April 2022

1. Research Seminar

   Skills and employment transitions in Brazil

2. ILO Research Department Training

   International training on evidence-based policy making for decent work

   It is widely recognized that evidence (data, research, best practices) is essential for decision and policy making. In practice, the use of evidence in the policy-making touching the world of work is still at its early stages and unevenly practiced. As a result, policies are not as effective as they could or should be in responding to employment and labour market challenges facing the world of work. There is so much information available and yet they are not used appropriately for effective policy making. This tripartite international training builds capacities and skills of the users of research and data and especially the policy-makers, while providing them with the necessary instruments and tools to find, evaluate, and understand the relevant evidence for policy making in their work and influence policies based on evidence in return. The training is part of the broader capacity-building initiative of the ILO in strengthening capacities at various levels such as individual, organizational and societal and includes one-year follow-up activities to ensure learning transfer. This training is targeted to policy makers and policy influencers from the trade unions and workers representatives, employers representatives as well as government officials from various ministries.

3. Research Seminar

   How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate

   China has become deeply integrated into the world economy. Yet, gradual marketization has facilitated the country’s rise without leading to its wholesale assimilation to global neoliberalism. This book uncovers the fierce contest about economic reforms that shaped China’s path.

March 2022

1. Research Seminar

   Between utopia and action - New perspectives on Albert Thomas, first director of the ILO

   Adeline Blaszkiewicz presents key finding of her PhD thesis on Albert Thomas, first director of the International Labour Office from 1920 to 1932. A special focus will be on so far less well-known aspects of his personal life, his political engagement and his career prior to his appointment. How did they shape his identity as an international civil servant, his convictions, and the policies of the newly founded ILO?

2. Webinar

   Joint ILO-WTO Webinar on Gender, trade and labour market outcomes in Covid times

   The Webinar will bring together academics, experts from international organisations, including from the WTO and ILO to discuss gender, trade and labour market outcomes with a specific emphasis on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected employment, wages and other decent work indicators and on how trade can help make the recovery more inclusive.

February 2022

1. Seminar

   Friday is the New Saturday: the economic case for the four-day working week

   Friday is the New Saturday makes a compelling, provocative and timely case for societal change. Drawing on an eclectic range of economic theory, history and data, Dr Pedro Gomes argues that a four-day working week will bring about a powerful economic renewal for the benefit of all society. It will stimulate demand, productivity, innovation and wages, whilst reducing unemployment and crushing populist movements. The arguments come from both the left and right of the political spectrum to show that a polarised society can still find common ground.

2. Brown Bag Lunch

   Effects of a transition for environmental sustainability on labour and trade: literature review

   The working paper reviews the extant theoretical and empirical literature on the environment, labour, and trade. It gives an overview of the evidence of the impacts of climatic change on labour and trade, of the concept of a green economy, environmental policy measures and introduces some questions arising from the calls for a ‘just transition’. It reviews theoretical literature on the channels through which policies promoting an environmental transition affect labour and trade, and which empirical strategies are commonly used to study this relationship. It also provides an overview of existing empirical evidence on the relationship between labour and environmental transitions, trade and environmental transitions, and labour, trade and the environment. Finally, it identifies the gaps in the literature and concludes.

3. Training Course

   Trade and Decent Work for Africa

   The aim of this course is to better understand the trade and labour market nexus and its implications for the Africa region in terms of decent work and sustainable development.

January 2022

1. Research Seminar

   Labour Rationing: A New Approach to Measuring Labour Market Slack

   This paper measures excess labor supply in equilibrium. Hiring shocks are induced—which employ 24 percent of the labor force in external month-long jobs—in Indian local labor markets. In peak months, wages increase instantaneously and local aggregate employment declines. In lean months, consistent with severe labor rationing, wages and aggregate employment are unchanged, with positive employment spillovers on remaining workers, indicating that over a quarter of labor supply is rationed. At least 24 percent of lean self-employment among casual workers occurs because they cannot find jobs. Consequently, traditional survey approaches mismeasure labor market slack. Rationing has broad implications for labor market analysis.

2. Launch Event

   Launch: ILO Labour Provisions in Trade Agreements Hub

   Launch of the Labour Provisions in Trade Agreements Hub (LP Hub) - a one-stop shop for information on labour provisions in more than 100 regional trade agreements in over 140 economies.