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Evidence-based policy making

IZA World of Labor is an online platform that provides policy analysts, journalists, academics and society generally with relevant and concise information on labor market issues. Based on the latest research, it provides current thinking on labor markets worldwide in a clear and accessible style. IZA World of Labor aims to support evidence-based policy making and increase awareness of labor market issues, including current concerns like the impact of Covid-19, and longer-term problems like inequality.

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Temperature, productivity and income
Rising temperatures due to climate change could dampen productivity growth for decades

Olivier Deschenes

气候变化是迅速恶化环境tal conditions through droughts and floods, hurricanes, wildfires, rising temperatures, and more frequent and longer heatwaves. A growing literature has shown how higher temperatures reduce worker productivity and economic output. These effects are more pronounced in poorer countries and in climate-exposed economic sectors like agriculture, construction, and manufacturing. The development of new technologies that mitigate exposure to heat among workers, combined with better temperature control in the workplace, will be essential to reduce the economic burden of climate change.

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latest articles

  • How should job displacement wage losses be insured?Updated

    Wage losses upon re-employment can seriously harm long-tenured displaced workers if they are not properly insured

    Donald O. Parsons, July 2023
    Job displacement represents a serious earnings risk to long-tenured workers through lower re-employment wages, and these losses may persist for many years. Moreover, this risk is often poorly insured, although not for a lack of policy interest. To reduce this risk, most countries mandate scheduled wage insurance (severance pay), although it is provided only voluntarily in others, including the US. Actual-loss wage insurance is uncommon, although perceived difficulties may be overplayed. Both approaches offer the hope of greater consumption smoothing, with actual-loss plans carrying greater promise, but more uncertainty, of success.
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  • Instruction time and educational outcomes

    The quality of instruction and the activities it replaces determine the success of increased instruction time

    Andrés Barrios Fernández, July 2023
    Increasing instruction time might seem a simple way to improve students' outcomes. However, there is substantial variation in its effects reported in the literature. When focusing on school day extensions, some studies find no effects, while others find that an additional hour of daily instruction significantly improves test scores. A similar pattern arises when examining the effect of additional days of class. These mixed findings likely reflect differences in the quality of instruction or in the activities that are being replaced by additional instruction. Hence these elements need to be considered when designing policies that increase instruction time.
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  • How to support adult caregivers?

    Caregiving for older adults is detrimental to caregivers’ well-being and requires policy interventions to support them

    Joan Costa-Font, June 2023
    Some studies estimate that the value of time spent on unpaid caregiving is 2.7% of the GDP of the EU. Such a figure exceeds what EU countries spend on formal long-term care as a share of GDP (1.5%). Adult caregiving can exert significant harmful effects on the well-being of caregivers and can exacerbate the existing gender inequalities in employment. To overcome the detrimental cognitive costs of fulfilling the duty of care to older adults, focus should be placed on the development of support networks, providing caregiving subsidies, and enhancing labor market legislation that brings flexibility and level-up pay.
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  • The widespread impacts of remittance flowsUpdated

    Remittances have the potential to lift developing economies

    Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes Susan Pozo, May 2023
    Remittances have risen spectacularly in absolute terms and in relation to traditional sources of foreign exchange, such as export revenues. Remittances can improve the well-being of family members left behind and boost growth rates of receiving economies. They can also create a culture of dependency, lowering labor force participation in recipient nations, promoting conspicuous consumption, and accelerating environmental degradation. A more thorough understanding of their impacts can help formulate policies that enable developing economies to harness the most out of these monetary inflows.
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    WHO Global Evidence-to-Policy (E2P) Summit 2023

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    The Evidence-to-Policy (E2P) field is rapidly changing and evolving. Join us at the World Health Organization
    (WHO) Global Evidence-to-Policy (E2P) Summit 2023 from 29-31 August 2023 to delve into the exciting
    world of E2P, explore the latest developments and be part of shaping its future together.

  • Sep 04, 2023 - Nov 06, 2023

    IZA/FCDO ONLINE Development Economics Course for South Asia

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    The biggest puzzle in economics is why fundamentally equal humans living in different countries enjoy very different standards of living. The aim of this course is to bring together the very latest research in development economics that tries to answer this puzzle.

  • Sep 15, 2023 - Sep 16, 2023

    Conference on Artificial Intelligence and the Economy

    Berlin, Germany

    The conference covers a broad range of topics related to the economics of artificial intelligence. It will bring together recent contributions in this area of research, including both theoretical and empirical papers. Relevant subjects include, but are not limited to

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