Staff at the Research Department

Organizational description | 16 October 2017
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Damian Grimshaw, Director of the Research Department
Damian Grimshaw is the Director of the Research Department. Previously, he was a Professor of Employment studies at the Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, and Director the European Work and Employment Research Centre (EWERC). His research interests include the dynamics of low pay (particularly with respect to precarious employment and the management of low-wage work), women’s position in the labour market (e.g. pay equity), the relationship between institutions and inequalities, and international comparative analysis. His research has been funded by several international bodies (e.g. OECD, ILO, European Commission, Russell Sage Foundation).

Recent publications
Soulayma Zayed is a Department Secretary, and Assistant to the Director. She holds a University degree in Advanced Journalism and Political Science, from the American University. She joined the Research Department in 2017. Prior to that, Soulayma worked as Focal Point for the Regional Office for the Arab States, as Assistant to the Regional Director and Liaison Officer between headquarters and the field. Prior to that, she worked as a journalist in the Swiss Journal PME Magazine, a journal specialised in economy and small and medium enterprises.

Lawrence Jeff Johnson, Deputy Director of the Research Department
Lawrence Jeff Johnson serves as Deputy Director of the Research Department. The focus of his work relates to the Future of Work and Sustainable Development Goals. Prior to this appointment, he served as ILO Country Office Director in the Philippines 2010-2015 and the Chief of the ILO Employment Trends between 1998 and 2010. Prior to joining the ILO, he served as an Economist with the United States Department of Labor for ten years. 

Publications

Department Support
Naren Prasad is a Senior Economist. He coordinates the ILO’s Annual International/Regional Training Course on Labour and Social Policies for Decent Work and heads the Department Support Unit dealing with the programme and budget of the department. He has a wide experience working as an economist with various United Nations agencies in different regions. Naren has published extensively on issues of social policy, employment and labour market, small island countries, middle class and privatization of public services. He hails from Fiji and he holds a PhD in Economics (University of Paris II-Panthéon Assas).

Thuy Nguyen Couture is a Funds Control Officer of the department, looking after programme, budget, finance and human resources. Thuy hails from Vietnam, and she studied management, marketing, accounting and Swiss law in Geneva. She’s been working at the ILO since 1999, where she first worked on the French version of the Encyclopedia of Occupational Health and Safety. She then moved to the Department Support Unit of the International Institute of Labour Studies. Fascinated by design, she learned InDesign and handled the typesetting, layout and covers of flagship publications.

Labour Market Trends and Policy Evaluation Unit
Verónica Escudero joined the ILO in 2008 and is the acting Chief of the Labour Market Trends and Policy Evaluation Unit. Prior to this, she worked at the International Organization for Migration in Geneva and at the Macroeconomic and Financial Consulting firm Multienlace in her home country Ecuador. Her current research focuses on assessing the effectiveness of labour market policies on job quality and social conditions and unveiling whether leveraging complementarities between policies can foster their beneficial effect. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Paris School of Economics and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS).

Recent publications:
 Stefan Kühn has been an economist at the ILO since 2011 and joined his current team in 2016. He currently manages the Trends Econometric Models used to produce the global estimates for the Trends publication series. Previous work comprises the development of the GEL model, a dynamic macroeconomic model for policy analysis. Stefan’s research areas of interest include macroeconomics, labour economics and international economics. In 2011, he obtained his PhD in Economics from Maastricht University, the Netherlands. 

Recent publication: 
Hannah Liepmann joined the ILO Research Department in 2018 and works as an economist in the Labour Market Trends and Policy Evaluation Unit. She is particularly interested in studying the integration of marginalized demographic groups into employment. She obtained her PhD in economics from Humboldt-University Berlin, where she also worked as a research assistant within the Collaborative Research Center “Rationality and Competition”. In addition, Hannah has been a visiting researcher at the Institute for Research on Labour and Employment at UC Berkeley as well as the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Nuremberg. 

Recent publications:
Santo Milasi is an Economist, whose work largely focuses on the Trends series of the ILO flagship publication World Employment and Social Outlook. In particular, Santo’s research contribution centres on forecasting labour market indicators, carrying out macro-econometric analyses and developing policy recommendations. His other research interests include the determinants and consequences of income inequality, tax reforms and fiscal policy at large. He received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Rome Tor Vergata in 2015.

Recent publications:
Clemente Pignatti first joined the ILO in 2011 but works as a full-time Economist in the team since 2013. He has contributed to different several editions of the ILO flagship publication World Employment and Social Outlook and numerous other reports. His current areas of research include the analysis of labour market institutions and the evaluation of active labour market policies. He holds a Master in Economics from the London School of Economics and is currently a PhD student in Development Economics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

Recent publication:
Domenico Tabasso joined the team in 2018. He is an economist and his current research activities focus on the effects of labour market policies in emerging and developing countries. Before joining the ILO, he held academic positions at the universities of Melbourne, Geneva and Essex. During his career he specialized in labour, education and family economics, publishing several articles and policy reports. He obtained his PhD in 2011 from the University of Essex (UK).

Recent publications:

Macroeconomic Policy and Jobs Unit

Ekkehard Ernst is Chief of Unit, overseeing work related to the Future of Work Initiative and analysing alternative scenarios for jobs and working conditions. He is a regular speaker at international conferences and organizes a yearly summer academy where he gives hands-on advice on how to use macro-economic models to analyse labour market challenges. Prior to joining ILO he worked at the OECD and the European Central Bank. He holds a PhD from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.

Recent publications:
  • Debt Deflation, Financial Market Stress and Regime Change – Evidence from Europe Using MRVAR, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 2017, Vol. 81, pp. 115-139 (together with Alexander Haidar and Willi Semmler)
  • Understanding unemployment flows, in Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 2011, Vol. 27/2, pp. 268-294 (jointly with Uma Rani)
  • Global dynamics in a model with search and matching in labor and capital markets, in Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 2010, Vol. 34/9, pp. 1651-1679 (jointly with Willi Semmler)
Rossana Merola is a Macroeconomist at the Research Department since 2014. Rossana is currently involved in the Future of Work initiative and she is in charge, in collaboration with the CEPREMAP and the World Bank, of developing a macroeconomic model on “Taxation and Employment in a Globalized Economy”. Before joining the ILO, Rossana worked at the ESRI in Dublin, the OECD and the European Central Bank. Rossana holds a PhD in Economics from the Université Catholique de Louvain and the University of Rome Tor Vergata.

Recent publications:
  • Countercyclical capital rules for small open economies, Journal of Macroeconomics, In Press (with Daragh Clancy).
  • Fiscal forecast errors: Governments versus independent agencies?, European Journal of Political Economy, 2013, Vol. 32(C), pp. 285-299 (with Javier J. Pérez);
  • The composition effects of tax-based consolidations on income inequality, ILO Research Department Working Paper, 2017, Nr. 19 (with Gabriele Ciminelli, Ekkehard Ernst, and Massimo Giuliodori).

Daniel Samaan is a Senior Economist at the Research Department of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva. He has been working on the impacts of globalization and technology on international labor markets. Recent publications include analyses on the effectiveness of labor provisions in free trade agreements, and research for the Future of Work Initiative of the ILO, discussing the effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on the world of work.

Globalization, Competitiveness and Labour Standards

Marva Corley-Coulibaly is the Chief of the Globalization, Competitiveness and Labour Standards unit. Her current research focuses on trade, global supply chains and labour standards, enterprises and service economy. She also manages two research projects on labour provisions in trade and investment arrangements. Prior to joining the ILO, Marva was a Senior Economist at the United Nation’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs in New York. She also worked as an economist for the United States’ Department of Labor in Washington, DC. She holds a PhD in economics from Howard University in Washington, DC.

Recent publications:
Pelin Sekerler Richiardi has been a Research Officer in Economics at the ILO since 2010. She conducts research on labour market implications of issues related to innovation in firms, international trade, social protection, and inequality. Between 2013 and 2014, she was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, where her research focused on developing multidimensional statistical indicators of welfare. Pelin holds a PhD in economics obtained jointly from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, where she also taught economics.

Recent publication:
Elizabeth Echeverría Manrique is a Research Officer on Labour Law at the ILO since 2015. She conducts research on labour standards, private compliance initiatives, and stakeholder involvement in trade agreements. Prior to joining the ILO, she was a Senior Associate specializing in labour law and litigation at Mexican law firm; and she taught employment law at the University of Monterrey. Elizabeth holds a LL.M. from Heidelberg University and the University of Chile, a Master’s Degree in Labour Law from Universidad Regiomontana and a Law degree from Tecnológico de Monterrey.

Recent publications:

Work Income and Equity Unit

Catherine Saget (Chief of Unit) has joined the ILO as a Young Professional in 1998. She has contributed to the setting up of a unit on wages within the ILO and has worked on employment policy at times of economic crisis. As an Economist with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) between 2006 and 2007, she participated in the OECD thematic review on youth employment policies. She holds a PhD in Economics from the European University Institute in Florence (Italy).

Recent publications:
Jeronim Capaldo is an Economist who joined the ILO in 2014. His research focuses on macroeconometric modelling, which he applies to project global scenarios for growth, employment and income distribution. He is currently on a secondment to UNCTAD. Previously, Jeronim worked at Tufts University and at the United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs. He is a graduate of the USA New School for Social Research (Phd in Economics) and the University of Rome “La Sapienza” (Laurea in Economia).

Recent publication:
  • Trading Down: Unemployment, Inequality and Other Risks of the Trans-Pacific Partnership”, with A. Izurieta, 2017, Development and Change, forthcoming.
Tahmina Karimova is a lawyer specialised in public international law, sustainable development, labour law and human rights law. She joined the Research Department in 2017; prior to that, she was the ILO National Coordinator for Tajikistan and a Project Coordinator for the ILO IPEC in Central Asia. From 2014 to 2017, Tahmina worked as a Human Rights Officer in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. She holds a PhD in International Law from the University of Geneva (Switzerland) and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

Recent publications:
  • Sustainable Development and Disasters” in Research Handbook on Disasters and International Law, edited by S. C. Breau, and K. L.H. Samuel, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016, pp. 177-203.
  • Human Rights and Development in International Law, Routledge (2016).
Takaaki Kizu joined the ILO as a Junior Economist in 2014. His research examines the relationship between regulatory and institutional environments and labour market outcomes at the micro-level. He has published on youth employment; jobs in global supply chains; the effectiveness of labour provisions in trade agreements; and the implications of firms’ labour flexibility strategies for productivity and job quality. He holds a postgraduate degree in Development Economics from the Institute of Developing Economies (Japan).

Recent publications:
Tahmina Mahmud joined the Research Department in 2017 to coordinate 30 national studies on skills development for the green transition (in collaboration with the ILO Skills and Employability Branch and the Green Jobs Programme). From 2011 to 2016, she worked as project coordinator (Applying the G20 Training Strategy; HIV workplace prevention) in Tajikistan. She holds a master’s degree in International Economy and Globalisation from the University of Pierre Mendès, Grenoble (France).

Recent publications: 

Changing World of Work unit
Carla Henry (Senior Technical Specialist) is a development economist who has worked for the ILO since 2002. Her current research interests include vulnerable groups in economic transformation, the role of agricultural work in development, and labour rights in agriculture. Prior to joining the Research Department in 2016, she was the ILO’s senior evaluation officer.

Recent publications:
Dorothea Hoehtker a historian and Senior Researcher. She holds a PhD from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris and has previously worked for the German Forced Labour Compensation Programme (GFLCP). She joined the ILO in 2009 and is currently responsible for academic research and collaborations in the framework of the ILO Century Project.


Recent publications:
  • A la rencontre de l’Europe au travail. Récits de voyages d’Albert Thomas (1920–1932) (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne/OIT, 2015). Co-editor, with Sandrine Kott.
  • Women’s ILO. Transnational Networks, Global Labour Standards, and Gender Equity, 1919 to Present (Brill/ILO forthcoming). Co-editor, with Eileen Boris and Susan Zimmermann.
Guillaume Delautre joined the ILO in 2015 under the France-ILO agreement on research and in relation with the Future of work initiative. His research mostly deals with global value chains, manufacturing and corporate social responsibilities. Guillaume also takes part to the organization of the series of international conferences “les Entretiens France-BIT” (Paris, Collège de France). Guillaume worked from 2006 to 2015 for the French ministries of labour and social affairs as an economist and regularly represented his country in different intergovernmental and multilateral forums (EU, OECD, ILO and G20).

Recent publications:
Irmgard Nübler is a Senior Economist. She is leading the research program on technology productive transformation and jobs. In previous capacities in the ILO she was responsible for developing work programs on Skills development and apprenticeship systems, and on Industrial policies and capabilities for job creation. Before joining the ILO, she was a Professor of Economics at the Free University of Berlin and conducted research, among others, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston and the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Nairobi. She holds a PhD in Economics from the Free University of Berlin.

Recent publications:

International Labour Review


Tzehainesh Teklè is the Managing Editor of the International Labour Review. She has been working with the ILO since 2001 and has held positions at the ILO headquarters, the ILO Dakar Office and the ILO’s International Training Centre. She is a lawyer with research and teaching experience in the field of international and comparative labour law, human rights law and anti-discrimination law. Her experience include the management of research and publication projects. She has also been Visiting Fellow in the Law Department of the European University Institute, at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies and at Stellenbosch University.
She holds a PhD in Law from the European University Institute (Florence, Italy).

Recent publications:
  • ‘The Contribution of the ILO’s International Labour Standards System to the European Court of Human Rights’ Jurisprudence in the Field of Non-Discrimination’, in Industrial Law Journal, 23 August 2019, advanced online publication, https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwz020
  • ‘Labour Rights and the Case Law of the European Court of Justice: What Role for International Labour Standards?’, in 9 European Labour Law Journal, 2018, pp. 236-262.
  • ‘Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100)’, in E. Ales, M. Bell, O. Deinert and S. Robin-Olivier (eds.), International and European Labour Law: A Commentary, Nomos, Beck and Hart Publishing, 2018, pp. 602-611.
  • ‘Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111)’, in E. Ales, M. Bell, O. Deinert and S. Robin-Olivier (eds.), International and European Labour Law: A Commentary, Nomos, Beck and Hart Publishing, 2018, pp. 612-630.
Esther Barrett is the Senior English Editor at the International Labour Review. She holds a degree in Modern History and French from the University of Oxford and an MA in Translation from the University of Geneva. Immediately before joining the Research Department in 2018, she worked for an intergovernmental commodity organization in Madrid, prior to which she was a freelance translator and report writer for various UN agencies in Geneva. In this capacity, she first came to the ILO in 2011.

Lola Montero Cué has been in charge of the Spanish edition of the International Labour Review since 2012. She holds an MA in Linguistics, a DAS in Learning Psychology (with a focus on the comprehension of social and political concepts) and a postgraduate degree in publishing. Before joining the department, she worked as a freelance translator in the UN system and as an adult trainer and consultant in informal contexts. She has also coordinated Spanish translation teams at the International Labour Conference.



Gaëlle Bossi is a translator and editor. She holds a diploma in translation and a certificate of terminology from the École de traduction et d’interprétation of the University of Geneva. She joined the Research Department in 2015 as the senior French editor for the International Labour Review. Prior to that, she was a freelance translator working for various international organisations and private clients and specializing in employment issues, human rights, sociological research and surveys. She also worked for the University of Geneva as teaching assistant.

Officers in the field
Ken Chamuva Shawa is a Senior Economist at the ILO's Regional Office for Africa. He supports the development and implementation of policy frameworks, leads the work on future of work, and coordinates regional research for the Africa region. His research interests include the macroeconomics of labour markets, saving and investment, industry and trade, debt, the growth-environment nexus, and agricultural policy. Prior to joining the ILO, he worked at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, the COMESA and the African Union-IBAR. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Nairobi.

Recent publications: Sara Elder is the Senior Economist and Head of the Regional Economic and Social Analysis (RESA) Unit in the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok. RESA oversees multi-country, multi-disciplinary and inter-sectoral research and policy analysis related to key issues and themes of relevance to the Decent Work Agenda and its implementation in Asia and the Pacific. Prior to her transfer to Bangkok, Sara spent five years as Chief Technical Advisor on the ILO Work4Youth Project and more than ten years working in the area of labour market information and analysis in the Employment Trends Unit. She has written extensively on issues of labour market transitions of young people, labour market and employment trends. She holds a MSc in Economic History from the London School of Economics.

Recent publications:
Hugo Ñopo is a Regional Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean, based in Lima, Peru. Previously he was Senior Researcher at Group for the Analysis of Development (GRADE), Lead Economist and Researcher at the Inter-American Development Bank, Assistant Professor at Middlebury College and consultant for different multilateral development institutions. He holds a PhD in Economics from Northwestern University, a Masters in Mathematical Economics from Instituto de Matematica Pura e Aplicada (Brazil), and bachelor degrees in Mathematics and Systems Engineering.

Hugo actively maintains a broad research agenda based in two main topics: education and labor markets, with a special focus on gender and ethnic inequalities. His research has been published in different specialized academic journals and books (http://ideas.repec.org/e/pno16.html). Hugo is also a sporadic op-ed collaborator in various media outlets. Currently, he is also a Research Affiliate at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, Germany, and board member of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA).

Recent publications:
Journal articles
 Edited books
Christian Viegelahn works as Economist at the Regional Economic and Social Analysis (RESA) Unit in the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok. Christian joined ILO’s Bangkok Office in August 2018, after having spent several years at ILO’s Research Department in Geneva. Christian’s research focuses on trade, global supply chains, macroeconomics and the labour market. He also managed the production of new labour market indicators, including global estimates of the number of workers in different types of firms. Christian holds a PhD in Economics from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. Before joining the ILO in 2011, he worked for the OECD.

Recent publications: