2021

1. Research Brief

   Protecting the life and health of workers during the COVID 19 pandemic: Overview of national legislative and policy responses

   The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the cardinal importance of protecting health and safety in the workplace. ILO Member States are responding, through legislative and policy measures in the world of work, to the occupational health and safety issues raised by this extraordinary situation. This Brief provides examples of laws and policies from 35 countries and territories that are relevant to understanding how workers’ safety and health have been upheld during the crisis.

2018

1. ILO Research paper No. 21

   The International Labour Organization and Globalization: Fundamental Rights, Decent Work and Social Justice

   Emmanuel Reynaud

   This paper discusses how the ILO reacted to the challenges to its raison d’être posed by the end of the Cold War and the new globalization era. It shows that its continued relevance was attained in three main stages: the adoption of the 1998 Declaration, the development of the “decent work” concept and the adoption of the 2008 Declaration. The paper examines the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, its adoption, its logic, achievements and limitations. It then discusses the definition and the promotion of the “decent work” concept, and its inclusion in the UN system and the international arena. Thereafter, it covers the 2008 Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization, the intricate process towards its adoption, its objectives, principles and potential. Finally, the paper shows how the ILO has reinforced the notion of “social justice” as a central aim of national and international policies.

2017

1. ILO Research paper No. 20

   The impact of minimum wage increases on the South African economy in the Global Policy Model

   Ilan Strauss, Gilad Isaacs, Jeronim Capaldo

   This paper uses the United Nations Global Policy Model (GPM) to assess the impact of increases in minimum wages on the South African economy. The results indicate that higher (relative) real wage growth rebalances national income, and the labour share increases since relative wages rise and employment is roughly maintained.

2. ILO Research paper No. 19

   Foreign trade barriers and jobs in global supply chains

   Stefan Kühn & Christian Viegelahn

   This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of how trade and trade policies shape job creation and destruction across countries in the context of a globally fragmented production, by considering manufacturing and services jobs separately. The analysis takes into account not only tariff and non-tariff barriers to goods trade, but also barriers to services trade.

2015

1. ILO Research paper No. 11

   Beggar or prosper-thy-neighbour? The international spillovers of labour cost

   Matthieu Charpe, Stefan Kühn

   This paper presents a two-country DSGE model with frictions in the labour market and constrained households to assess the international spillovers of a decline in labour costs.

2014

1. ILO Research paper No. 9

   Labour formalization and declining inequality in Argentina and Brazil in 2000s: A dynamic approach

   Maurizio, Roxana

   This paper analyses the processes of labour formalization in Brazil and Argentina and its interrelation with the evolution of income inequality over the 2000s. It also contributes to the debates on formalising the informal and how to reduce income inequality.

2013

1. ILO Research paper No. 8

   Understanding the drivers of the youth labour market in Kenya

   Escudero, Verónica; López Mourelo, Elva

   This paper examines the macroeconomic and individual elements affecting youth unemployment and inactivity in Kenya with a view to discussing the elements that are important for the youth labour market challenges.

2. ILO Research paper No. 7

   Macroeconomic policy advice and the Article IV consultations: Comparative Overview of European Union Member States

   Weisbrot, Mark; Jorgensen, Helene

   This paper examines 67 IMF Article IV consultations in 27 EU member states between 2008 and 2011, and shows that there is an overwhelming emphasis on fiscal consolidation, reduction of social expenditures, and measures that weaken the bargaining power and income of labour, and make it difficult to promote growth and employment.

3. ILO Research paper No. 6

   Employment and Economic Class in the Developing World

   Kapsos, Steven; Bourmpoula, Evangelia

   This paper introduces a model for generating national estimates and projections of the distribution of the employed across five economic classes for 142 developing countries over the period 1991 to 2017.

4. ILO Research paper No. 5

   Trade and Employment in a Vertically Specialized World

   Jiang, Xiao

   This paper decomposes the employment effects of a country’s trade into five components, specifically the labour content (1) in exports, (2) in imports, (3) in the import content of exports, (4) in the export content of imports, and (5) in intermediates contained in imports from a third country using the factor-content and input-output methods.