In multiple-pillar retirement systems, the government provision of old-age income support plays a very different role from vehicles for encouraging private retirement savings - and for the government regulation and insurance of private savings. Despite the diversity of public and private...

The author uses cross-country data from Latin America and OECD countries to test the predictions of a simple efficiency wage model (Krebs and Maloney 1998) about the share of the workforce in self-employment and the rate of labor turnover across the process of development and demographic...

In this essay on how labor unions work, the author proposes a framework for the law on collective bargaining in developing countries. The structure of developing economies cannot sustain as high a level of unionism as in industrial economies. Typically less (often much less) than a quarter of...

Yugoslavia (including Slovenia) has been more market-oriented than the rest of Eastern Europe, with little or no planning and healthier development of product markets. Until recently, however, the labor market in Slovenia was subject to formidable constraints. But sweeping legislative changes...

One of the most complex challenges of infrastructure privatization is its impact on employment. Often (but not always) private operators'main approach to cost-cutting is labor reduction. Private operators cannot afford the low levels of labor productivity typical in public companies if they are...

In South Africa, unions which played a crucial in the country's transition from apartheid, are coming under fire. Some argue that a high union wage premium, and the industrial council system are important causes of inflexibility in South Africa's labor market. The authors analyze unions'direct...

Since the mid -1980s, Indonesia has rapidly deregulated. Employment opportunities, income generation capacity, and the opportunity to negotiate better working conditions have expanded. Many Indonesians are concerned that workers have not shared in economic development benefits and think that a...

Despite low open unemployment, labor market outcomes are unsatisfactory in Moldova. Employment is low and job opportunities are scarce. The author examines labor market performance in Moldova by focusing on firm dynamics. He finds that the low level of employment in Moldova is due to the low...

The authors present evidence on how employers perceive labor regulations and react when these are perceived to constrain the operation of their firm. They draw from harmonized surveys of (up to) 17,000 firms around the world and compare employers'responses with actual labor legislation. The...

The author compares Indonesian labor legislations with labor policies in five other APEC countries: Chile, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, and the United States. The report focuses on legislation affecting union regulation, minimum wages, nonwage compensation, and working conditions....