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Argentina’s labour market experienced two sharply contrasting periods. The first, between 2003 and 2012, was characterized by falling unemployment, rising real wages, declining inequality, and improvements in formal employment. The second was marked by prolonged macroeconomic instability, stagnant productivity, and deteriorating labour market conditions. Despite relatively low unemployment rates, real wages collapsed, informality remained persistently high, and a growing share of workers became poor despite being employed. At the same time, human capital accumulation among younger cohorts has weakened significantly. Argentina's labour market challenge is no longer primarily one of unemployment but of job quality.

Work on different days of the week is not equally desirable to workers. The same is true for work performed at different times of the day. Undesirable work times are more common among less educated workers, young and quite old workers, minorities, and immigrants. There are substantial cross-country differences in patterns of work timing, with work in lower-income countries distributed more evenly across the week. Policies to affect the timing of work are few, but they do alter outcomes.

While Mexico has improved the education of its labor force, maintained a stable macroeconomic environment, and been friendly to international trade, its labor market still faces many challenges. In particular, Mexico has difficulty creating high-paying jobs: the share of informal employment has remained stagnant for the last 20 years, and, by 2025, remains above 50%. These problems are particularly poignant in southern Mexico.

China experienced significant economic progress over the past few decades, with an annual average GDP growth of approximately 8.6%. Population expansion has certainly been a contributing factor, but that is now changing as China rapidly ages. Rural migrants are set to play a key role in compensating for future labor shortages. However, they still face significant barriers to live in cities permanently, resulting in surging waves of return migration in recent years. Additionally, China faces a low fertility rate of 1.01 births per woman, although the population control policy has been relaxed. Millions of people are employed in the food delivery and courier industry, yet with little social benefit and insurance, which poses potential challenges for China’s labor market stability.

Although early human capital theory recognized the relevance of workers’ experience, its focus was on education and formal training. More recent studies show that much of the performance of newly hired workers is driven by learning by doing or learning from peers or supervisors in the workplace. Descriptive data show that workers learn a lot from the various tasks they perform on the job. Informal learning at work seems to be relevant for all age groups, although it is more meaningful for younger workers’ performance. Informal learning is far more important for workers’ human capital development than formal training courses.

Old and new EU member states still adopt quite different labor market institutions and policies: convergence has been partial and limited. Nevertheless, a new agreement is spreading on the importance of well-developed, coordinated institutions, supported by social dialogue, in view of the increasing challenges posed by the macro economy and by the increasing fragmentation of labor markets.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the differing impact of institutions on entrepreneurship development is undeniable. Several post-Soviet countries benefitted from early international integration by joining the EU, adopting the euro, and becoming OECD members. This process enabled entrepreneurship to develop within institutional contexts where democratic and free market principles were strengthened. In general, however, post-Soviet economies continue to be characterized by higher levels of corruption, complex business regulations, weak rule of law, uncertain property rights and often, lack of political will for institutional change.

Increasing instruction time might seem a simple way to improve students' outcomes. However, there is substantial variation in its effects reported in the literature. When focusing on school day extensions, some studies find no effects, while others find that an additional hour of daily instruction significantly improves test scores. A similar pattern arises when examining the effect of additional days of class. These mixed findings likely reflect differences in the quality of instruction or in the activities that are being replaced by additional instruction. Hence these elements need to be considered when designing policies that increase instruction time.

Environmental regulations are typically considered to be a drag on the economy. However, improved environmental quality may actually enhance productivity by creating a healthier workforce. Evidence suggests that improvements in air quality lead to improvements in worker productivity at the micro level across a range of sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing, and the service sectors, as well as at more aggregate macro levels. These effects also arise at levels of air quality that are below pollution thresholds in countries with the highest levels of environmental regulation. The findings suggest a new approach for understanding the consequences of environmental regulations.

Work-from-home possibilities are lower in developing than in developed countries. Within countries, not all workers have equal chances of transitioning from the usual workplace to work-from-home. Moreover, infrastructure limitations and lack of access to certain services can limit the chances of effectively working from home. Having a home-based job can affect, positively or negatively, work–life balance, levels of job satisfaction and stress, and productivity. The differential chances of working from home may end up increasing the levels of income inequality between workers who can and those who cannot work from home.