Search Results (157)

Whether Kaldor’s three growth laws still operate in commodity-dependent middle-income economies—and through what transmission mechanism—is an open empirical question after three decades of trade liberalisation, financial opening, and the 2002–2014 commodity super-cycle. This paper provides the first bloc-level panel test of the three laws for the Andean Community of Nations (ACN—Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru) over 1993–2019, combining static feasible generalised regressions with dynamic Arellano–Bond difference-GMM and long-run multipliers. The predictions are as follows: manufacturing growth is positively associated with aggregate output (long-run multiplier 0.91), the Verdoorn coefficient is positive and significant at 0.42, and labour reallocation from non-manufacturing activities is associated with rising aggregate productivity over the time. The headline finding, however, is a decomposition failure: the Verdoorn and employment elasticities coefficients sum up to 0.35 rather than 1 as required by the accounting identity, leaving a residual of 0.65. We term this “jobless manufacturing growth” (capital-deepening). This suggests that the Kaldorian regime in the ACN has neither collapsed nor remained intact, but has mutated into a capital-intensive, labour-saving form consistent with Dutch-disease. Thus, industrial policy alone would deepen the jobless pattern: structural transformation in these economies requires pairing subsidy plans with the macroeconomic management of commodity-dependent exchange rates. Full article

Firearm homicide is a leading cause of death among children and young men in the U.S. (ages 1–19), with young Black males in urban environments facing rates 18-to-24-fold higher than their non-Hispanic White peers in 2023. A key precursor to firearm violence victimization is weapon-carrying behavior (WCB), defined as carrying, concealing, or displaying firearms or other weapons in community or social contexts that elevate risk for injury, interpersonal threats, or law enforcement contact. Several structural, behavioral, and trauma-based risk factors fuel weapon-carrying. Yet these WCBs are rarely studied in tandem, leaving a critical gap in our understanding of these high-risk behaviors for youth. This cross-sectional study leveraged baseline data from a convenience sample of 226 violence-exposed urban young Black males, ages 15–24 (M_age = 18.3 years; SD = 3.1) enrolled in a trauma-informed digital firearm violence prevention pilot study. Eligibility required prior personal or witnessed experience of youth violence; reported prevalence therefore characterizes a high-risk subgroup rather than urban young Black males as a whole. Past-30-day weapon-carrying frequency was measured across five YRBS-aligned categories (0, 1, 2 to 3, 4 to 5, and 6+ days) and modeled as a categorical index under negative binomial regression. Associations with peer and community violence exposure, substance use, sociodemographic, and socioeconomic factors were estimated as incidence rate ratios (IRRs) with 95% CI. Past-30-day weapon carrying was reported by 42.5% of participants, with carrying frequency ranging from 1 day to 6 or more days. Participants reported high levels of direct victimization (64.8%), witnessing community violence (76.4%), and use of nonprescribed medications, including in instances preceding violence. In the fully adjusted model, indicators of violence exposure were the most consistent correlates of carrying. Direct victimization (IRR = 1.15, p < 0.05), general exposure to violence or aggression (IRR = 7.82, p < 0.01), and physical fighting (IRR = 1.11, p < 0.05) remained independently significant. Conversely, associations with substance use, dating aggression, and employment were attenuated, suggesting shared ecological vulnerability rather than independent causal pathways. Findings underscore the central role of chronic violence exposure and support the need for trauma-informed, multilevel prevention strategies in clinical and community settings. Full article

This study aims to identify the factors causing employer-induced disruption in construction projects and to examine why contractors do not file claims despite frequently encountering such losses. It also aims to develop a scale with tested reliability and validity to measure the causes of employer-induced disruption. Data for the study were collected through a structured questionnaire administered to architects and civil engineers working on the contractor side in projects conducted under the Public Procurement Law No. 4734. The data obtained in the study were analyzed using SPSS 27.0 and AMOS 24 software. The scale development process included exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses using separate samples following the reliability and validity assessments. The findings indicate that the proposed scale possesses a valid and reliable single-factor structure. Additionally, the results reveal that the most significant reasons for not filing a claim are: the lack of qualified technical staff required for record-keeping, the absence of a clause in the contract regarding disruption, and concerns about the potential deterioration of future employment relations with the employer. This study contributes to the literature by providing a validated measurement tool for assessing employer-related disruptions. It also offers recommendations for improving contract management, the documentation process, and awareness of issues among technical staff. Full article

In the U.S., extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related fatalities. Farmers, ranchers and other outdoor workers who are exposed to the elements and engaged in strenuous physical activity are disproportionately impacted. This manuscript summarizes the number and severity of heat-related illnesses and injuries collected through the AgInjuryNews.org system, highlights their characteristics, provides recommendations for farmworkers and employers, and calls for future research. Heat-related illness cases from 2016–2024 were analyzed. Fourteen agricultural heat-related incidents covered by U.S. media were identified. Most incidents took place in June and July. A content analysis was conducted to identify news articles that included mention of prevention strategies, laws and regulations related to working conditions, or OSHA. Over half of the cases were from southern states. Eleven of the incidents involved male farmworkers, one involved a male farmer, and two involved first responders (gender unspecified). All of the farmer/farmworker incidents were single-victim fatalities. Seven articles mentioned prevention strategies, ten mentioned laws or regulations, and nine mentioned OSHA, often cursory. These findings suggest that media reports provide a limited and selective image of agricultural heat-related injuries, with coverage emphasizing fatalities and investigation information more often than prevention. Full article

In the context of occupational environments and sustainable employment, this review explores the effects of declining workers’ health, environmental degradation, and the depletion of marine resources on workers’ psychological well-being. As seas and oceans are increasingly exploited and used as dumping sites for both solid and liquid waste, marine ecosystems are severely degraded, with negative impacts on biodiversity, water quality, and ecosystem processes. Marine biodiversity is crucial to maintaining global food security and supporting the livelihoods of millions of people worldwide. Moreover, this study examines the role of digital technology in the marine industry in safeguarding workers’ sustainable well-being. It emphasizes the complementary roles of law and technology in promoting it. The risks to the health and well-being of marine workers are greatly increased by the occupational consequences of climate change on the sustainable environment and the effects of working in marine environments. Working conditions, incomes, and even unemployment among marine workers have been directly affected by the degradation of marine environments and the depletion of marine resources. Anxiety, panic, depression, rage, and other unpleasant emotions that affect workers’ health and pose mental health risks are detrimental to the psychological well-being of marine workers. The challenges of employment in the marine industry adversely affect the physical and mental well-being of marine employees and hinder economic growth. However, digital technology in marine environments has fundamentally altered the regulations governing marine operations. Full article

Rapid urbanization in megacities has exacerbated the spatial mismatch between employment and housing, necessitating effective spatial optimization strategies. However, classical optimization models often rely on the idealized assumption of “proximity maximization,” failing to account for the complex, nonlinear regularities of actual human mobility. To address this disconnect between theoretical modeling and real-world behavior, this study establishes a job–housing balance optimization framework integrated with empirical commuting patterns. Using Shenzhen as a case study, we analyze citywide commuting big data since 2024 to characterize the power law relationship between commuting population size and distance. We propose a novel optimization model that partitions residential areas into “commuting rings” on the basis of observed distance-decay functions rather than simple Euclidean proximity. We applied the proposed method to current and future planning scenarios and successfully generated spatial regulation schemes that decentralize employment functions to peripheral areas while strategically densifying residential zones. By respecting the “heavy-tailed” nature of commuting distributions, this approach offers urban planners a more robust tool for reducing aggregate commuting burdens without violating the behavioral realities of the workforce. Full article

The legislative framework of labor law is generally described as gender-neutral based on universal presumptions about employment availability, work productivity, and the ability to work without interruption; in actuality, this gender-neutral framework remains contingent on the existence of the non-menstruating body. This paper analyzes the concept of menstruation as the blind spot in labor law, exploring whether the gender-neutral framework of the legal system has the ability to achieve true gender equality while turning a blind eye to the cyclical body, which has been identified to negatively impact the lives of many menstruators. Methodologically, this research takes a normative approach, incorporating feminist legal theories, principles of substantive equality, and socioeconomic and medical studies on menstruation. The results of this research prove that the concept of menstruation cannot be described or characterized by frameworks such as illness or disability, leaving the normative regulatory space for menstruators to experience structural inequality. The formal equality of labor law rules thus produces unequal effects in practice by privileging an implicit model of uninterrupted work capacity. This article concludes that the legal silence surrounding menstruation is not neutral but reinforces gendered patterns of disadvantage. Making menstruation visible within labor law is therefore not a matter of special treatment but a necessary step towards substantive equality and embodied gender justice, and a prerequisite for any future regulatory responses aimed at addressing workplace inequality. Full article

This article investigates the housing precarity of EU migrant workers in the Dutch–German border region, focusing on the Venlo Greenport area. Drawing on documentary analysis, 28 interviews, field observations, and stakeholder engagement, it explores how local governance, market dynamics, and framing practices shape housing outcomes. While EU law guarantees free movement, housing remains excluded from the EU rights frameworks, leaving workers dependent on employer-linked or agency-controlled short-stay facilities. These arrangements—often overcrowded, surveilled, and formally temporary—become long-term solutions, producing what we term short-stay sedentarism: prolonged residence in housing designed to deny permanence. The study conceptualises the local “battleground” where municipalities, employers, housing providers, NGOs, and residents negotiate competing interests. Seven interpretive frames—nuisance/disorder, cowboys, human rights, NIMBY, shadow power, integration, and unwanted accumulation—structure these debates, legitimising certain strategies while obscuring structural deficiencies. Findings reveal that certification and enforcement, while intended to improve standards, often entrench precariousness by sustaining the short-stay model. Emerging integration-oriented policies signal a shift but remain fragile amid economic imperatives and spatial constraints. The paper argues that addressing housing precarity requires structural reforms: expanding access to regular housing, reducing employer dependency, and recognising migrant workers as long-term residents rather than temporary labour inputs. Full article

Background/Objectives: This study examines the legislation governing forest therapy in healthcare, centered on nature-based environments as workplaces for professional forest therapy specialists within international, EU, and national legal frameworks from a labor law perspective. Methods: Using systematic legal analysis, comparative document analysis, and analysis of the scientific literature, the study examines current relevant international, EU, and national (Lithuania, the Republic of Korea) regulations. Results: Based on a cross-sectoral legal norms analysis, the legal conception of forest therapy in healthcare systems and the general regulatory framework for the professional use of nature-based environments as workplaces were identified, along with their impact on the realization of the right to work, workplace requirements, and the provision of forest therapy services. Regulatory mechanisms and conditions governing the use of nature-based environments for forest therapy purposes, under schemes administered by public and private bodies, were identified and analyzed. The interaction between nature-based workplace factors and legal liability arising from professional, contractual, and service-based relationships was also defined and clarified. Conclusions: Fragmented legal regulation of nature-based environments as workplaces for forest therapy creates legal uncertainty, limits the realization of the right to work, and increases legal risks in employment, service provision, patient protection, and resource use. Strengthened interdisciplinary integration between health and forest policy is essential to ensure service quality, accessibility, and legal certainty. Therefore, future regulation should prioritize integrated and harmonized legal frameworks that recognize forest therapy within healthcare systems, ensure fair working conditions, and establish clear rules for the professional use of nature-based environments in therapeutic practices. Full article

The volatility of oil prices has a considerable impact on the economies of oil-exporting countries, making it critical to understand how price variations affect labour markets and unemployment. This study investigates the distinct role of labour market institutions in moderating the effects of oil price volatility on unemployment. Using the Cross-Sectionally Augmented Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (CS-ARDL) on a panel dataset of nine African oil-exporting countries from 1994 to 2024, the study establishes a strong negative link between oil price changes and unemployment. Furthermore, the results show that real GDP growth leads to a reduction in unemployment in the long run, while the labour market institutional index has a negative impact on unemployment. Interacting the oil price with the labour market institutional index causes a further reduction in unemployment. These results suggest that good labour market institutions and macroeconomic stability are essential for reducing unemployment. While increases in oil prices directly stimulate a reduction in unemployment in African oil-exporting countries, this impact is reinforced by the presence of good labour market institutions in an economy. Therefore, the results suggest that countries with strong labour market institutions are more resilient in reducing the negative impact of oil price volatility on employment. As such, policymakers must prioritise labour market institutional reforms to enhance countries’ capacity to absorb oil price shocks and reduce unemployment during periods of oil prosperity and shield against employment declines when oil prices drop. Furthermore, the creation of oil stabilisation funds in these countries may serve a similar purpose. Contribution/originality: Against a background of inconclusive empirical evidence in the literature and a dearth of research on African countries, this study investigates the role of labour market institutions (LMIs) in the oil price–unemployment nexus in African oil-exporting countries. While highly dependent on oil revenue, these countries record persistent structural unemployment. Therefore, the study provides critical evidence to guide the formulation of policies necessary to deal with external shocks and facilitate structural shifts required for employment growth. Existing studies consider general institutional variables such as democratic accountability and the rule of law and do not assess the effect of labour market institutions. The current study fills in this gap by assessing the distinct role of labour market institutions that are specifically designed to regulate only work-related activities, such as quality of labour regulations, adequacy of social protection and unemployment benefits. Furthermore, this study employed the cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) for econometric estimations. Compared to previous studies, this is a more appropriate method that accounts for unobserved common factors such as oil price shocks affecting all oil-exporting countries simultaneously. Full article

Household food expenditure reflects not only income differences, but also how demographic, economic, and institutional factors interact within the household. This study examines household food expenditure in Türkiye from a systems perspective, with a particular focus on the role of gender in shaping economic vulnerability. Using microdata from the 2018 Household Budget Survey, the analysis employs a two-stage framework that combines Artificial Neural Networks and a Tree-Augmented Bayesian Network. In the first stage, non-linear relationships among household characteristics are identified and the most influential determinants of food expenditure shares are determined. In the second stage, a probabilistic system model is constructed to conduct counterfactual “what-if” simulations. The results show that household food expenditure emerges as a systemic outcome influenced by income, education, employment stability, savings capacity, and asset ownership, with gender playing a central role. Female-headed households—particularly those living alone and facing limited education and unstable employment—have a substantially higher probability of allocating a large share of their budget to food. These findings are consistent with Engel’s law and highlight the gendered nature of economic vulnerability. The study suggests that food security policies should address employment stability, human capital, and access to productive assets alongside income support. Full article

This study examines the validity of Okun’s law in Romania over the period 1994–2024, with a particular focus on the sustainability and inclusiveness of economic growth. The empirical analysis uses annual data from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators and applies the differential form of Okun’s law, relating changes in the unemployment rate to real GDP growth. A baseline specification is estimated alongside an extended model that includes investment and inflation as macroeconomic controls. The results indicate a negative but weak relationship between economic growth and changes in the unemployment rate. Across all model specifications, the estimated Okun coefficients are small and statistically insignificant, suggesting limited labor market responsiveness to output growth. Including investment and inflation modestly improves the explanatory power of the model but does not fundamentally alter the results. Overall, the findings point to the prevalence of jobless growth, where economic expansion has not translated into substantial employment gains. The evidence suggests that economic growth in Romania over the past three decades has had a limited capacity to reduce unemployment. From a sustainability perspective, these findings highlight the importance of complementing growth-oriented strategies with structural and labor market policies aimed at strengthening the employment-generating potential of economic growth and supporting inclusive and sustainable development. Full article

This article analyzes the governance of religious diversity in public employment through the study of Quebec’s Bill 21. It examines how the State uses neutrality to manage religious symbols, focusing on implications for pluralism and fundamental rights within democratic governance frameworks and diversity regulation in plural societies. It situates Bill 21 within Quebec’s longer legal and political trajectory, marked by failed legislative attempts, recourse to the “notwithstanding clause,” and deep social polarisation around the construction of a francophone, secular identity. Methodologically, the study combines doctrinal analysis of Canadian constitutional law with a detailed examination of European Court of Human Rights and Court of Justice of the European Union case law, as well as a critical discussion of the Bouchard–Taylor Commission’s model of “open secularism” and later reinterpretations by Bouchard, Taylor and Maclure. The article finds that Quebec’s lawmakers selectively invoke European jurisprudence and the language of neutrality to justify far-reaching restrictions on visible religious symbols, especially for officials with coercive powers such as judges, police and prison staff, in ways that go beyond typical European practice. It argues that equating impartiality with an appearance of strict neutrality reflects the cultural assumptions of the majority and produces discriminatory effects on religious minorities, limiting both freedom of religion and equal access to public employment. The conclusion contends that neutrality should be assessed primarily through officials’ conduct rather than their appearance and that more inclusive models of secularism—grounded in open secularism and reasonable accommodation—offer better tools for reconciling State neutrality, pluralism and fundamental rights. Full article

Despite seven decades of international commitment—from the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights through SDG 3.8—universal health coverage remains stubbornly out of reach. Two billion people, predominantly informal sector workers, lack access to sustainable health insurance. This entry explains the underlying cause: sustainable health insurance requires specific behavioral and institutional conditions for collective action—conditions that existing health insurance models systematically fail to satisfy, thereby structurally excluding informal populations. The Trinity Law framework formalizes these conditions as three multiplicatively interacting requirements—Trust (T), Consensus (C), and Dual Benefit (DB)—expressed as S = T × C × DB. Empirical analysis of community-based health insurance schemes across 24 countries identifies a robust trust threshold (τ* ≈ 0.68) operating as a behavioral phase transition: below this level, cooperation collapses; above it, participation becomes self-sustaining. Cross-country evidence from 274 organizations across 155 countries confirms consensus thresholds (C* ≈ 0.59), while analysis of 158,763 observations validates dual benefit mechanisms. The multiplicative structure explains why partial reforms fail: weakness in any single component drives overall sustainability toward zero. Applied to health insurance, this framework distinguishes conventional systems—Bismarckian employment-based, Beveridgean tax-financed, and commercial health insurance from sustainable systems like participatory community-based microinsurance that satisfy all three Trinity Law conditions through participatory design, transparent governance, and aligned incentives. The persistent UHC gap reflects not implementation failures but fundamental design incompatibilities that the Trinity Law makes explicit. This entry has three objectives: first, it states the Trinity Law conditions; second, it summarizes the empirical evidence for each component; third, it applies the framework to classify major health insurance models. Supporting datasets and code are available in the referenced Zenodo repositories. The term ‘law’ follows the tradition of social science regularities like the ‘law of demand’: a robust empirical pattern with strong predictive validity, not a claim to physical certainty. Full article

This entry presents the history, geography, business, regulations, and the roles of gig workers, platform/algorithms, and employers, focusing primarily on the USA and the EU. The gig economy is informally referred to also as the fourth industrial revolution or the 1099 economy, emphasising sharing, freelance, or platform work; it is a complex and changing business model and regulatory environment. In practice, the gig economy refers to a tripartite relation between workers, platforms/apps, and employers, leading to a two-sided market, where algorithms match supply and demand for paid labour and clients. It is only recently that the gig economy has started to be conceptualised, and its implications, challenges, and impacts are captured in economic law and society, including the power dynamics related to the interplay between economics, technology, regulation, and communities. Conceptually, the gig economy is important, as small paid work has always been present in society for all types of workers and beneficiaries. This new business model of on-demand work has some perceived advantages, such as freedom of work, under-regulation, efficient use of capital, driving down costs, and improving services. However, there is a dualisation of anti-power between workers and non-employers that may lead to precarious work, less free workers, and shadow corporations that distort the market using game changers like digital management algorithms. Currently, the size of the gig economy comprises 154–435 million gig workers out of the world’s 3.63 bn workers, with a market size of USD 557 bn, and is still expanding. Full article