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The concept of empowerment is now widely used in several disciplines to characterize the states and social processes of individuals and communities. In economic development, the concept has come to mean women's power and agency in all economic domains and market-related interactions-earning, spending, and saving income; buying, owning, and selling assets; holding and inheriting wealth; starting and operating a business; acquiring a bank account or credit; and participating in or leading a union or other form of economic collective action. Measurement has lagged conceptualization. Most analytical research by economists, primarily involving impact evaluation, has measured empowerment as women's influence over household expenditures. This is a very narrow sliver of empowerment; not surprisingly, it is not well correlated with other economic or social outcomes. This paper suggests measuring empowerment in eight facets (a 4 x 2 matrix): (a) attitudes and (b) behaviors, in the domains of (i) transactions and markets; (ii) social interactions, including mobility and reproductive freedom; (iii) political and civic participation, including exercising legal rights; and (iv) psychology, including self-confidence and ability to seek mental health.

Economic Empowerment --- Empowerment --- Human Rights --- Labor Market Outcomes

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This paper provides an overview of the recent performance of the labor market in Vietnam during the Great Recession. The analysis uses data from the Labor Force Survey and the Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey. The author finds that, notwithstanding the global crisis and domestic volatility, job creation has been sustained in Vietnam, especially in the formal sector, but that the overall quality of employment has suffered. Gender differentials are found to affect older women especially, while educated women benefit from a skills wage premium. Reassuringly given the large youth share of the total workforce, the youth labor market is dynamic and outcomes for youths have improved. Meanwhile, participation in poverty alleviation programs and labor market programs has not changed, and few workers use the newly created employment services and unemployment benefits.

Gender --- Gender and Development --- Gender wage differentials --- Labor market outcomes --- Labor Markets --- Labor Policies --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Population Policies --- Poverty Reduction --- Work & Working Conditions --- Vietnam

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This paper examines the relationship between individuals' skills and labor market outcomes for the working-age population of Colombia's urban areas. Using a 2012 unique household survey, the paper finds that cognitive skills (aptitudes to perform mental tasks such as comprehension or reasoning) and socio-emotional skills (personality traits and behaviors) matter for favorable labor market outcomes in the Colombian context, although they have distinct roles. Cognitive skills are greatly associated with higher earnings and holding a formal job or a high-qualified occupation. By contrast, socio-emotional skills appear to have little direct influence on these outcomes, but play a stronger role in labor market participation. Both types of skills, especially cognitive skills, are largely associated with pursuing tertiary education. The analysis applies standard econometric techniques as a benchmark and structural estimations to correct for the measurement error of skill constructs.

Cognitive skills --- Education --- Education for all --- Educational sciences --- Effective schools & teachers --- Labor market outcomes --- Labor markets --- Latent skills --- Personality traits --- Primary education --- Returns to skills --- Social protections and labor --- Socio-emotional skills --- Unobserved heterogeneity

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Relatively little is known about youth unemployment and its lasting consequences in transition economies, despite the difficult labor market adjustment experienced by these countries over the past decade. The authors examine early unemployment spells and their longer-term effects among the youth in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), where the labor market transition is made more difficult by the challenges of a post-conflict environment. They use panel data covering up to 4,800 working-age individuals over the 2001 to 2004 period. There are three main findings from their analysis. First, youth unemployment is high-about twice the national average-consistent with recent findings from the BiH labor market study. Younger workers are more likely to go into inactivity or unemployment and are also less likely to transition out of inactivity, holding other things constant. Second, initial spells of unemployment or joblessness appear to have lasting adverse effects on earnings and employment ("scarring"). But there is no evidence that the youth are at a greater risk of scarring, or suffer disproportionately worse outcomes from initial joblessness, compared with other age groups. Third, higher educational attainment is generally associated with more favorable labor market outcomes. Skilled workers are less likely to be jobless and are less likely to transition from employment into joblessness. But there is evidence that the penalty from jobless spells may also be higher for more educated workers. The authors speculate that this may be due in part to signaling or stigma, consistent with previous findings in the literature.

Age Groups --- Average Unemployment --- Educational Attainment --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Household Survey --- Labor --- Labor Force --- Labor Market --- Labor Market Adjustment --- Labor Market Experiences --- Labor Market Outcomes --- Labor Markets --- Labor Policies --- National Unemployment --- National Unemployment Rate --- Population Policies --- Skilled Workers --- Social Protections and Labor --- Unemployed --- Unemployment Spells --- Younger Workers --- Youth and Government --- Youth Unemployment --- Youth Unemployment Rate --- Youth Unemployment Rates

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This paper provides a snapshot of Mauritania's labor market using data from the 2004 national household survey. The results show that the labor market is characterized by lower participation rates, lower employment-to-population rates, and relatively higher unemployment rates than in neighboring countries. The non poor fare better in the labor market than the poor. Although the labor force participation of the poor is higher than that of the non poor, the poor display a higher unemployment rate and a lower employment rate than the non poor. The data also suggest a negative correlation between wage employment and poverty. Substantial differences in labor market indicators emerge when disaggregating the analysis by gender and age-group. Female non-participation is extremely high. Women systematically earn less than men independently of their sector and type of employment and controlling for other factors, such as education. Young adults face considerable difficulties in entering the labor market: more than half of the population aged 15-24 is neither studying nor participating in the labor force. As gender disparities remain important for similar levels of education, more work is needed to understand whether cultural factors may prevent women from entering the labor market. Concerning young adults, future poverty reduction strategies need to pay more explicit attention to the promotion of employment through informed labor market policies.

Age group --- Employment --- Household survey --- Informal sector --- Labor --- Labor and Social Protections --- Labor force --- Labor force participation --- Labor market --- Labor market indicators --- Labor market outcomes --- Labor market policies --- Labor Markets --- Labor Policies --- Population --- Population Policies --- Rural Development --- Rural labor --- Rural labor markets --- Rural Poverty Reduction --- Unemployment --- Unemployment rate --- Unemployment rates --- Wage determination --- Wage differentials --- Wage employment