• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

G²LM|LIC

  • About
    • History
    • Investigators
    • Team
  • Projects
    • GLM|LIC
      • Agricultural Labour Markets
      • Gender and Employment
      • Labour Markets in Low-Income Countries
      • Migration
      • Skill Training
    • G²LM|LIC
      • Fact & Policy
      • Fertility & Labour markets
      • Barriers to gender parity
      • The Future of Work
      • Policies & Welfare
    • COVID-19
  • Publications
    • Policy Briefs
    • Synthesis Papers
    • Working Papers
    • Published Articles
    • Book
    • Datasets
  • Events
  • Evidence Finder
  • Jobs of the World

Economic Development and the Organisation of Labour: Evidence from the Jobs of the World Project

Labour is the sole endowment of the poor and the main factor of production in all economies. Therefore, understanding whether labour is employed efficiently is key to understanding poverty at the micro level and differences in national income at the macro level. In this working paper, the authors use the Jobs of the World database to discuss evidence to show how the nature of jobs and their allocation vary within countries by wealth and gender and across countries in stages of development.

The key contribution of the paper lies in documenting broad transformations in the organisation of labour- that is the nature of jobs and their allocation. Authors outline the transformation in three stages: 1) Marketisation of work; 2) Replacement of self-employed work by wage work; 3) Increasing variety of available occupations. This alludes to the fact that the nature of jobs changes over the course of development from subsistence work to self-employed work to increasingly specialised wage work, but wealth and gender shape the allocation of these changing jobs in the same way throughout. Furthermore, the emergence of more specialised occupations coincides with occupational segregation of the labour force by gender which results in misallocation of talent. This is clear evidence that social norms play a crucial role in organisation of labour. Participation in market work varies enormously even within countries with very similar levels of income. For example, the interquartile range of the share of women who hold paid jobs is around 20 percentage points within every decile of GDP. The dispersion is highest in the lowest decile of GDP at 25 percentage points and only 10 percentage points in the highest decile. To study the role of norms the authors present a systematic meta-analysis on active labour market intervention for female labour market participation. Read the detailed Working Paper here.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Previous Post: « The (Very) Long-Run Impacts of Cash Grants during a Crisis

Primary Sidebar

COVID-19

News from our Twitter Account

  • In a new @GLMLIC #PolicyBrief, @nihasingh06 and @SharvariRavish1 explore how access to information about local labo… https://t.co/9BCssO5vD0 January 25, 2023 1:30 pm
  • Watch here the Programme Coordinator of the G²LM|LIC Programme, Prof. @orianabandiera, discussing poverty traps, la… https://t.co/Aqht7PPkRI January 10, 2023 1:28 pm
  • In a new @GLMLIC #Policy Brief, @KateVyborny, @farrukh_aiman, @Khan93Lala, @theFstat, and @HarmalahK explore the g… https://t.co/5mpqxLGp5n December 14, 2022 1:30 pm
Twitter

Footer

IZA Logo

Established in 1998 in Bonn, Germany, IZA is an independent, non-profit research institution supported by the Deutsche Post Foundation with a focus on the analysis of global labour markets. It operates an international network of about 1,500 economists and researchers spanning across more than 50 countries.

Based on academic excellence and an ambitious publication strategy, IZA serves as a place of communication between academic science and political practice.

DFID Logo

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) leads the UK's work to end extreme poverty. We're ending the need for aid by creating jobs, unlocking the potential of girls and women, and helping to save lives when humanitarian emergencies hit.

FCDO is a ministerial department, supported by 12 agencies and public bodies.

© 2012–2023 | IZA – Institute of Labor Economics | Code of Conduct | Imprint