N°
145
23 May 2013
Drivers of Female Labour Force Participation in the OECD Olivier Thévenon
This paper analyses the response of female labour force participation to the evolution of labour markets and policies supporting the reconciliation of work and family life. Using country-level data from the early 1980s for 18 OECD countries, we estimate the influence of labour market and...
N°
140
14 Jan 2013
Fathers' Leave, Fathers' Involvement and Child Development Maria del Carmen Huerta, Willem Adema, Jennifer Baxter, Wen-Jui Han, Mette Lausten, RaeHyuck Lee, Jane Waldfogel
Previous research has shown that fathers taking some time off work around childbirth, especially
periods of leave of 2 or more weeks, are more likely to be involved in childcare related activities than
fathers who do not do so. Furthermore, evidence suggests that children with fathers who are...
N°
141
10 Jan 2013
Labour Market Effects of Parental Leave Policies in OECD Countries Olivier Thévenon, Anne Solaz
This paper considers how entitlements to paid leave after the birth of children affect female
labour market outcomes across countries. Such entitlements are granted for various lengths of time and
paid at different rates, reflecting the influence of different objectives including: enhancing...
N°
139
13 Dec 2012
Flexicurity and the Economic Crisis 2008-2009 Tor Eriksson
A key feature of the Danish labour market is its so-called flexicurity, the coexistence of flexibility
(low adjustment costs for both employers and employees) and security (owing to a developed social safety
net with high coverage and high replacement ratios). This is often believed to have...
N°
144
12 Dec 2012
The Role of Short-Time Working Schemes During the Global Financial Crisis and Early Recovery Alexander Hijzen, Sébastien Martin
There has been a strong interest in short-time work (STW) schemes during the global financial crisis.
Using data for 23 OECD countries for the period 2004 Q1 to 2010 Q4, this paper analyses the quantitative
effects of STW programmes on labour market outcomes by exploiting the country and time...
N°
137
11 Dec 2012
The Response of German Establishments to the 2008-2009 Economic Crisis Lutz Bellmann, Hans-Dieter Gerner, Richard Upward
We examine the response of a large panel of German establishments to the crisis in terms of their job
flows (changes in employment) and consequent worker flows (hires, separations and layoffs). We analyse
the extent to which job flows and worker flows at the establishment level are...
N°
138
10 Dec 2012
Effects of Reducing Gender Gaps in Education and Labour Force Participation on Economic Growth in the OECD Olivier Thévenon, Nabil Ali, Willem Adema, Angelica Salvi del Pero
This paper assesses the extent to which the increase in women’s human capital, as measured by
educational attainment, has contributed to economic growth in OECD countries over the past five decades.
Using cross-country/time series data covering 30 countries from 1960 to 2008 on education (the...
N°
142
29 Nov 2012
Helping Displaced Workers Back Into Jobs After a Natural Disaster Danielle Venn
Large-scale natural disasters can have long-lasting effects on the labour market in affected areas in addition to their humanitarian and economic cost. Mass evacuations and disruptions to housing, transport, social services and infrastructure can impede labour market participation. Firms may...
N°
143
28 Nov 2012
Trends in Job Skill Demands in OECD Countries Michael J. Handel
This report examines skill trends in 24 OECD countries over the past several decades. The skill measures used include broad occupation groups, country-specific direct measures of skill requirements from international surveys, and direct skill measures from the Occupational Information Network...
N°
129
28 Nov 2012
An Overview of Australia's System of Income and Employment Assistance for the Unemployed Peter Davidson, Peter Whiteford
This report provides an overview of Australia’s labour market policies, with a focus on income support benefits and employment assistance for people of working age. It traces historical developments partly since 1990 and since 1978 in the case of some data series...
N°
134
25 Oct 2012
The Role of Institutions and Firm Heterogeneity for Labour Market Adjustment Peter Gal, Alex Hijzen, Zoltan Wolf
This paper investigates the role of policies and institutions for aggregate labour market dynamics during
the global financial crisis using firm-level data. The use of firm-level data is important if firms are
heterogeneous in their labour input adjustment technologies. In this case,...
N°
135
11 Sep 2012
Money or Kindergarten? Distributive Effects of Cash Versus In-Kind Family Transfers for Young Children Michael Förster, Gerlinde Verbist
Public support to families with pre-school children can be in the form of cash benefits (e.g. child allowances) or of "in-kind" support (e.g. care services such as kindergartens). The mix of these support measures varies greatly across OECD countries, from a cash / in-kind composition of...
N°
133
04 July 2012
Capital's Grabbing Hand? A Cross-Country/Cross-Industry Analysis of the Decline of the Labour Share Andrea Bassanini, Thomas Manfredi
We examine the determinants of the within-industry decline of the labour share, using industry-level annual data for 25 OECD countries, 20 business-sector industries and covering up to 28 years. We find that total factor productivity growth – which captures (albeit imprecisely)...
N°
132
27 Mar 2012
Income Distribution and Poverty in Russia Irina Denisova
The paper is a survey of literature and statistical sources on poverty and inequality in Russia in the 1990s and the 2000s. It serves as a background to OECD (2011), the OECD Labour Market and Social Policy Review of the Russian Federation that was released in 2011. We start with an overview of...
N°
128
02 Feb 2012
The Labour Market Integration of Immigrants and Their Children in Switzerland Thomas Liebig, Sebastian Kohls, Karolin Krause
Switzerland is among the OECD countries with the largest immigrant populations – 27% of the working-age population are foreign-born – and the issue of immigration is high on both the policy agenda and in the public debate. Given the numerous debates around this issue in Switzerland, one could...
N°
130
10 Jan 2012
The Impact of Publicly Provided Services on the Distribution of Resources Gerlinde Verbist, Michael Förster, Maria Vaalavuo
This paper looks at how the income distribution in countries changes when the value of publicly-provided services to households is included. We consider five major categories of public services: education, health care, social housing, childcare and elderly care. On average across OECD...
N°
131
09 Jan 2012
Eligibility Criteria for Unemployment Benefits Danielle Venn
Eligibility criteria for unemployment benefits, which require recipients to actively look for work, take
up suitable job offers or take part in active labour market programmes (ALMPs), or risk benefit sanctions,
can play an important role in offsetting the negative impact of generous...
N°
119
12 Dec 2011
The Labour Market Effects of Unemployment Compensation in Brazil Alexander Hijzen
This paper analyses the impact of unemployment insurance and severance pay on the duration of nonemployment and transitions from non-employment to formal salaried employment, informal salaried employment and self-employment. It makes use of panel data from the Pesquisa Mensal de Emgrego, a...
N°
126
29 Nov 2011
Are Recent Immigrants Different? A New Profile of Immigrants in the OECD based on DIOC 2005/06 Sarah Widmaier, Jean-Christophe Dumont
Increasing international migration and changing immigrant populations in OECD countries make international comparable data on migrant populations essential. These data should be updated regularly to capture a detailed picture of migrant populations. This document presents the first results of...
N°
127
10 Nov 2011
The Labour Market Integration of Immigrants and their Children in Austria Karolin Krause, Thomas Liebig
With 17% of the working-age population in 2010 being foreign-born, Austria has one of the largest shares of working-age immigrants in the OECD. As in other European OECD countries, the migration landscape in Austria has been shaped by the recruitment of low-educated labour migrants prior to the...
N°
124
02 Nov 2011
Is the European Welfare State Really More Expensive? Willem Adema, Pauline Fron, Maxime Ladaique
Part I of this paper first presents information on trends and composition of social expenditure as in the OECD Social Expenditure database for the years 1980 – 2007. Over this period, public social expenditure as a percentage of GDP, on average across OECD, increased from 15.6% to 19.2%. Public...
N°
125
07 Oct 2011
Earnings Volatility and its Consequences for Households Danielle Venn
Many workers experience large fluctuations in before-tax labour earnings from one year to the next, due to changes in working hours, movements in and out of work and changes in pay. Youth entering the labour market and workers in non-standard jobs (such as temporary employment or...
N°
122
04 Oct 2011
Redistribution Policy and Inequality Reduction in OECD Countries Herwig Immervoll, Linda Richardson
We use a range of data sources to assess if, and to what extent, government redistribution policies have
slowed or accelerated the trend towards greater income disparities in the past 20-25 years. In most
countries, inequality among "non-elderly" households has widened during most phases of the...
N°
116
20 Sep 2011
Cooking, Caring and Volunteering: Unpaid Work Around the World Veerle Miranda
Household production constitutes an important aspect of economic activity and ignoring it may lead to incorrect inferences about levels and changes in well-being. This paper sheds light on the importance of unpaid work by making use of detailed time-use surveys for 25 OECD member countries and...
N°
118
06 Sep 2011
Early Maternal Employment and Child Development in Five OECD Countries Maria del Carmen Huerta, Willem Adema, Jennifer Baxter, Miles Corak, Mette Deding, Matthew C. Gray, Wen-Jui Han, Jane Waldfogel
More mothers with young children are in paid work than in the past. There is a long-running
debate on possible negative effects of maternal employment on child development. For the
first time, this paper presents an initial comparative analysis of longitudinal data on maternal
employment...
N°
123
01 Sep 2011
Aggregate Earnings and Macroeconomic Shocks Andrea Bassanini
I examine the effect of labour market policies and institutions on the transmission of macroeconomic shocks to the labour market, using both aggregate and industry-level annual data for 23 OECD countries, 23 business-sector industries and up to 29 years. I find that high and progressive labour...
N°
121
01 Sep 2011
Over-Qualified or Under-Skilled Glenda Quintini
Mismatches between workers’ competences and what is required by their job are widespread in OECD countries. Studies that use qualifications as proxies for competences suggest that as many as one in four workers could be over-qualified and as many as one in three could be under-qualified for...
N°
120
01 Sep 2011
Right for the Job Glenda Quintini
Ensuring a good match between skills acquired in education and on the job and those required in the labour market is essential to make the most of investments in human capital and promote strong and inclusive growth. Unfortunately, in the OECD on average, about one in four workers are...
N°
111
05 Apr 2011
Economic Determinants and Consequences of Child Maltreatment Lawrence M. Berger, Jane Waldfogel
Substantial numbers of children in the advanced industrialized countries experience child abuse and
neglect each year, resulting in considerable social, emotional, and economic costs to both the children
themselves and to their societies as a whole. Yet, whereas scholars and policymakers have...
N°
117
28 Mar 2011
What Drives Inflows Into Disability? Ana Llena-Nozal, Theodora Xenogiani
This paper investigates the dynamic effects of health shocks on labour market transitions to disability, employment and other non-employment pathways. It uses longitudinal data to estimate time discrete duration models for three countries: Australia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Both...
N°
115
17 Jan 2011
The Role of Short-Time Work Schemes during the 2008-09 Recession Alexander Hijzen, Danielle Venn
The present paper provides the most comprehensive assessment to date of the impact of short-time work (STW) schemes during the 2008-09 crisis. The analysis covers 19 OECD countries, 11 of which operated a short-time work scheme before the crisis, five countries introduced a new scheme during...
N°
114
09 Dec 2010
International Migrants in Developed, Emerging and Developing Countries Jean-Christophe Dumont, Gilles Spielvogel, Sarah Widmaier
Increasing international mobility makes international comparable data even more important, to depict global migration patterns and its characteristics, not only in receiving countries but also in origin countries. This paper provides a detailed picture of immigrant and emigrant populations...
N°
113
07 Dec 2010
Activation Policies in Japan Nicola Duell, David Grubb, Shruti Singh, Peter Tergeist
The Japanese labour market is characterised by high employment rates for men and older workers, and a low unemployment rate. Over the past two decades, female participation has risen, while disparities in the labour market conditions of workers have grown. Further efforts are needed to promote...
N°
109
22 Oct 2010
Decomposing Notional Defined-Contribution Pensions Edward R. Whitehouse
This paper compares notional defined-contribution pension schemes (also known as notional accounts) with two alternative designs of earnings-related pension schemes: points systems and definedbenefit plans. It examines, in detail, four economic advantages of notional accounts that deliver...
N°
112
21 Oct 2010
Activation Policies in Switzerland Nicola Duell, Peter Tergeist, Ursula Bazant, Sylvie Cimper
This report examines the performance of public employment services and the effectiveness of
activation strategies in Switzerland. It covers the role of the key actors in labour market policy, the
placement function of the Public Employment Service (PES), the structure of out-of-work benefits...
N°
110
04 Oct 2010
Distributional Consequences of Labor Demand Adjustments to a Downturn Herwig Immervoll, Olivier Bargain, Andreas Peichl, Sebastien Siegloch
Macro-level changes can have substantial effects on the distribution of resources at the household level. While it is possible to speculate about which groups are likely to be hardest-hit, detailed distributional studies are still largely backward-looking. This paper suggests a straight forward...
N°
105
04 Oct 2010
Trends in Pension Eligibility Ages and Life Expectancy, 1950-2050 Rafal Chomik, Edward R. Whitehouse
The pensionable age is the most visible parameter of retirement-income systems. This paper surveys pensionable ages in the OECD for a period of a century: back to 1950 and forward to 2050. Average pensionable age in OECD countries dropped by nearly two years during the second half of the 20th...
N°
108
31 Aug 2010
Earnings of Men and Women Working in the Private Sector Anna Christina D'Addio, Herwig Immervoll
The OECD’s "Average-Wage" (AW) concept is commonly used as a benchmark for tax-benefit and pension modeling. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether it is possible to use richer sets of earnings data in order to customize these modeling exercises to the situation of different groups of...
N°
107
06 July 2010
Institutional Determinants of Worker Flows Andrea Bassanini, Andrea Garnero, Pascal Marianna, Sebastien Martin
There is little cross-country comparative evidence on the way labour market institutions shape gross
job and worker flows, by and large because comparable data for many countries are scarce. By using a
unique harmonised dataset on hirings and separations at the industry-level for a large...
N°
101
28 May 2010
Trends in South African Income Distribution and Poverty since the Fall of Apartheid Murray Leibbrandt, Ingrid Woolard, Arden Finn, Jonathan Argent
This report presents a detailed analysis of changes in both poverty and inequality since the fall of Apartheid, and the potential drivers of such developments. Use is made of national survey data from 1993, 2000 and 2008. These data show that South Africa’s high aggregate level of income...
N°
106
14 Apr 2010
Rising Youth Unemployment During The Crisis Stefano Scarpetta, Anne Sonnet, Thomas Manfredi
The global economic crisis has hit youth very hard. In the OECD area, the youth (15-24)
unemployment rate rose by 6 percentage points in the two years to the end of 2009, to reach almost 19%.
There are currently nearly 15 million youth unemployed in the OECD area, about four million more than...
N°
103
19 Mar 2010
Reforming Policies on Foreign Workers in Israel Adriana Kemp
Since the early 1990s, Israel has enacted a managed migration scheme for low-skilled foreign workers.
Originally designed to replace Palestinian cross-border workers from the Occupied Territories in the
secondary labour market, in 2007 foreign workers comprised 8.7% of the private-sector labour...
N°
104
18 Mar 2010
Israeli Child Policy and Outcomes John Gal, Mimi Ajzenstadt, Asher Ben-Arieh, Roni Holler, Nadine Zielinsky
This report presents an overview of child policy in Israel. It covers a wide range of services and
policies that are intended to further the wellbeing of children in Israel or that have an impact upon the
wellbeing of children, including the fields of education, health, cash transfers, taxation...
N°
102
18 Mar 2010
Labour Market and Socio-Economic Outcomes of the Arab-Israeli Population Jack Habib, Judith King, Assaf Ben Shoham, Abraham Wolde-Tsadick, Karen Lasky
Ce rapport s’intéresse à certains des principaux facteurs à prendre en compte concernant la situation
des arabes israéliens sur le marché du travail : les écarts dans le capital humain (éducation, connaissance de
l'informatique, maîtrise de l’hébreu) ; le lieu de résidence, la périphérie...
N°
100
07 Jan 2010
Minimum Income Benefits in OECD Countries Herwig Immervoll
Almost all OECD countries operate comprehensive minimum-income programmes for working-age individuals, either as last-resort safety nets alongside primary income replacement benefits, or as the principal instrument for delivering social protection. Such safety-net benefits aim primarily at...
N°
96
02 Dec 2009
Income Distribution and Subjective Happiness Claudia Senik
This survey summarises the insights that the new literature based on subjective data has shed on the
issue of income inequality and income comparisons. It reviews the various channels that relate income
distribution and subjective well-being. It considers the welfare effect of income gaps in...
N°
98
23 Nov 2009
Activation Policies in Finland Nicola Duell, David Grubb, Shruti Singh
This report examines the performance of the Public Employment Service (PES) and the effectiveness
of activation strategies in Finland. It covers the role of the key actors, the placement function of the PES,
the structure of out-of-work benefits and the related incentives and disincentives for...
N°
99
18 Nov 2009
Happiness and Age Cycles - Return to Start...? Justina A.V. Fischer
Previous happiness research has explicitly assumed that subjective well-being is U-shaped in age.
This paper sheds new light on this issue testing several functional forms. Using micro data from the World
Values Survey on 44 000 persons in 30 economically advanced OECD countries with long...
N°
92
13 Nov 2009
How Expensive is the Welfare State? Willem Adema, Maxime Ladaique
This paper first presents information on trends and composition of social expenditure across the OECD. Gross public social expenditure on average across OECD increased from 16% of GDP in 1980 to 21% in 2005, of which public pensions (7% of GDP) and public health expenditure (6% of GDP) are the...
N°
97
29 Oct 2009
Children of Immigrants in the Labour Markets of EU and OECD Countries Thomas Liebig, Sarah Widmaier
This document provides a first comparative overview of the presence and outcomes of the children of immigrants in the labour markets of OECD countries, based on a collection of data from 16 OECD countries with large immigrant populations. Its key findings are the following:
• In about half of...
