Global Labor Markets: Conference and Call for Papers

Paris, September 1-2, 2016

The IMF, in collaboration with Brunel University and OCP Policy Center, is organizing a two-day conference on Global Labor Markets in Paris on September 1-2, 2016. The detailed agenda is given below. The conference is open but advance registration is required; to register, please send an email to ploungani@imf.org.

In conjunction with the conference, a special issue of Open Economies Review will be published next year. A call for papers is given below. Submissions for the special issue are welcome and should be sent to OERSPECIALISSUE@imf.org by November 1, 2016.

Agenda

Thursday, September 1
9:00-9:15

Opening remarks:

Tao Zhang, Deputy Managing Director, IMF
Remarks
Karim El Aynaoui, Managing Director, OCP Policy Center

Session 1: Does Growth Create Jobs? Global and Regional Evidence
Chair: Prakash Loungani (IMF)
9:15–10:30

Laurence Ball (Johns Hopkins University)
Does One Law Fit All?
Okun’s Law in Advanced & Developing Economies
Presentation

Tayeb Ghazi (OCP Policy Center)
Paper | Presentation
Okun’s Law: Unfit for Low-Income Countries?

Nathalie Gonzalez-Prieto (IMF)
What Lies Beneath? Okun’s Law in U.S. States
Presentation

10:30—10:45

Coffee Break

10:45–12:00

Discussants:
Willi Semmler (New School for Social Research)
Presentation
Ekkehard Ernst (ILO)
Presentation
Francois Facchini (University of Paris 1)
Presentation
Mai Dao (IMF)
Presentation

12:00—1:30

Lunch break

1:30–2:00

Karim El Aynaoui and Aomar Ibourk (OCP Policy Center)
Policy Lessons from Okun’s Law for Developing Countries
Paper | Presentation

Session 2. Jobs and Growth: The Role of Policies and Institutions
Chair: Marc Uzan (Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee)
2:00–3:00

Haje Schutte and Karen Wilson (OECD)
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as Business Opportunities
Presentation

Aurelio Parisotto (ILO)
Decent Work for All: Parsing Goal 8 of the SDGs
Presentation

3:00—3:15

Coffee Break

3:15-4:00

Romain Duval (IMF)
Can Reform Waves Turn the Tide?
Some Case Studies Using the Synthetic Control Method

Paper | Presentation

Discussant: Nauro Campos (Brunel University)
Presentation

4:00-4:45

Sebastian Weber (ECB)
Reassessing the Role of Labor Market Institutions for the Business Cycle
Paper | Presentation

Discussant: Mai Dao (IMF)
Presentation

4:45-5:30

Giovanni Melina(IMF)
Sectoral Labor Mobility and Optimal Monetary Policy
Presentation

Discussant: Manasa Patnam, CREST-ENSAE
Presentation

Friday, September 2
Session 3: Labor Flows: Mobility, Migration, Displacement
Chair: Nauro Campos (Brunel University)
9:00–9:45

Amine Ouazad (Ecole Polytechnique)
Job Displacement and Crime: Evidence from Danish Micro Data
Presentation 1 | Presentation 2

Discussant: Ahmed Tritah (Universite du Maine)
Presentation

9:45–10:45

Alessandro Turrini (European Commission)
Labor Mobility and Labor Market Adjustment in the EU
Presentation 1 | Presentation 2

Anda David (AFD)
Migration and Employment Interactions in a Crisis Context:
The Case of Tunisia

Presentation

10:45—11:00

Coffee Break

11:00–11:30

Discussants:

Davide Furceri (IMF)
Presentation
Nawal Zaaj (Council of Scientific Research, Morocco)
| Presentation

11:30–12:15

Martin Kahanec, Central European University
Free Movement of Workers within the EU
Presentation

12:15—1:30

Lunch break

Session 4: Economic Policy Priorities and Prospects for the EU
Chair: Jean-Bernard Chatelain (Paris School of Economics)
1:30–2:00

Rodolphe Blavy (IMF, Europe Office)
An Overview of Developments and Policy Debates
Presentation

2:00–2:30

Francesco Saraceno (OFCE-Sciences Po)
Presentation
An Assessment of EU Fiscal Policy

2:30–3:15

Panel:
Willi Semmler (New School for Social Research)
Presentation
Nauro Campos (Brunel University)

3:15—3:30

Coffee Break

Session 5: The Design of Labor Market Policies and Institutions
Chair: Ahmed Tritah (Universite du Maine)
3:30–4:30

Active Labor Market Policies

Bruno Crepon (ENSAE-CREST)
Active Labor Market Policies: A Review
Presentation

Veronica Escudero (ILO)
Cross-Country Evidence on Active Labor Market Policies
Presentation

4:30–5:15

Minimum Wages, Unemployment Insurance and Employment Protection Legislation

Sabina Dewan (JustJobs Network)
Ekkehard Ernst (ILO)
Presentation
Romain Duval (IMF)
Presentation

5:15-5:30

Summings-up

Laurence Ball (Johns Hopkins University)


Call for Papers:

Special Issue of Open Economies Review on Global Labor Markets

Open Economies Review will publish a special issue during 2017 devoted to analysis of labor markets in advanced countries, emerging markets, and low-income countries. The deadline for submissions is November 1, 2016. Only completed papers will be considered and they should be sent to OERSPECIALISSUE@imf.org.

The issue will be edited by Nauro Campos (Brunel University), Karim El Aynaoui (OCP Policy Center) and Prakash Loungani (IMF). The editors are particularly interested in these topics:

  • Links between jobs, growth and productivity in the short-run and long-run;
  • Analysis of trends in labor mobility within and across countries;
  • Labor market issues in economic unions;
  • Impact on macroeconomic policies (monetary; fiscal; financial) on labor markets;
  • Impact of structural policies on growth and jobs;
  • Impact of labor market institutions and policies in advanced and developing countries;
  • Evidence on the economic and social costs of unemployment

Papers comparing advanced and developing country labor markets, and papers devoted to analysis of labor markets in low-income countries, are particularly welcome.

About the journal: Open Economies Review features theoretical and empirical studies examining international economic issues or national economic issues with transnational relevance. The journal has a five-year impact factor of 0.82. The editor-in-chief is George S. Tavlas (Bank of Greece).

About the guest editors:

Nauro Campos is Professor of Economics and Finance at Brunel University London, a Research Professor at ETH Zürich and a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). He is the co-author, with Jeff Nugent, of a major study on the impacts of labor market regulations on growth and inequality, and he has edited a special issue of Economic Systems.

Karim El Aynaoui is Managing Director of OCP Policy Center, a global think tank headquartered in Rabat. Previously, he was Director of Economics at Bank Al-Maghrib (the central bank of Morocco) and an economist at the World Bank. He is the author of a book on growth strategies for Morocco and the guest editor of a special issue of Oxford Economic Papers.

Prakash Loungani is Chief of Development Macroeconomics in the IMF’s Research Department. During 2010-15 he co-chaired the IMF’s group on Jobs and Growth. He has edited special issues of the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking,the Journal of International Money and Finance, and the International Journal of Forecasting.