Describes the types, causes and impact of gender-based occupational segregation and examines current levels in 15 countries. Investigates how this segregation has changed during the 1990s in terms of female participation in the labour force, index of dissimilarity, gender-dominated occupations,...

Scrutinizes and analyses the extent to which legislators and senior government officials, and managers in private establishments in developed, transition and developing economies around the world are women. Finds that feminisation of these occupations is not positively related to a country's...

Explores the conceptual dimensions of decent work and discusses policy issues which can be addressed with decent work indicators. Describes a general approach to measuring decent work with statistical indicators and introduces eleven broad aspects of decent work.

Proposes a methodology for measuring national poverty lines.

The relatively infrequent nature of major credit distress events makes a historical approach particularly useful. Using a combination of historical narrative and econometric techniques, we identify major periods of credit distress from 1875 to 2007, examine the extent to which credit distress...

An examination of the dynamics of commitment, showing that because the decision regarding rules versus discretion occurs in real time, opting for discretion is often the better choice, since it leaves open the possibility of adopting rules later on.

Do steep recoveries follow deep recessions? Does it matter if a credit crunch or banking panic accompanies the recession? Moreover, does it matter if the recession is associated with a housing bust? We look at the American historical experience in an attempt to answer these questions. The...

This paper brings historical evidence to bear on the stylized fact that the yield curve predicts future growth. The spread between corporate bonds and commercial paper reliably predicts future growth over the period 1875-1997. This predictability varies over time, however, particularly across...

Considering time inconsistency as a problem of irreversible investment brings some neglected points to the fore. Making a policy choice in real time and under current conditions emphasizes the importance of the timing of commitment, the regret over past decisions, and the option value of not...