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The events taking place in the world require a significant restructuring of the economic system, the formation of closer socio-economic interactions with Russia’s partners, primarily within the framework of Eurasian associations. The development and deepening of integration ties can contribute to the growth of the economies of allied countries and the expansion of national labor markets, which is especially important in the context of increasing restrictions on the part of labor resources in individual countries. The article examines the main characteristics of the labor markets of the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), highlighting common features and differences. Based on the methodology developed by the authors (using correlation and regression analysis methods), the growth of labor productivity in the long term is assessed for each country of the Union. In accordance with demographic forecast calculations, an assessment is given of the growth in the number of employed people in national labor markets, as well as the possibility of increasing labor migration. As a result of the comparison of the obtained forecast estimates, the possibilities for economic growth of the allied countries are determined.

This paper examines the relationship between structural change, as measured by sectoral composition of employment and value-added (VA), and aggregate productivity growth for sub-Sahara African (SSA) Least Developed Countries (LDCs), using panel data from 1991 to 2018. First, a Granger causality test finds that the relationship between structural change and economic growth is bidirectional. Next, the Pooled Mean Group, a dynamic panel data estimator teases out short-run and long-run effects of structural change on economic growth. The results suggest that the magnitude of labor and VA reallocation across sectors is not large enough to have a significant impact on economic growth, implying that the direction of structural change is important when analyzing its impact on growth in the SSA LDCs. The paper also explains why labor in the SSA LDCs moves from one low productivity sector to another and how that pans out for development.

Productivity differences across firms are large and persistent, but the evidence for worker reallocation as an important source of aggregate productivity growth is mixed. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the structure of an equilibrium model of growth through innovation designed to identify and quantify the role of resource reallocation in the growth process. The model is a version of the Schumpeterian theory of firm evolution and growth developed by Klette and Kortum (2004) extended to allow for firm heterogeneity. The data set is a panel of Danish firms that includes information on value added, employment, and wages. The model's fit is good. The estimated model implies that more productive firms in each cohort grow faster and consequently crowd out less productive firms in steady state. This selection effect accounts for 53% of aggregate growth in the estimated version of the model.

This paper uses a novel, globally harmonised city-level data set — with cities defined at the Functional Urban Area (FUA) level — to revisit the link between urban concentration and country-level economic dynamics. The empirical analysis, involving 108 low- and high-income countries, examines how differences in urban concentration impinge on changes in employment, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita and labour productivity at country level over the period 2000—2016. The results indicate that urban concentration reduces employment growth but increases GDP per capita and labour productivity growth. The returns of urban concentration are higher for high- than for low-income countries and are mainly driven by the ‘core’ of FUAs, rather than by suburban areas. 本文使用了一个新颖的、全球协调的城市级数据集（在功能城市区 (FUA) 层面定义城市），来重新审视城市集中和国家级经济动态之间的联系。这项实证分析涉及108个低收入和高收入国家，研究了2000年至2016年期间城市集中度的差异如何影响国家一级的就业、人均国内生产总值和劳动生产率的变化。结果表明，城市集中降低了就业增长，但提高了人均国内生产总值和劳动生产率的增长。高收入国家的城市集中回报率高于低收入国家，并且，此等回报率主要是由FUA的“中心”、而不是由郊区驱动的。

The study of causal dependencies in economics is fraught with great difficulties, that it is required to consider not only the object structure, but also take into account a huge number of factors acting on the object, about which nothing is either known or difficult to measure. In this paper, we attempt to overcome this problem and apply the theory of statistical causality for labor productivity management. We suggest new technology that provides the inference of causal relations between the special programs implemented in the company’s and employee’s labor productivity. The novelty of the proposed technology is that it is based on a hybrid object model, combines two models: 1—the structural object model about its functioning and development to provide a causal inference and prediction the effect of explicit factors; 2—the model based on observed data to clarify causality and to test it empirically. The technology provides integration of the theory of causal Bayesian networks, methods of randomized controlled experiments and statistical methods, allows under nonlinearity, dynamism, stochasticity and non-stationarity of the initial data, to evaluate the effect of programs on the labor effeciency. The difference between the proposed technology and others is that it ensures determination the synergistic effect of the action of the cause (program) on the effect—labor productivity in condition of hidden factors. The practical significance of the research is the results of its testing the proposed theoretical provisions, methods and technologies on actual data about food service company. The results obtained could contribute to the labor productivity growth over uncertainty of the external and internal factors and provide the companies sustainable development and its profitability growth.

Many countries in Asia and the Pacific have experienced rapid economic growth and structural transformation in recent decades. Yet, some countries are still at an early stage of this structural transformation and face external conditions less favorable than those faced by the first movers when they were at a similar early stage in their transformation. The external environment is less auspicious, with trade tensions and “friend-shoring” leading to possible deglobalization, while demographic headwinds could also lower sustainable growth rates and induce technological changes, such as the increased use of robots, that reduce the possibility of relying upon labor-intensive development strategies.

PurposeThis paper aims to revisit the relationship between intangible capital and labour productivity growth using the largest, up-to-date macro database (2000–2015) available to corroborate the econometric findings of earlier work and to generate novel econometric evidence by accounting for times of crisis (2008–2013) and economic recovery (2014–2015).Design/methodology/approachTo achieve these aims, this paper employs a cross-country growth accounting econometric estimation approach using the largest, up-to-date database available encompassing 16 EU countries over the period 2000–2015. The paper accounts for times of crisis (2008–2013) and of economic recovery (2014–2015). It separately estimates the contribution of three distinct dimensions of intangible capital: (1) computerized information, (2) innovative property and (3) economic competencies.FindingsFirst, when accounting for intangibles, the paper finds that these intangibles have become the dominant source of labour productivity growth in the EU, explaining up to 66 percent of growth. Second, when accounting for times of crisis (2008–2013), in contrast to tangible capital, the paper detects a solid positive relationship between intangibles and labour productivity growth. Third, when accounting for the economic recovery (2014–2015), the paper finds a highly significant and remarkably strong relationship between intangible capital and labour productivity growth.Originality/valueThis paper corroborates the importance of intangibles for labour productivity growth and thereby underlines the necessity to incorporate intangibles into today's national accounting frameworks in order to correctly depict the levels of capital investment being made in European economies. These levels are significantly higher than those currently reflected in the official statistics.

The results of the review do not disappoint. The authors identified more than 120 cash transfer programs that were implemented between 2000 and mid-2009 in Sub-Saharan Africa. These programs have varying objectives, targeting, scale, conditions, technologies, and more. A sizable number of these programs conducted robust impact evaluations that provide important information, presented here, on the merits of cash transfer programs and their specific design features in the African context. The authors present summary information on programs, often in useful graphs, and provide detailed reference material in the appendixes. They highlight how many of the cash transfer programs in Africa that had not yet begun implementation at the time of writing will continue to provide important evaluation results that will guide the design of cash transfer programs in the region. In addition to presenting data and analysis on the mechanics of the programs, the authors discuss issues related to political economy. They highlight the importance of addressing key tradeoffs in cash transfers, political will, and buy-in, and they emphasize the need to build evidence-based debates on cash transfer programs. Useful anecdotes and discussion illustrate how some programs have dealt with these issues with varying degrees of success. This text will serve as a useful reference for years to come for those interested in large- and small-scale issues of cash transfer implementation, both in Africa and beyond. However, the book is not an end in itself. It also raises important questions that must be addressed and knowledge gaps that must be filled. Therefore, it is useful both in the information it provides and in the issues and questions it raises.

Mainstream economists argue that unemployment can be reduced by deregulation of labor markets, that is, by easier firing, reduction of minimum wages and social benefits, and so forth. Our panel data analysis shows that wage-cost saving flexibilization of labor markets has a negative impact on labor productivity growth. A one percentage point change in growth rates of real wages leads to a change in labor productivity growth by 0.31-0.39 percentage points. This cannot solely be explained by hiring low-productive labor. Flexibilization of labor markets leads to a labor-intensive growth path that is problematic with an aging population in Europe.

Over the past 20 years, Italy has realised changes in labour legislation, leading to a decentralisation of wage bargaining and increased flexibility in labour relations. Both these factors have helped to curb wage growth and to enhance employment growth, but have also led to a crisis in Italian labour productivity growth. Our estimates among 3,000 firms show that firms with a high share of flexible workers, a high labour turnover and lower costs of labour (relative to capital) experienced significantly lower rates of labour productivity growth. Our findings raise doubts about the mainstream call for flexibilisation of European labour markets. We argue that the Italian shift towards a low-productive and labour-intensive growth path is problematic against the background of an ageing population.