August 22, 2019. GLO Network Supports Young Scholars Through Its ‘Virtual Young Scholars Program (GLO VirtYS)’. Deadline for Applications: September 20, 2019

Global Labor Organization (GLO) invites interested young scholars to apply for participation in the

2019-20 GLO Virtual Young Scholars Program (GLO VirtYS)

Application deadline: September 20, 2019, 5 pm GMT

About GLO: The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is a global, independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that has no institutional position. The GLO functions as an international network and virtual platform for researchers, policy makers, practitioners and the general public interested in scientific research and its policy and societal implications on global labor markets, demographic challenges and human resources. These topics are defined broadly in line with its Mission to embrace the global diversity of labor markets, institutions, and policy challenges, covering advanced economies as well as transition and less developed countries.

Program’s Goal: In the spirit of the GLO Mission, the GLO VirtYS program’s goal is to contribute to the development of the future generation of researchers, who are committed to the creation of policy-relevant research, are well equipped to work in collaboration with policy makers and other stakeholders, and adhere to the highest standards of academic integrity. This goal is achieved through the process of working on a specific research paper within the duration of the program, which is 9 months.

Program’s Advisory Board:

  • Jan van Ours, Professor of Applied Economics, Erasmus School of Economics Rotterdam, Netherlands, & Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne, Australia
  • Marie Claire Villeval, Research Professor, CNRS GATE, France
  • Marco Vivarelli, Professor at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milano and Director of the Department of Economic Policy
  • Le Wang, Chong K. Liew Chair and Professor & President’s Associates Presidential Professor, University of Oklahoma, USA
  • Klaus F. Zimmermann, Professor Emeritus, Bonn University, UNU-MERIT & President of GLO

GLO VirtYS Program Director:

  • Dr Olena Nizalova, Senior Research Fellow (Associate Professor) in Health Economics at the University of Kent and Director of the Q-Step Program.

Program’s Activities:

  • Virtual kick-off meeting of all the participants and Thematic Cluster advisors, who will be appointed by the participating Cluster leads to match closely participants’ research interests.
  • One-to-one activities with the Thematic Cluster Advisor will be agreed upon at the beginning of the scholarship period in an Individual Research Plan. These activities at a minimum shall include 2-3 virtual consultations, 1 review round of the completed research work and a discussion of the amendments (if needed) to follow up.
  • Provide a virtual platform for the GLO VirtYS program participants to present their findings and receive feedback from their peers and the GLO wider community.
  • The scholarship will conclude in June 2020, when the GLO Management Board will make a decision on whether to extend an invitation to the graduate of the GLO Virtual Scholar Program to join the organization as a GLO Fellow, based on the recommendation from their Thematic Cluster Advisors and evaluation of the GLO VirtYS Advisory Board.

Research proposals are invited within one of the following GLO thematic clusters:

  1. Development, Health, Inequality and Behavior
  2. Gender
  3. Labor Markets in Africa
  4. School-to-Work Transition
  5. South-East Asia
  6. Technological Change

Benefits to the GLO VYSP Scholars:

  • All GLO VirtYS program participants will be appointed GLO Affiliates, if they are not already, and receive a GLO Bio page.
  • GLO VirtYS program participants will be listed with pictures on the glabor.org website of the program.
  • Feedback on their research from leading researchers in the area of their interest.
  • Networking opportunities with researchers from other countries within the same area and beyond.
  • (Priority) access to GLO activities.
  • Interactions with the scholars of the cohort, program’s alumni, and the future cohorts.
  • Opportunity to promote own research via GLO channels.
  • Completed research paper ready for submission to the GLO Discussion Paper series.
  • Possibility of promotion to GLO Fellow after exceptional performance.

Eligibility criteria:

  • Applicant must be either currently enrolled in a doctoral program or be within 3 years after graduation as evidenced by the letter from the degree awarding institution or a degree certificate.
  • Applicant must be at an advanced stage of the analysis of a specific research question within the corresponding GLO Thematic Cluster to which he/she is applying as evidenced by the submitted draft.
  • Applicant must be supported by a letter of endorsement from either one of the GLO Fellows or from the administration of one of the GLO supporting institutions.

Selection procedure:

  • The GLO Virtual Young Scholars will be selected by a Scientific Selection Committee consisting of the GLO VirtYS Program Director, GLO thematic cluster leads participating in the current year, and a member of the GLO Management Board.
  • The results of selection of the GLO VirtYS program will be posted on the GLO site www.glabor.org by October 1, 2019. Scholars will be notified via email. In the 2019-20 academic year we expect to select 3-5 scholars.
  • The final research paper should be submitted by May 31st, by 5 pm GMT.
  • Upon completion of the program and based on the quality of the produced research paper, some of the GLO VirtYS programme graduates may be invited to become GLO Fellows and their paper accepted as a GLO Discussion Paper.

Evaluation criteria for applications:

  1. Policy relevance of the research question in a local and/or global context.
  2. Research excellence
  3. Potential for capacity development (preference will be given to the applicants for which the GLO Young Scholars Program can bring the highest capacity development, compared to what the applicant would have achieved without being a GLO Young Scholar)

How to apply:
All application materials have to be submitted online HERE.
If there are any questions, please write to virtys@glabor.org.

Application procedure:

Many applicants apply in the last days before the submission deadline. To avoid last minute problems,  we ask applicants to apply in advance. Applications received after the deadline or applications that do not meet the requirements set out below will not be accepted.

To apply please complete the online application form with three attachments:

1. Research proposal (maximum 2 pages including references, single-spaced , font size 12) should include the following information:

  • Formulation of the problem/ research question.
  • Research methodology (data and empirical approach).
  • (Potential) Practical/Policy implications.
  • Reference list.

2. 2-page CV

3. Transcript from the doctoral program or doctoral degree certificate

4. Letter of endorsement for the candidate and the research proposal from either one of the GLO fellows or from the administration of one of the GLO supporting institutions reflecting on the potential of the candidate to benefit from the Program and the merits of the research proposal.

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Posted in News, Teaching | Comments Off on August 22, 2019. GLO Network Supports Young Scholars Through Its ‘Virtual Young Scholars Program (GLO VirtYS)’. Deadline for Applications: September 20, 2019

August 22, 2019. How foreign aid affects asylum inflows: It depends on the state of development in the origin countries!

A new GLO Discussion Paper suggests that foreign aid may reduce asylum inflows from poor countries in the short run, but inflows from less poor economies show a positive but weak relation with aid.

The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.

GLO Discussion Paper No. 378, 2019

Foreign aid, bilateral asylum immigration and development – Download PDF
by Murat, Marina

GLO Fellow Marina Murat

Author Abstract: This paper measures the links between aid from 14 rich to 113 developing economies and bilateral asylum applications during years 1993 to 2013. Dynamic panel models and Sys-GMM are used. Results show that asylum applications are related to aid nonlinearly in the level of development of origin countries, in a U-shaped fashion, where only the downward segment proves to be robust to all specifications. Asylum inflows from poor countries are negatively, significantly and robustly associated with aid in the short run, with mixed evidence of more lasting effects, while inflows from less poor economies show a positive but weak relation with aid. Moreover, aid leads to negative cross-donor spillovers. Applications linearly decrease with humanitarian aid. Voluntary immigration is not linked to aid. Overall, the reduction in asylum inflows is stronger when aid disbursements are conditional on economic, institutional and political improvements in the recipient economy.

GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS,  EconPapers)Complete list of all GLO DPs – downloadable for free.

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August 21, 2019. Baby bonus as a successful pro-natalist policy? Now published in the Journal of Population Economics.

The study using Canadian experiences finds that properly structured pro-natal policies can successfully increase fertility among different segments of the population.

Read more in:

Natalie Malak, Md Mahbubur Rahman & Terry A. Yip:
Baby bonus, anyone? Examining heterogeneous responses to a pro-natalist policy
Journal of Population Economics, Vol. 32 (2019), Issue 4 (October), pp. 1205-1246.

GLO Fellows Natalie Malak and Md Mahbubur Rahman

Journal Website, complete issue 4.

Author Abstract: We examine the impact of the Allowance for Newborn Children, a universal baby bonus offered by the Canadian province of Quebec, on birth order, sibship sex composition, income, and education. We find a large response for third- and higher-order births for which the bonus was more generous. Interestingly, though, we find stronger response if there were two previous sons or a previous son and daughter rather than two previous daughters. We also find, in addition to a transitory effect, a permanent effect, with the greatest increase in one daughter-two son families among three-child households. Moreover, we find a hump shape response by income group, with the greatest response from middle-income families. Also, women with at least some post-secondary education respond more to the policy than those with less. These findings suggest that properly structured pro-natal policies can successfully increase fertility among different segments of the population while simultaneously diminishing the effect of gender preferences and fertility disparity related to women’s education.

Read also the Lead Article of issue 4 (2019):
Gautam Hazarika, Chandan Kumar & Sudipta Sarangi:
Ancestral ecological endowments and missing women
Journal of Population Economics, Vol. 32 (2019), Issue 4 (October), pp. 1101-1123
Journal Website, complete issue 4. Paper PDF – OPEN ACCESS.
GLO Fellows Gautam Hazarika, Chandan Kumar Jha & Sudipta Sarangi

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Posted in News, Research | Comments Off on August 21, 2019. Baby bonus as a successful pro-natalist policy? Now published in the Journal of Population Economics.

August 21, 2019. Interest Rate Uncertainty Affects Investments

A new GLO Discussion Paper derives the exact shape of the “hysteretic” impact of changes in the interest rate on macroeconomic investment under scenarios of both certainty and uncertainty. Conclusions deal with the efficacy of central bank’s interest rate policy.

The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.

GLO Discussion Paper No. 377, 2019

Interest Rate Hysteresis in Macroeconomic Investment under Uncertainty – Download PDF
by Belke, Ansgar & Göcke, Matthias

GLO Fellow Ansgar Belke

Author Abstract: The interest rate is generally considered as an important driver of macroeconomic investment. As an innovation, this paper derives the exact shape of the “hysteretic” impact of changes in the interest rate on macroeconomic investment under the scenarios of both certainty and uncertainty. We capture the direct interest rate-hysteresis on the investments and the capital stock and, explicitly, of stochastic changes on the interest rate-investment hysteresis. Starting with hysteresis effects on a microeconomic level of a single firm, we apply an explicit aggregation procedure to derive the interest rate hysteresis effects on a macroeconomic level. Based on our simple model we are able to obtain some conclusions about the efficacy of a central bank’s interest rate policy, e.g. in times of low or even zero interest rates and high uncertainty, in terms of stimulating macroeconomic investment.

GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS,  EconPapers)Complete list of all GLO DPs – downloadable for free.

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Journal of Population Economics: Annual Report 2019 & Issue 4, 2019 available. Planning Meeting at UNU-MERIT.

The Editor-in-Chief (Klaus F. Zimmermann) and the Managing Editor (Michaella Vanore) of the Journal of Population Economics met on August 13, 2019 at UNU-MERIT in Maastricht/The Netherlands to discuss the newly available 2019 Editor-in-Chief Report (EiC), celebrated the just published October Issue 4/2019, and made plans for the forthcoming issues 1 + 2, 2020. The EiC report (see also below) indicates that the Journal receives nearly 600 submissions per year, with Impact Factor of 1.26 and an acceptance
rate of 7%. It ranks 68 of 2,253 journals listed in RePEc (August 2019). The Journal has its Headquarter at UNU-MERIT and is supported by the GLO network.

The newest issue 4 of October 2019 exhibits an impressive collection of 10 articles in areas (i) Social Remittances, (ii) Demography & Policy and (iii) Development in Family Contexts. The Lead Article Ancestral ecological endowments and missing women by GLO Fellows Gautam Hazarika, Chandan Kumar & Sudipta Sarangi deserves broad attention. It is open access for free over the next few weeks.

Gautam Hazarika, Chandan Kumar & Sudipta Sarangi:
Ancestral ecological endowments and missing women
Journal of Population Economics, Vol. 32 (2019), Issue 4 (October), pp. 1101-1123
Journal Website, complete issue 4. Paper PDF – OPEN ACCESS.
GLO Fellows Gautam Hazarika, Chandan Kumar Jha & Sudipta Sarangi

The article provides global evidence that there are proportionately more missing women in countries whose ancestral ecological endowments were poorer.

Author Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between ecological endowments in antiquity and contemporary female to male sex ratios in the population. It is found that there are proportionately more missing women in countries whose ancestral ecological endowments were poorer. This relationship is shown to be strong even after ancestral plough use, the timing of the Neolithic Transition, and many other potentially confounding factors are controlled for. Similar results are also obtained using district-level data from India.

EiC Report 2019: The 2019 Editor-in-Chief report is available here:

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Posted in News | Comments Off on Journal of Population Economics: Annual Report 2019 & Issue 4, 2019 available. Planning Meeting at UNU-MERIT.

August 20, 2019. Skill Gaps and Mismatches at the Workplace Damage Firm Productivity

A new GLO Discussion Paper disentangle the complex relationships between skill needs and the productivity of Italian companies. Those firms satisfying their skill needs through successful hiring show higher productivity.

The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.

GLO Discussion Paper No. 376, 2019

Skill Gap, Mismatch, and the Dynamics of Italian Companies’ Productivity  Download PDF
by Fanti, Lucrezia & Guarascio, Dario & Tubiana, Matteo

GLO Fellow Lucrezia Fanti

Author Abstract: Relying on a unique integrated database, this work explores the relationship between labour productivity, on one side; intensity and characteristics of companies’ skills need and degree of skill mismatch, on the other. The analysis focuses on a representative sample of Italian limited liability companies observed during the years 2012, 2014 and 2017. First, companies acknowledging the need to update their knowledge base display a higher productivity vis-à-vis other firms. Second, when it comes to the skill need distinguished by competence/knowledge domains (management, STEM, social and soft skills, technical operatives and humanities) it emerges that companies looking for technical operative and social skills show lower labour productivity as compared to other firms. On the contrary, companies characterized by a need in managerial, STEM or humanities-related skills show higher productivity. Third, the ability to match the skill need via new hiring is always positively correlated with firms’ productivity. This result is confirmed across all the adopted specifications.

GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS,  EconPapers)Complete list of all GLO DPs – downloadable for free.

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August 19, 2019. Globalization reduces public employment. GLO Discussion Paper now published in “Economics Letters”

Does globalization increases or decreases the size of government (“compensation” versus “efficiency” hypothesis)? The debate is re-visited with innovative bureaucracy and globalization indicators using panel data for the unexplored period 2000-2016. Robust evidence suggests that global competition reduces public employment.

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Posted in News, Research | Comments Off on August 19, 2019. Globalization reduces public employment. GLO Discussion Paper now published in “Economics Letters”

August 19, 2019. New GLO Discussion Paper compares political and cultural visions on migration.

A new GLO Discussion Paper suggests that structural shortages of labor in developed countries and effectively unlimited supply of labor in the least developed countries generate unavoidable and indispensable international migrations of increasing size.

The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.

GLO Discussion Paper No. 375, 2019

Migration. Comparing political and cultural visions – Download PDF
by Bruni, Michele & Catani, Mario

GLO Fellow Michele Bruni

Author Abstract: Different interpretations of migration confront themselves in the political arena. Considering two factors, necessity and acceptability, the paper identifies four stereotyped visions: the society of the walls, the society of mercy, the society of ghettos, and the society of reason. The first three share the ideological assumption that migration flows are supply determined, that they are pushed by poverty, lack of jobs, and desperation due to the lack of perspectives of a better future. The fourth vision states, based on robust empirical evidence, that migration is determined by a structural shortage of labor that, characterizes an increasing number of developed countries, in the presence of an unlimited supply of labor in the least developed countries. The implication of this idea is that international migrations flows of increasing size are unavoidable and indispensable to both groups of countries. They should reach a political agreement to jointly manage them with mutual advantage. An Annex summarizes previous work of one of the authors updated with recent data and estimates released by UN DESA. It provides a short, critical introduction to the concept of the demographic transition and presents the statistical implications of its most relevant consequence: the demographic polarization of the planet.

GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS,  EconPapers)Complete list of all GLO DPs – downloadable for free.

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August 18, 2019. Monetary policy is weakened by interest rate uncertainty.

A new GLO Discussion Paper investigates whether uncertainty over future interest rates in the Euro area hampers the monetary policy transmission. It finds hysteretic effects of interest rate changes on investment in most European countries.

The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.

GLO Discussion Paper No. 374, 2019

Interest Rate Bands of Inaction and Play-Hysteresis in Domestic Investment – Evidence for the Euro Area – Download PDF
by Belke, Ansgar & Frenzel Baudisch, Coletta & Göcke, Matthias

GLO Fellow Ansgar Belke

Author Abstract: The interest rate represents an important monetary policy tool to steer investment in order to reach price stability. Therefore, implications of the exact form and magnitude of the interest rate-investment nexus for the European Central Bank’s effectiveness in a low interest rate environment gain center stage. We first present a theoretical framework of the hysteretic impact of changes in the interest rate on macroeconomic investment under certainty and under uncertainty to investigate whether uncertainty over future interest rates in the Euro area hampers monetary policy transmission. In this non-linear model, strong reactions in investment activity occur as soon as changes of the interest rate exceed a zone of inaction, that we call ‘play’ area. Second, we apply an algorithm describing path-dependent play-hysteresis to estimate investment hysteresis using data on domestic investment and interest rates on corporate loans for 5 countries of the Euro area in the period ranging from 2001Q1 to 2018Q1. We find hysteretic effects of interest rate changes on investment in most countries. However, their shape and magnitude differ widely across countries which poses a challenge for a unified monetary policy. By introducing uncertainty into the regressions, the results do not change much which may be due to the interest rate implicitly incorporating uncertainty effects in investment decisions, e.g. by risk premia.

GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS,  EconPapers)Complete list of all GLO DPs – downloadable for free.

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Posted in News, Research | Comments Off on August 18, 2019. Monetary policy is weakened by interest rate uncertainty.

August 17, 2019. How culture stimulates joint housework of couples. New research from the GLO network.

A new GLO Discussion Paper helps to understand how culture works in the family life of couples. A stronger culture of gender equality is associated with more joint home production of the partners.

The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.

GLO Discussion Paper No. 373, 2019

Gender division of household labor: How does culture operate?  Download PDF
by Marcén, Miriam & Morales, Marina

GLO Fellow Miriam Marcén

Author Abstract: In this paper, we examine whether culture plays a role in the gender division of household labor. To explore this issue, we use data on early-arrival first and second generation immigrants living in the United States. Since all these individuals have grown up under the same laws, institutions, and economic conditions, then the differences between them in the gender division of housework may be due to cultural differences. We find that the higher the culture of gender equality in the country of ancestry, the greater the equality in the division of housework. This is maintained when we consider both housework and childcare as household labor. Our work is extended by examining how culture operates and is transmitted. We study whether culture may influence by and with whom housework activities are performed and the timing of the day when this happens, which can help us to understand how culture operates in the family life of couples. Results indicate that the more culture of gender equality is associated with greater probability that individuals report performing housework when they are with their partner in the evening, which may improve family live by making housework a non-individual task. The cultural impact is also observed in the case of working days, but it is not so clear during public holidays, which can be explained by the fact that those individuals originating from less egalitarian countries work longer work hours than those from egalitarian countries.

GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS,  EconPapers)Complete list of all GLO DPs – downloadable for free.

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Posted in News, Research | Comments Off on August 17, 2019. How culture stimulates joint housework of couples. New research from the GLO network.