The authors review recent developments in wages, employment, and unemployment in Poland and discuss some of the main risks Poland faces in sustaining its stabilization effort. They find that: unemployment has increased dramatically with stabilization, but this increase cannot be said to reflect...

The continuing failure of many countries to adequately mitigate the adverse labor market impacts of economic downturns is of concern, since labor market volatility can exacerbate poverty and stunt growth. This article aims to identify potentially effective policies responses to crises by...

This chapter reviews the available evidence on the linkages between trade reform, labor markets, and FDI. We begin by drawing on studies of sixteen countries that underwent trade reforms in the 1980s and 1990s. These sixteen countries were chosen because of their inclusion in the United Nations...

This article analyzes the effect of trade liberalization on employment and wages in the Mexican manufacturing sector. The study documents that many of the rents generated by trade protection were absorbed by workers in the form of a wage premium. Trade liberalization affected firm-level...

ROMA are the main poverty risk groups in many of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. However, information on their living conditions, and the characteristics of their poverty is scarce, fragmented, and often anecdotal. This paper analyzes data from a new cross-country household survey,...

The magnitude of existing research on the effects of trade reform is impressive. Yet economists have not reached a clear consensus on a number of important questions such as the labor market impact of trade reform, the linkages between trade and foreign direct investment, and the relationship...

Events of the past two years are a reminder that crises are a recurring phenomenon with deep and often protracted impacts on labor markets. This paper examines the challenges inherent in crafting policy responses, with particular attention to developing countries. It focuses on the potential...

The authors evaluated how Mexico's Labor Retraining Program (PROBECAT) affected unemployment and displaced workers. As part of the World Bank supported Manpower Training project, PROBECAT has provided short-term vocational training to more than 250,000 unemployed people. Their evaluation was...