Most participating firms view apprenticeships as offering certainty that all workers have the same high level of expertise and ensuring an adequate supply of well-trained workers to cover sudden increases in demand and to fill leadership positions.

MoreLess

May 2017

Article

Multitasking at work: Do firms get what they pay for?

Rewarding only one dimension of performance may result in employees ignoring other dimensions

Ann P. Bartel

To align employees’ interests with the firm’s goals, employers often use performance-based pay, but designing such a compensation plan is challenging because performance is typically multifaceted. For example, a sales employee should be incentivized to sell the company’s product, but a focus on current sales without rewarding the salespeople according to the quality of the product and/or customer service may result in fewer future sales. To solve this problem, firms often increase the number of metrics by which they evaluate their employees, but complex compensation plans may be difficult for employees to understand.

MoreLess

December 2015

Article

What makes a good job? Job quality and job satisfaction

Job satisfaction is important to well-being, but intervention may be needed only if markets are impeded from improving job quality

Andrew E. Clark

Many measures of job satisfaction have been trending downward. Because jobs are a key part of most people’s lives, knowing what makes a good job (job quality) is vital to knowing how well society is doing. Integral to worker well-being, job quality also affects the labor market through related decisions on whether to work, whether to quit, and how much effort to put into a job. Empirical work on what constitutes a good job finds that workers value more than wages; they also value job security and interest in their work. Policy to affect job quality requires information on the cost of the different aspects of job quality and how much workers value them.

MoreLess

January 2017

Article

The economics of employment tribunals

Understanding how employment tribunals make decisions can guide reforms of employment dispute settlement

Paul Latreille

Employment tribunals or labor courts are responsible for enforcing employment protection legislation and adjudicating rights-based disputes between employers and employees. Claim numbers are high and, in Great Britain, have been rising, affecting both administrative costs and economic competitiveness. Reforms have attempted to reduce the number of claims and to improve the speed and efficiency of dealing with them. Balancing employee protection against cost-effectiveness remains difficult, however. Gathering evidence on tribunals, including on claim instigation, resolution, decision making, and post-tribunal outcomes can inform policy efforts.

MoreLess

October 2022

Article

Income-contingent loans in higher education financing Updated

Internationally, there has been a student financing revolution toward income-contingent loans

Bruce Chapman Lorraine Dearden

Around ten countries currently use a variant of a national income-contingent loans (ICL) scheme for higher education tuition. Increased international interest in ICL validates an examination of its costs and benefits relative to the traditional financing system, time-based repayment loans (TBRLs). TBRLs exhibit poor economic characteristics for borrowers: namely high repayment burdens (loan repayments as a proportion of income) for the disadvantaged and default. The latter both damages credit reputations and can be associated with high taxpayer subsidies through continuing unpaid debts. ICLs avoid these problems as repayment burdens are capped by design, eliminating default.

MoreLess

December 2020

Article

Health effects of job insecurity Updated

Job insecurity adversely affects health, but employability policies and otherwise better job quality can mitigate the effects

Francis Green

The fear of unemployment has increased around the world in the wake of Covid-19. Research has shown that job insecurity affects both mental and physical health, though the effects are lower when employees are easily re-employable. The detrimental effects of job insecurity could be partly mitigated if employers improved other aspects of job quality that support better health. But as job insecurity is felt by many more people than just the unemployed, the negative health effects during recessions are multiplied and extend through the majority of the population. This reinforces the need for effective, stabilising macroeconomic policies, most especially at this time of pandemic.

MoreLess

June 2017

Article

Does education strengthen the life skills of adolescents?

Secondary and higher education are windows of opportunity for boosting students’ life skills

Stefanie Schurer

Life skills, sometimes referred to as noncognitive skills or personality traits (e.g. conscientiousness or locus of control—the belief to influence events and their outcomes), affect labor market productivity. Policymakers and academics are thus exploring whether such skills should be taught at the high school or college level. A small portfolio of recent studies shows encouraging evidence that education could strengthen life skills in adolescence. However, as no uniform approach exists on which life skills are most important and how to best measure them, many important questions must be answered before life skill development can become an integral part of school curricula.

MoreLess

April 2019

Article

Why do STEM immigrants do better in one country than another?

Where STEM immigrants were educated strongly influences their economic success and possibly their impact on innovation

Garnett Picot Feng Hou

Canada, the US, and most Western countries are looking to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) immigrants to boost innovation and economic growth. Canada in particular has welcomed many STEM immigrants over the past quarter of a century. In the US, there is an ongoing debate about whether the H–1B visa program is being used effectively to attract more STEM immigrants. Interestingly, significant differences exist between the two countries in earnings and likely the innovation activity of highly educated immigrants, which highlights the likely role of immigration policy in determining such outcomes.

MoreLess

February 2015

Article

Setting policy on asylum: Has the EU got it right?

Harmonizing asylum policies, a noble goal, does not produce the best outcomes for refugees or host country populations

Tim Hatton

Policy toward asylum-seekers has been controversial. Since the late 1990s, the EU has been developing a Common European Asylum System, but without clearly identifying the basis for cooperation. Providing a safe haven for refugees can be seen as a public good and this provides the rationale for policy coordination between governments. But where the volume of applications differs widely across countries, policy harmonization is not sufficient. Burden-sharing measures are needed as well, in order to achieve an optimal distribution of refugees across member states. Such policies are economically desirable and are more politically feasible than is sometimes believed.

MoreLess

December 2016

Article

The changing nature of citizenship legislation

Concepts of citizenship are not universally defined and need rethinking

Chiara Strozzi

Citizenship laws are changing in many countries. Although cross-national differences in the laws regulating access to citizenship are today not as large as they were several decades ago, they are still very apparent. Globally, there is convergence over some citizenship policy dimensions, but there is not a general convergence over “liberal” or “restrictive” approaches to citizenship policy. A growing body of research has put forward various comparative measures of citizenship and migrant integration policies. However, selecting the “right” index is a challenging task, and the underlying dynamics of citizenship laws are not easy to interpret as they differ across countries.

MoreLess

November 2019

Article

Enforcement and illegal migration Updated

Enforcement deters immigration but with unintended consequences

Pia Orrenius

Border enforcement of immigration laws raises the costs of illegal immigration, while interior enforcement also lowers its benefits. Used together, border and interior enforcement therefore reduce the net benefits of illegal immigration and should lower the probability that an individual will decide to illegally migrate. While empirical studies find that border and interior enforcement serve as deterrents to illegal immigration, immigration enforcement is costly and carries unintended consequences, such as a decrease in circular migration, an increase in smuggling, and higher prevalence of off-the-books employment and use of fraudulent and falsified documents.

MoreLess

November 2016

Article

Why do we need longitudinal survey data?

Knowing people’s history helps in understanding their present state and where they are heading

Heather Joshi

Information from longitudinal surveys transforms snapshots of a given moment into something with a time dimension. It illuminates patterns of events within an individual’s life and records mobility and immobility between older and younger generations. It can track the different pathways of men and women and people of diverse socio-economic background through the life course. It can join up data on aspects of a person’s life, health, education, family, and employment and show how these domains affect one another. It is ideal for bridging the different silos of policies that affect people’s lives.

MoreLess

October 2016

Article

The pros and cons of workplace tournaments

Tournaments can outperform other compensation schemes such as piece-rate and fixed wage contracts

Roman M. Sheremeta

Tournaments are commonly used in the workplace to determine promotion, assign bonuses, and motivate personal development. Tournament-based contracts can be very effective in eliciting high effort, often outperforming other compensation contracts, but they can also have negative consequences for both managers and workers. The benefits and disadvantages of workplace tournaments have been identified in an explosion of theoretical, empirical, and experimental research over the past 30 years. Based on these findings, suggestions and guidelines can be provided for when it might be beneficial to use tournaments in the workplace.

MoreLess

December 2019

Article

Language proficiency and immigrants’ economic integration

It is vital to measure language proficiency well, as it crucially determines immigrants’ earnings

Angela Daley Min Hu Casey Warman

Over recent decades, Western countries have admitted many immigrants from non-traditional regions (e.g. Philippines, India, China), which has coincided with poor economic integration. Language proficiency is an important determinant of economic integration; in addition to being a component of human capital, it plays a key role in facilitating the transmission of other components of human capital. Examining the strengths and weaknesses of objective and subjective measures of language proficiency is crucial for good integration policy, as is understanding the relationship between these measures and earnings, a key indicator of economic integration.

MoreLess

December 2014

Article

How to improve participation in social assistance programs

Government agencies can lower barriers that impede people’s take-up of social assistance

David C. Ribar

Social assistance programs are intended to improve people’s well-being. However, that goal is undermined when eligible people fail to participate. Reasons for non-participation can include inertia, lack of information, stigma, the time and “hassle” associated with applications and program compliance, as well as some programs’ non-entitlement status. Differences in participation across programs, and over time, indicate that take-up rates can respond both positively and negatively to policy change. However, there are clearly very identifiable ways in which relevant agencies can improve take-up.

MoreLess

July 2017

News

New welfare program in Australia to pay employers to take on interns

The Guardian, Huffington Post

Young unemployed Australians will be able to take part in Government-funded internships to bring them into the workforce, it has been announced this week.

August 2020

News

PM Scott Morrison promises to supply Covid-19 vaccines to Australia’s “Pacific family”

The Guardian, The Guardian, dw.com

Australia has taken the first step in securing millions of doses of a Covid-19 vaccine being developed by Oxford University.

June 2021

News

Australia’s minimum wage is increasing by 2.5%

ABC News

The changes mean that Australia’s lowest-paid workers will receive $20.33 an hour, or $772.60 a week for full-time workers.

October 2019

News

New South Wales, Australia: almost 900,000 people are living below the poverty line

ABC News

According to data by the NSW Council of Social Service (NCOSS), in NSW there are almost 900,000 people living below the poverty line.

March 2022

News

SEC moved toward enacting climate disclosure rule; UK and Australian parents facing lack of childcare options

Environment, Demography, family, and gender, Labor markets and institutions

Today’s global news summary brings news affecting the US, the UK/Australia, and China, and discusses issues as diverse as firms’ climate responsibilities, lack of childcare, and falling marriage rates.

January 2020

News

Friday news roundup January 10, 2020

Reuters, The Guardian, Fast Company, road.cc

Thousands of people were urged to evacuate their homes as Australian bushfires continue to burn and Norway is to accept 600 refugees from a Rwandan transit camp. Here's a snapshot of some of the news stories you may have missed this week.

May 2018

News

Vanuatu to permanently evacuate entire volcanic island

Time, stuff.co.nz

Vanuatu prepares to permanently evacuate one of its island as thick ash spews from the Manaro volcano.

December 2020

News

Friday news roundup December 18, 2020

ABC News, London Evening Standard, Times of India

The Australian government should not proceed with stage-three tax cuts and the hunger crisis in London deepens. Here’s a snapshot of some of the news stories you might have missed.

October 2019

News

Friday news roundup October 4, 2019

OECD, BBC News, CNN, The Guardian

The OECD looks into how young people feel about the changing world of work, UK High Court rules women are not entitled to compensation after rise in pension age, and Japanese women attribute mental health issues to sexual harassment at work. Here's a snapshot of some of the news stories you may have missed this week.

May 2016

Opinion

Search the site

Do firms benefit from apprenticeship investments? Updated

Why spending on occupational skills can yield economic returns to employers

Rewarding only one dimension of performance may result in employees ignoring other dimensions

Job satisfaction is important to well-being, but intervention may be needed only if markets are impeded from improving job quality

Understanding how employment tribunals make decisions can guide reforms of employment dispute settlement

Income-contingent loans in higher education financing Updated

Internationally, there has been a student financing revolution toward income-contingent loans

Health effects of job insecurity Updated

Job insecurity adversely affects health, but employability policies and otherwise better job quality can mitigate the effects

Secondary and higher education are windows of opportunity for boosting students’ life skills

Where STEM immigrants were educated strongly influences their economic success and possibly their impact on innovation

Harmonizing asylum policies, a noble goal, does not produce the best outcomes for refugees or host country populations

Concepts of citizenship are not universally defined and need rethinking

Enforcement and illegal migration Updated

Enforcement deters immigration but with unintended consequences

Knowing people’s history helps in understanding their present state and where they are heading

Tournaments can outperform other compensation schemes such as piece-rate and fixed wage contracts

It is vital to measure language proficiency well, as it crucially determines immigrants’ earnings

Government agencies can lower barriers that impede people’s take-up of social assistance