It has been claimed that many workers in modern economies think that their job is socially useless, i.e. that it makes no or a negative contribution to society. However, the evidence so far is mainly anecdotal. We use a representative dataset comprising 100,000 workers from 47 countries at four...

This paper presents evidence on the short and long-term impact of the first COVID-19 wave on India's rural youth. We interviewed about 2,000 vocational trainees from Bihar and Jharkhand between March 2020 and March 2021. We report a stark difference between men and women: while many male workers...

Economic partners – like masters and apprentices – produce benefits for each other. Yet, they are often subject to contracting limitations that restrict their actions, and thus the benefits they produce and receive. We characterize the relationship between (contracting) limitations and...

Despite urgent calls for retraining and upskilling workers amidst the threat automation poses to many existing jobs, a forty-year-long reduction in public and private worker training programs means that some firms offer training only with contractual strings attached. This Article exposes the...

The BRICS countries have aspirations to achieve sustainable development in their economies and environmental protection. These aspirations have an important social aspect in the area of employment protection as it relates to ensuring fair development. In order to establish national standards for...

This study examines whether companies employ corporate social responsibility (CSR) to improve employee engagement and mitigate adverse behavior at the workplace (e.g., shirking, absenteeism, etc.). We exploit plausibly exogenous changes in state unemployment insurance (UI) benefits from 1991 to...

Our life is built around coordinating efforts with others. This usually involves incentivizing others to do things, and sustaining our relationship with them. Using the wrong incentives backfires: it lowers effort and tarnishes our relationships. But what constitutes a ‘wrong’ incentive? And...

We investigate how automation of cognitively demanding tasks in work design (“technological deskilling”) raises worker welfare and reduces labor costs in two settings. Ride-hail drivers navigate and drive. Navigation systems automate the cognitively demanding task. Drivers valued navigation...

In recent decades most developed countries have experienced an increase in income inequality. In this paper, we use an equilibrium search framework to shed additional light on what is causing an income distribution to change. The major benefit of the model is that it can accommodate shocks to...