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This paper presents evidence suggesting that the relationship between income and economic structure is shifting over time, with countries across the income distribution uniformly increasing the share of labor in service sectors and an increasingly less stark relationship between manufacturing intensity and gross value added per capita. The paper then assesses historical patterns of productivity convergence at a more detailed sector disaggregation than has been previously available. The analysis finds suggestive evidence that, at least in recent decades, convergent pressures in services industries are stronger than in manufacturing. Focusing on African economies, the paper presents a country-by-country historical analysis of structural change over the past four decades. Given the varied patterns and trends in structural change across African countries, it is difficult to characterize structural change from a single, continent-wide perspective. Some countries saw an early transition of labor out of agriculture, with manufacturing absorbing this labor in the decades prior to the 1990s, while another group of countries saw a later transition out of agriculture, where the services sector played a large role in labor reallocations in the 1990s and 2000s. Finally, the paper provides a country-by-country structural transformation scorecard to assess patterns of structural change in jobs and growth.

Agriculture --- Rural development --- Social protections and labor

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The goal of this assessment is to identify barriers and opportunities to the supply of and demand for labor among persons with disabilities in Russia, as well as opportunities to increase their participation in the labor market. The research includes an overview of legis-lation, social policies, and national programs; an analysis of qualitative data, including the results of expert interviews and focus group discussions; and an analysis of quantitative data, including administrative information from the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection (MoLSP) and the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation (PFR) and a household survey conducted by the Russian State Statistical Service (Rosstat). A concerted effort was made to include and amplify the voices of persons with disabilities and the organizations that represent their interests. An assessment was undertaken of social protection and policy measures to facilitate the demand for and stimulate the supply of labor among persons with disabilities.

Disability --- Employment --- Social Protections and Labor

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In this paper, survey data are used to document the presence of gender gaps in self-employment, employership, and labor force participation in seven Balkan countries and Turkey. The paper examines the quantitative effects of the gender gaps on aggregate productivity and income per capita in these countries. In the model used to carry out this calculation, agents choose between being workers, self-employed, or employers, and women face several restrictions in the labor market. The data display very large gaps in labor force participation and in the percentage of employers and self-employed in the labor force. In almost all cases, these gaps reveal a clear underrepresentation of women. The calculations show that, on average, the loss associated with these gaps is about 17 percent of income per capita. One-third of this loss is due to distortions in the choice of occupations between men and women. The remaining two-thirds corresponds to the costs associated with gaps in labor force participation. The dimensions of these gender gaps and their associated costs vary considerably across age groups, with the age bracket 36-50 years being responsible for most of the losses.

Education --- Gender --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Social Protections and Labor

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The contribution of women to labor in African agriculture is regularly quoted in the range of 60 to 80 percent. Using individual-disaggregated, plot-level labor input data from nationally representative household surveys across six Sub-Saharan African countries, this study estimates the average female labor share in crop production at 40 percent. It is slightly above 50 percent in Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda, and substantially lower in Nigeria (37 percent), Ethiopia (29 percent), and Niger (24 percent). There are no systematic differences across crops and activities, but female labor shares tend to be higher in households where women own a larger share of the land and when they are more educated. Controlling for the gender and knowledge profile of the respondents does not meaningfully change the predicted female labor shares. The findings question prevailing assertions regarding substantial gains in aggregate crop output as a result of increasing female agricultural productivity.

Agriculture --- Communities & Human Settlements --- Rural Development --- Social Protections and Labor

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This paper examines the effects of a government-sponsored apprenticeship training program designed to address high levels of youth unemployment in Ghana. The study exploits randomized access to the program to examine the short-run effects of apprenticeship training on labor market outcomes. The results show that apprenticeships shift youth out of wage work and into self-employment. However, the loss of wage income is not offset by increases in self-employment profits in the short run. In addition, the study uses the randomized match between apprentices and training providers to examine the causal effect of characteristics of trainers on outcomes for apprentices. Participants who trained with the most experienced trainers or the most profitable ones had higher earnings. These increases more than offset the program's negative treatment effect on earnings. This suggests that training programs can be made more effective through better recruitment of trainers.

Apprenticeship --- Skills --- Social Protections and Labor --- Youth Labor Markets