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71. Women’s Contribution to Social Cohesion and Violence Prevention through the Community Work Programme

Author:
Community Work Programme (CWP)
Publication Date:
09-2017
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR)
Abstract:
The Community Work Programme (CWP) is a public employment programme that provides two days of work per week to unemployed and underemployed people in economically marginalised areas. The CWP aims to be an employment safety net, ensuring a basic stable income for residents of CWP sites. CWP participants are intended to do ‘useful work’, defined as work that ‘contributes to the public good, community goods or social services’ and assists with community development.i This includes home-based care, early childhood development, support work at schools, community safety, and looking after the local environment by cleaning, building community gardens and planting trees. In March 2017 there were 244 919 participants at 186 CWP sites across South Africa. Of this total, 85% were women, and 25% were men. Out of the 85% of women, 42% were above 35 years of age.ii In light of these figures, this policy brief looks at the prominent role (older) women play in the CWP. Focusing on women participants’ involvement in community work and local social networks, it demonstrates their contribution to building social cohesion and driving crime and violence prevention activities through the CWP.iii After presenting the case of the Manenberg site, where women participants have done much to address violence in the community, the brief concludes with recommendations for fostering women’s contributions to the CWP.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Labor Issues, Women, Employment, Violence, Work Culture, and Reconciliation
Political Geography:
Africa and South Africa

72. Youth in India: Prospects and Challenges

Author:
Bhanu Joshi and Eesha Kunduri
Publication Date:
07-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
India is the youngest country amongst the BRICS. It is estimated that by 2020 the working age population in India would be about 592 million, second to that of China’s (776 million). Theorised in terms of the ‘youth bulge’ or ‘demographic dividend’, this holds out prospects as well as challenges for a developing country like India. This note approaches the question of youth in contemporary urban India by shedding light on a variety of perspectives: the institutional structure and governance framework for young people in India, the involvement of and interest of young people in politics, employment-unemployment amongst youth, aspirations, and everyday politics of the youth. By considering both formal politics and political representations among youth as also more everyday forms of politics and aspirational dimensions of youth engagement, this note attempts to develop a holistic snapshot of contemporary urban youth.
Topic:
Demographics, Development, Politics, Employment, Youth, Urban, and Unemployment
Political Geography:
South Asia, India, and Asia

73. Measuring Rents from Public Employment: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Kenya - Working Paper 457

Author:
Justin Sandefur, Tessa Bold, and Nicholas Barton
Publication Date:
06-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Public employees in many developing economies earn much higher wages than similar private-sector workers. These wage premia may reflect an efficient return to effort or unobserved skills, or an inefficient rent causing labor misallocation. To distinguish these explanations, we exploit the Kenyan government’s algorithm for hiring eighteen-thousand new teachers in 2010 in a regression discontinuity design. Fuzzy regression discontinuity estimates yield a civil-service wage premium of over 100 percent (not attributable to observed or unobserved skills), but no effect on motivation, suggesting rent-sharing as the most plausible explanation for the wage premium.
Topic:
Employment and Global Political Economy
Political Geography:
Kenya

74. Mind the Gap: The State of Skills in the U.S.

Author:
Rachael Stephens
Publication Date:
07-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Third Way
Abstract:
Third Way conducted an original, multi-dimensional analysis of skill gaps across the country using five kinds of data to identify patterns in industry labor markets.
Topic:
International Affairs and Employment
Political Geography:
Global Focus

75. The Right of the US Domestic Workforce to Dignified Labor

Author:
Joanna Beletic
Publication Date:
02-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on Human Rights Education, University of Denver
Abstract:
US economic strategy has been rooted in the belief that the benefits of liberal policies outweigh the associated growing pains. The new Administration’s stance on dismantling trade deals will have a ripple effects throughout society. Global trade has allowed lower income consumers in the US to purchase cheaper goods. Goods are now produced across the globe; without trade deals the costs of inputs needed for US exports will increase, threatening US competitiveness. As global consumers purchase products elsewhere this may lead to further job loss and economic destabilization. Therefore, liberalized trade is fundamental to the US economy. From the get-go liberal economic strategy should have been coupled with efforts to redistribute the benefits to counter the impact on the ‘losers’. This is where the US has failed. There is not only an economic need but a rights obligation to tackle these challenges. Across the aisle ideas have included: the implementation of apprenticeship programs, fortifying workers’ unions, and worker relocation assistance. Hilary Clinton’s plan was rooted in the creation of a clean energy economy in locations that were previously manufacturing heavy, including infrastructure expansion and job training. None of these options have managed to pick up steam because none of them are easy and none of them act as a ‘cure-all’. What is needed is a thorough discussion on how to utilize a combination of such strategies. The Trump Administration introduced an easy solution: bring back exported jobs. Sadly, it is unrealistic for several reasons. First, many manufacturing jobs are not exported, rather disappear due to increases in automatization. Further, as companies consolidate, jobs are often relocated within the US rather than abroad.
Topic:
Human Rights, Labor Issues, Employment, and Labor Rights
Political Geography:
United States and North America

76. How Trade with Mexico Impacts Employment in the United States

Author:
Christopher Wilson
Publication Date:
11-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
The U.S.-Mexico trade relationship is huge. The two countries trade over a half-trillion dollars in goods and services each year, which amounts to more than a million dollars in bilateral commerce every minute. With such a large volume of trade, it is not hard to believe that the number of jobs that depend on the bilateral relationship is similarly impressive. New research commissioned by the Mexico Institute shows precisely that: nearly five million U.S. jobs depend on trade with Mexico. This means that one out of every 29 U.S. workers has a job supported by U.S.-Mexico trade.
Topic:
Globalization, International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, and Employment
Political Geography:
America and Mexico

77. The Collaborative Economy in Poland and Europe: A Tool for Boosting Female Employment?

Author:
Karolina Beaumont
Publication Date:
07-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Social and Economic Research - CASE
Abstract:
The collaborative economy is a relatively new economic approach based on peer-to-peer transactions. It includes the shared creation, production and consumption of goods and services accessible for all through online platforms and smartphone applications. It is a burgeoning business model that is experiencing increased interest in all European countries. Statistics show that Poland already has an above-average number of women who are interested in self-employment. Furthermore, formal female employment in Poland is quite low by European standards. This situation implies great potential for the development of the participation of women in the collaborative economy. The paper “The Collaborative Economy in Poland and Europe: A Tool for Boosting Female Employment?” by Karolina Beaumont discusses the challenges of the collaborative economy as a system stimulating female social and economic empowerment and assesses the opportunities offered by the collaborative economy in increasing the female labour participation rate amongst Polish women.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Labor Issues, Women, Employment, Inequality, Economy, Social Policy, and Labor Policies
Political Geography:
Europe and Poland

78. Explaining the Prevalence, Scaling and Variance of Urban Phenomena

Author:
Andres Gomez-Lievano, Oscar Patterson-Lomba, and Ricardo Hausmann
Publication Date:
12-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
The prevalence of many urban phenomena changes systematically with population size1. We propose a theory that unifies models of economic complexity2, 3 and cultural evolution4 to derive urban scaling. The theory accounts for the difference in scaling exponents and average prevalence across phenomena, as well as the difference in the variance within phenomena across cities of similar size. The central ideas are that a number of necessary complementary factors must be simultaneously present for a phenomenon to occur, and that the diversity of factors is logarithmically related to population size. The model reveals that phenomena that require more factors will be less prevalent, scale more superlinearly and show larger variance across cities of similar size. The theory applies to data on education, employment, innovation, disease and crime, and it entails the ability to predict the prevalence of a phenomenon across cities, given information about the prevalence in a single city.
Topic:
Economics, Urbanization, Employment, and Economic Theory
Political Geography:
Global Focus and United States of America

79. Keeping One's Eye on the Ball: Exploring the Intensity of Sports Activities across Europe

Author:
Stuart Russell, Carla Tokman, Douglas Barrios, and Matt Andrews
Publication Date:
07-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
As described in Russell, Barrios & Andrews (2016), past attempts to understand the sports economy have been constrained by a number of data limitations. For instance, many of these accounts use revenues when value added measures would be more appropriate. Similarly, many accounts use top-down definitions that result in double counting and an inflated estimate of the size of the sports economy. More importantly, past accounts have focused most of their efforts estimating the overarching size of the sports economy. Constrained by aggregated data that groups a wide range of sports-related economic activities together, they primarily discuss the size of the sports-related economic activity. Their focus on answering the question of "How big?" conceals substantial differences between activities. Core sports activities, such as professional sports teams, behave very differently than activities, like sporting goods manufacturing that are closer to the periphery of the sports economy. Likewise, there are even important differences amongst core sports activities. Professional sports teams are very different than fitness facilities, and they might differ in different respects. Guerra (2016) demonstrates that, when detailed, disaggregated data are available, the possibilities to analyze and understand the sports are greatly increased. For instance, Guerra (2016) were able to conduct skills-based analyses, magnitude analyses, employment characterizations, geographic distribution analyses, and calculations of the intensity of sports activities. The sector disaggregation, spatial disaggregation, and database complementarity present in the Mexico data used in that paper therefore enables a more detailed and nuanced understanding of sports and sports-related economic activity. Data with characteristics similar to those found in Mexico are few and far between. We have, unfortunately, been unable to completely escape such data limitations. However, we have compiled and analyzed a large array of employment data on sports-related economic activities in Europe. In the paper that follows, we describe our analyses of these data and the findings produced. Section 1 begins with a discussion of employment in sports and an explanation of why we chose this variable for our analyses. Section 2 provides an overview of the data used in this paper particularly focusing on the differences between it and the Mexico data discussed in Guerra (2016). It also describes the methodology we use. We analyze these data using one of two related measures to understand the intensity of sports-related activities across different geographic areas in countries. We also construct measures at the level of a single country in order to compare across entire economies. At the international level, we adopt the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) measure that Balassa (1965) first developed to analyze international trade. Within specific countries, however, we use a population-adjusted version of the RCA measure known as RPOP. Section 3 presents the most relevant findings and Section 4 discusses their limitations. Section 5 concludes with the lessons learned and avenues for future research. While there are limitations on these analyses, they can give policymakers a better understanding of the distribution and concentration of sports across space. Such information can serve as an important input for sports-related investment decisions and other sports-related policies.
Topic:
Employment, Sports, Economy, and International Development
Political Geography:
Europe, Central America, and European Union

80. Trusteeship: Business and the economics of well- being

Author:
Rajni Bakshi
Publication Date:
09-2016
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations
Abstract:
Economic reforms in India have often arrayed proponents of market-led growth against human rights advocates anxious that markets give primacy to profits over people. A quarter century after the reform process was initiated in the early 1990s, this conflict has sharpened. At the same time, this narrative of polarised positions seems increasingly worn out. Business and society at large have always been intricately co-dependent. This interface is now taking many new forms across the world, with some entrepreneurs seeing profit as a means, rather than the end goal of business. This paper explores these questions. It reviews if and how trusteeship can be a lodestar for globally navigating businesses and public policies through a period of technology- driven disruptions and the uncertainties unleashed by climate change. Trusteeship is a frame of reference on which a wide variety of business models can be based. The emphasis is on transforming rather than demolishing the capitalist system. In essence, Gandhian trusteeship reposes faith in the capacity of individuals and entire classes to re-form themselves, on the premise that the capacity to seek redemption is intrinsic to human nature. There was logic rather than dreamy wishful thinking behind these claims. Gandhi believed that it is a fearful man who tyrannises others or attempts to accumulate wealth by force or by unfair means. By contrast, a voluntary adoption of trusteeship means respect for human dignity, fostering relations based on truth and shared goals. Thus, Gandhi urged labourers to approach employers from a position of strength and self-respect since labour is as vital a component of production as capital, land, and technology. In a time mired by corruption and competitive greed, trusteeship may at first glance seem like a pipe-dream. Can this closer examination perhaps give you cause to rethink?
Topic:
Development, Economics, Reform, and Employment
Political Geography:
India