What Works: Research Briefs

The purpose of these What Works Research Briefs is to provide constituents with evidence-based advice on policies that are effective in tackling employment and social policy challenges.

October 2019

  1. ILO What Works Research Brief No. 15

    Combating Extreme Poverty by Providing Active Support as Part of a Conditional Cash Transfer Schemes

    16 October 2019

    Integrating active labour market policies (ALMPs) into poverty alleviation programmes can foster employment opportunities while protecting individuals’ incomes from the consequences of a severe recession. Recent research on Uruguay’s response to the economic crisis of 2002 demonstrates that allowing the beneficiaries of cash transfer schemes to voluntary participate in public works increases their chances of finding jobs afterwards, and at the same time counteracts any indirect negative effect that income support may have on labour market outcomes.

  2. ILO What Works Research Brief No. 14

    Expanding Access To Unemployment Benefits And Active Support To Cover Informal Workers

    16 October 2019

    Combining income support with active labour market policies (ALMPs) is a viable strategy for helping unemployed people while they look for work. However, access to such programmes in developing and emerging countries (where they exist) tends to be restricted to formal sector workers. New evidence from the Mauritian unemployment benefit scheme demonstrates the value of expanding access to cover informal workers as well.

  3. ILO What Works Research Brief No. 13

    Meeting The Challenges of a Changing World Of Work by Combining Income Support and Active Labour Market Policies

    16 October 2019

    Integrated approaches that combine income support and active labour market policies (ALMPs) can foster opportunities for accessing decent work while protecting people throughout their working-life transitions. Such approaches can take various forms and they are starting to be used more frequently in emerging and developing economies. In addition to sustainably reducing poverty and promoting development, they lead to greater social cohesion.

  4. ILO What Works Research Brief No. 12

    Promoting Pathways to Decent Work

    16 October 2019

    New evidence is available on the merits of combining income support with active labour market policies (ALMPs) to protect people during joblessness and promote pathways to decent work. Such a combination, or integrated approach, prevents people from being forced by necessity to accept any new job that comes their way, regardless of its quality, while at the same time equipping them with the necessary skills to aspire to better jobs and helping them to find new employment opportunities.

September 2018

  1. ILO What Works Research Brief No. 11

    Labour market integration of immigrants

    13 September 2018

September 2017

  1. ILO What Works Research Brief No. 10

    Economic impacts of reducing the gender gap

    29 September 2017

    Closing the gender gap in participation by 25 per cent by 2025 could increase global GDP by US$5.3 trillion

August 2017

  1. ILO What Works Research Brief No. 9

    Implementation of international labour standards for domestic workers

    30 August 2017

    Since the adoption of Convention No. 189, over 70 ILO member States have acted to ensure decent working conditions for domestic workers.

May 2017

  1. ILO What Works Research Brief No. 8

    How to balance fiscal responsibility with employment objectives?

    16 May 2017

    As a number of emerging countries grapple with revenue constraints and weak growth, it is important to learn lessons from recent experience in this area, and to bear in mind that fiscal and employment goals can be achieved together.

March 2017

  1. ILO What Works Research Brief No. 7

    Regulating the use of temporary contracts by enterprises

    09 March 2017

    The use of temporary employment allows enterprises to adjust their workforces to changing circumstances. However, an over-reliance on the use of temporary workers can lead to productivity challenges, both for individual firms and for the overall economy. Legislation governing the use of temporary contracts plays an important role in influencing firms’ decisions on how intensively to rely on temporary labour.

February 2017

  1. ILO What Works Research Brief No. 6

    Reducing Decent Work Deficits in Periods of Low Growth

    10 February 2017

    In recent years, the global economy has been gravitating towards what could be considered ‘new normal’ lower levels of growth. The idea of persistently lower growth has become increasingly important as GDP growth rates continue to remain below expectations, and lower than the rates achieved in the pre-crisis period. Should this protracted period of lower growth prove to be structural rather than cyclical, an adjusted approach to reducing decent work deficits will be called for. Indeed, at current levels of growth, the capacity of the global economy to create a sufficient number of quality jobs and achieve the target of “full and productive employment and decent work for all”, as set out in Goal 8 of the Sustainable Development Agenda, may be compromised.

November 2016

  1. ILO What Works Research Brief No. 5

    Employment Protection Legislation to Promote Quality of Job Creation

    02 November 2016

    An effective system of Employment Protection Legislation (EPL) must balance, among other things, the needs of workers for income and job security with employers’ need to adjust the workforce in an increasingly dynamic world of work. Indeed, rather than debating the benefits of more versus less EPL, more attention should be paid to the correct design of EPL, its interaction with other benefits, and its implementation and effective enforcement.

March 2016

  1. “What works” Research Brief No. 4

    The employment effects of public works programmes

    11 March 2016

    The “What Works” Research Brief No. 4 discusses the most recent evidence on the role of public works and workfare programmes in improving participants’ labour market and social outcomes. It draws from new knowledge on the effectiveness of these type of programmes summarized in the Synthesis Report “What works: Active Labour Market Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean” and the particular experience of the workfare programme Construyendo Perú implemented in Peru to improve employability and labour market outcomes of participants.

  2. “What works” Research Brief No. 3

    The role of PES in improving employment quality

    11 March 2016

    The “What Works” Research Brief No. 3 discusses the most recent evidence on the role of Public Employment Services (PES) in improving participants’ labour market outcomes. It draws from new knowledge on the effectiveness of this type of programmes summarized in the Synthesis Report “What works: Active Labour Market Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean” and the experience of the Public Employment Service in Colombia and its effectiveness in improving employment outcomes of participants.

  3. “What works” Research Brief No. 2

    Promoting employment by providing active support through CCT programmes

    11 March 2016

    The “What Works” Research Brief No. 2 discusses the most recent evidence on the effectiveness of active labour market measures in increasing employability and job quality of conditional cash transfers (CCT) beneficiaries. It draws from new knowledge on the effectiveness of these type of programmes summarized in the Synthesis Report “What works: Active Labour Market Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean” and the particular experience of a programme implemented in Argentina that provided skills upgrading and job placement support to eligible beneficiaries of the CCT programme Plan Jefes.

  4. What works in short: Research Brief No. 1

    Active Labour Market Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean

    11 March 2016

    The “What Works” Research Brief No. 1 provides an overview of the main findings and policy conclusions of the research project “What works: Active Labour Market Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean”. The brief presents the motivation of the research project and its main outputs, as well as the key research findings and policy recommendations drawn from the Synthesis Report of the same name.