Occasional Papers

Population, Labour Force and Unemployment: Implications for the Creation of (Decent) Jobs, 1990-2030

By: David E. Bloom and Mathew J. McKenna
2015
We estimate that 734 million jobs will be required globally between 2010 and 2030 to accommodate recent and ongoing demographic shifts, account for plausible changes in labour force participation rates, and achieve target unemployment rates of at or...Read more

Organizing Informal Workers: Benefits, Challenges and Successes

By: Martha Chen, Chris Bonner and Françoise Carré
2015
The informal workforce represents more than half of all workers in most developing countries and a significant share of workers in developed countries. This paper summarizes the history and forms of organizing informal workers, providing a timeline of...Read more

Time Use Across the World: Findings of a World Compilation of Time Use Surveys

By: Jacques Charmes
2015
This paper is based on 102 time use surveys carried out in 65 countries. Reports of the surveys were mostly found on the websites of national statistical agencies or other official institutions. Access to micro-data was not necessary. Survey data have...Read more

Work and Human Development in a Deindustrializing World

By: Dani Rodrik
2015
Work is mostly unpleasant. Doing lots of unpleasant work is how countries get rich. And being rich is how more people get to do pleasant work. That pretty much sums up economic history from the perspective of ‘work for human development’.Read more

Employment in Conflict and Post-conflict Situations

By: Frances Stewart
2015
There is a common view that unemployment is a critical factor leading to conflict; that employment is a casualty of conflict; and that therefore the creation of jobs should be a priority in post-conflict situations. This is in order to make the...Read more

Valuing Non-market Work

By: Nancy Folbre
2015
The unpaid time that people devote to the care of family, friends and neighbours clearly contributes to economic living standards, social well-being and the development of human capabilities. The rapid proliferation of nationally representative time-use...Read more

Globalization of Production, Work and Human Development: Is a Race to the Bottom Inevitable?

By: Rizwanul Islam
2015
Economic globalization involves trade, capital flows and the movement of labour, and an important element in that process is the globalization of production. With the gradual dismantling of trade barriers, and capital flows becoming easier, globalization...Read more

Globalization of Work

By: Rolph van der Hoeven
2015
The term globalization became popular in the last decade of the 20th century. Although the phenomenon itself is actually much older, with periods of globalization in the 16th and 19th centuries, current globalization is marked by several phenomena at the...Read more
Happiness and HD

Happiness and Human Development

By: Hall, Jon; Helliwell, John F.
2014
Those who are interested in promoting the collection and use of subjective wellbeing data often cite the importance of such data to help balance the attention otherwise placed almost exclusively on indicators of economic activity, such as Gross Domestic...Read more
Happiness and HD

Happiness and Human Development

By: Hall, Jon; Helliwell, John F.
2014
Those who are interested in promoting the collection and use of subjective wellbeing data often cite the importance of such data to help balance the attention otherwise placed almost exclusively on indicators of economic activity, such as Gross Domestic...Read more