Raising employment among women and older workers: A policy lever for ageing economies
Declining working-age populations are set to weigh on growth across economies where the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development invests and beyond, with demographic projections
The (un)intended consequences of export restrictions
Export restrictions on industrial raw materials are increasingly used by developing economies to climb value chains. This column explores whether Indonesia’s 2014 ban on nickel
Labour market institutions for the AI era: The need for verified employment records
The rise of AI fundamentally alters the balance between formal credentials and verified experience in labour markets, but without verified employment records, experience remains invisible.
Conflict in dismissals: Evidence from ‘separations by mutual agreement’ in France
Dismissals are costly and are often subject to stringent employment protection regulations. This column explores how France’s 2008 introduction of separation by mutual agreement affected
Lessons from Denmark’s eight-hour workday reform
In recent years, calls for shorter working weeks have re-emerged in Europe and elsewhere. This column examines how Denmark’s 1919 shift to the eight-hour workday
Gold gains on US interest rate expectations
Investors have their eyes on other news, including ADP U.S. employment data and ISM PMIs this week, for indicators that could alter the Fed’s hawkish
Updating my priors on the effectiveness of wage subsidies in developing countries
In 2017 I published (ungated) a review of active labor market programs in developing countries, in which I concluded that the “accumulated evidence suggests that wage subsidies
Data, power and emissions: How AI’s growth may slow down the green transition
AI and other data-intensive technologies may help optimise energy use, but the technologies themselves are power hungry. This column explores how the diffusion of AI
Insuring labour income shocks: The role of the dynasty
Beyond government and market-based insurance, the family remains a key institution for coping with economic risk. This column uses detailed Norwegian data to study how
Leading firms are falling behind in developing East Asia
For decades, East Asia has been a paragon of economic dynamism. But today, in an era of rapid global technological advances, productivity growth in the
