Given the prevalence of informal labor, most countries have combined contributory social insurance programs (pensions, unemployment benefits, and health insurance), with non-contributory insurance programs and several types of "safety nets." All of these programs involve different types of...

In this paper we assess the relationship between labor policies and market outcomes in Bolivia, accounting for a large informal sector mostly comprised of self-employed entrepreneurs. We calibrate a job search and matching model to reproduce labor market features in 2013, a period in which...

The integration of active labour market policies within income support schemes - such as unemployment insurance and social assistance - has been a key component of social protection in high-income countries since the 1990s, with a rich literature reviewing its effects and implementation...

In reforming unemployment benefit systems, the policy debate should be on the appropriate level of benefits, the subsidies needed for people who cannot contribute enough, and how to finance the subsidies, rather than on whether unemployment insurance or individual unemployment savings accounts...

This paper explores the characteristics of both optimal and actual unemployment insurance and employment protection. It then sketches potential paths for reforms in both rich and middle-income countries. It reaches three main conclusions: There is a role for both state-provided unemployment...

We assess the impact of discrimination on Black individuals’ job networks across the U.S. using a two-stage field experiment with 400+ fictitious LinkedIn profiles. In the first stage, we vary race via AI-generated images only and find that Black profiles’ connection requests are 13 percent...

This paper evaluates critically the neo-liberal perspective which contends that informal employment results from high taxes, public sector corruption and too much state interference in the free market and that the consequent remedy is to reduce taxes, public sector corruption and the regulatory...