Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Modeling Labor Market Policy In Developing Countries: A Selective Review Of The Literature And Needs For The Future, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] Sound labor market policy requires sound labor market models. Sound models have three characteristics. First, from a welfare economic point of view, the policy judgments are explicit, mutually consistent, and thoroughly worked out. Second, from a theoretical point of view, the models are sufficiently detailed and suitably rigorous. And third, from an empirical point of view, the models guide and are guided by solid quantitative evidence. This paper reviews models of labor markets in developing countries from both a positive and a normative point of view. The survey is selective in that it exposits only some of the more …

Earning Their Way Out Of Poverty (Outline And Sample Chapter), Gary Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] According to the latest figures, today an estimated 3.1 billion people still live in absolute poverty, essentially all of them in the low- and middle-income countries of Asia, Latin America, and Africa and none of them in what are traditionally called the “developed economies” of North America (excluding Mexico), Western Europe, and selected parts of Asia and Oceania. This book is about how the poor live and work and what actions the world community could take to improve poor people’s earning opportunities as a central component of a multifaceted program aimed at ending the scourge of absolute economic misery.

A Brief Review Of The Literature On Earnings Mobility In Developing Countries, Gary Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] The literature on income and earnings mobility falls into three categories:

1. Macro mobility studies address the entire economy. They ask the question, how much income mobility and/or earnings mobility is there in the economy?
2. A second group of studies, micro mobility studies, examines patterns of income and earnings change over time for different individuals or groups. They ask the questions, which individuals or households experience movements of what magnitudes, and what are the correlates and determinants of these movements?
3. Within the micro mobility studies are a number of studies that look specifically at poverty dynamics …

A Guide To Multisector Labor Market Models, Gary Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] This is a paper on labor markets. Why are labor markets important to economic development? Many individuals and institutions, including the World Bank and the regional development banks, seek “a world free of poverty.” Broadly speaking, those who are poor are poor because 1) they earn little from the work they do, 2) the societies in which they live are too poor to provide them with substantial goods and services by virtue of their citizenship or residency, and 3) the poor are not permitted to move to richer countries. Thus, anti-poverty efforts can be focused on 1) helping people …

Employment In Low-Income Countries: Beyond Labor Market Segmentation?, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

No abstract provided.

U.S. Earnings Mobility: Comparing Survey-Based And Administrative-Based Estimates, Lisa M. Dragoset, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

Earnings mobility has been studied both at the macro level (how much of a certain kind of mobility is there in the economy?) and at the micro level (what are the correlates of change in income or position?). Many empirical mobility studies provide estimates of the amount of mobility in a country over time and the correlates of individual mobility within the income distribution. While measurement error is recognized as potentially important at both these levels, very little is known about the degree to which earnings mobility estimates are affected by measurement error. In this paper, we use a new …