Promoting Self Employment Among the Unemployed in Hungary and Poland

To evaluate the effectiveness of self-employment assistance to the unemployed in Hungary and Poland more than 5,500 follow-up interviews were conducted in early 1997 by employees of local labor offices with persons in self-employment participant and comparison group samples. Wide ranging differences were observed between the demographic composition of self- employment samples and the general population of unemployed. Program effects were therefore computed as net impact estimates controlling for systematic sample selection using observable characteristics including information on job search assistance from the employment service. While self-employment assistance yielded a favorable set of net impact estimates in both countries, there was a significant dead weight in the operation of programs. Many of those receiving self- employment assistance probably would have gained reemployment without government assistance. However, even after accounting for sample selection, program impacts in both countries on unemployment compensation savings were large, and impacts on employment outcomes were large and positive. In Poland there were also large and positive earnings impacts. A negative estimated earnings impact in Hungary may have been due to a reluctance for full disclosure to tax authorities. In both countries there were appreciable secondary employment effects of between 0.31 and 0.83 additional workers hired per person given self-employment assistance. Among subgroups, self- employment appeared to be more effective in high unemployment areas in Hungary, among females in Poland, outside of service industries in Hungary, and outside of manufacturing and construction in Poland.unemployment, labor, market, programs, self-employment, Hungary, Poland, O'Leary

Informal Economy, Governance, and Corruption

The nature of activity of the informal sector may vary across the developed and developing countries, yet it is evident that the sector contributes to economic growth anywhere in the world, regardless of a country's economic system. This article aims to highlight the importance of the informal economy in a less developed country like Bangladesh, where a large section of the people is engaged outside of the formal economic activities. Moreover, the study attempted to find out the determinant of the informal economy in the global context. It likewise attempted to relate the informal economy with governance issues, with a view to understanding how the informal economy can be best managed through appropriate government policies.governance, informal economy, Bangladesh, determinants of informal economy

MIS Guidelines for Employment Law Programs in Poland

The guidelines presented in this report propose an efficient architecture for structuring the huge volume of information flow necessary to manage and administer the several labor market programs operated by the SOLO (System of Labor Offices). The proposal includes a recommendation for the sequence of events in developing the many parts of the system which exploits the latest technical and methodological possibilities, but recognizes the practical constraints of time and money. At the heart of the proposed automated management information system (MIS) to support planning, evaluation, and budgeting for labor market programs in Poland is a set of performance indicators. These performance indicators are the main instrument for monitoring the effectiveness of the several programs. The use of performance indicators will allow a standardized assessment of program performance across voivods, local offices, and programs which is not provided by other methods of evaluation

Introducing Unemployment Insurance to Developing Countries

The paper identifies key labor market and institutional differences between developed and developing countries, analyzes how these differences affect the working of the standard, OECD-style unemployment insurance (UI) program, and derives a desirable design of unemployment benefit program in developing countries. It argues that these countries – faced by large informal sector, weak administrative capacity, large political risk, and environment prone to corruption – should tailor the OECD-style UI program to suit their circumstances. To minimize employment disincentives, to ensure affordability, and to minimize administration cots, such adaptations include: (i) relying on self-insurance (via unemployment insurance savings accounts – UISAs) as a main source of financing and complementing it by solidarity funding; (ii) simplifying monitoring of job-search behavior and labor market status, and even eliminating personal monitoring of continuing eligibility requirements in the early phases; (iii) keeping modest benefits both in terms of the replacement rate and potential benefit duration; (iv) drawing on employers’ and workers’ contributions as sources of financing; and (v) piggybacking on existing networks to administer benefits. Particularly attractive is the UISAs-cum-borrowing version that uses pension wealth as collateral, making the system proof to moral hazard and strategic behavior, and allowing it to be rapidly deployed, such as in response to the currently emerging global economic crises.unemployment, unemployment insurance, unemployment insurance savings accounts

The contextual database of the generations and gender program in Bulgaria: conceptual framework and an overview of the Bulgarian context concerning the central database topics

This paper outlines the concept and content of the Contextual Database of the international Generations and Gender Program and gives an overview of the context of demographic behavior in Bulgaria. The Contextual Database provides an instrument that together with the Generations and Gender Survey allows studying how differences in context shape demographic processes. The database offers the opportunity to analyze in a comparative way the interaction between the micro and macro dimension. Bulgaria is among the first countries fielding the Generations and Gender Survey and that is engaged in contextual data collection within this comparative framework. While both micro- and contextual data for Bulgaria will become available in the course of the year 2005, we present in this paper a text contribution that provides an overview of the Bulgarian context and introduces the list of variables that make up the database.Bulgaria, data collection

21st Century Skills for 21st Century Jobs

Joint Agency Report21stCenturySkillsJobs.pdf: 8198 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

The Impact of English Language Proficiency and Workplace Readiness on the Employment Outcomes of Tertiary International Students (Full Report)

This project examines the influence of English language proficiency (ELP) on workplace readiness and employment outcomes for international students and graduates who seek to work in Australia. The study adopts a mixed method approach involving a detailed review of relevant literature, semi-structured individual interviews and focus groups, and quantitative analyses of three statistical data sets — Australian 2006 Census data, Australian Education International (AEI) data from January 2002 to June 2008, and the former Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia (October 2005 and October 2006). The qualitative data from the interviews enabled the authors to analyse the topic of investigation from several different perspectives including those of: international students and graduates; local (permanent resident or citizen) students and graduates; representatives of tertiary institutions and VET providers; recent offshore graduate job seekers with overseas qualifications; and Australian employers and regulatory bodies in five professional and three trade fields. The findings show that international students employment outcomes are not as good as their Australian domestic counterparts and that they face greater challenges in finding full-time employment after graduation. While ELP is a key factor influencing their employment outcomes — particularly if graduates have low levels of ELP — the findings from this study show that ELP is not the only or principal issue. Employers\u27 first priority is to engage graduates with strong profession-specific skills and then to consider their ‘well-roundedness’. The ‘well-roundedness’ includes graduates’ personal characteristics and attributes, the diversity of their experiences and skills, as well as their ‘cultural fit’ into the workplace. There is potential to respond to this expectation through policies and practices that support integrated approaches for enhancing ELP and workplace readiness within educational institutions, as well as increasing international students’ awareness of the value of the experiences and skills they can develop outside of their studies

Rural Youth Entrepreneurs in East Africa: A View from Uganda and Kenya

This report is a result of a project titled Entrepreneurship empowering marginalized groups. The project was made possible through funding from the IDRC Trust Africa Investment Climate and Business Environment- Research Fund. The overall objective of the project was to explore the entrepreneurship initiatives that marginalized groups which included women, rural youth and the disabled are engaged in

Informal Economy: Is It a Problem, a Solution or Both? The Perspective of the Informal Business

This paper deals with the informal economy. For many it is a solution, for others it is a problem. What can the law do to incorporate the informal economy into the formal economy? Does it really matter? What are the challenges