Past Projects

Interactions between sectoral wages. An international comparative approach (2015-2016)

Financing: the Observatoire de la Formation des Prix, Ministère de l’Economie, Luxembourg

Promoters: Ar. Bourgain (University of Luxembourg), F. Shadman and H. Sneessens,

Project description: The aim of the project is to study how sectoral interactions contribute to shape sectoral wage developments. The focus is on the interactions between private and public wage interactions. We will estimate a VAR on quarterly data from Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg over the period 1995-2014 and compare results across countries in terms of co-integrating relationships and dynamic structure. Our contribution with respect to the recent literature on these issues is to enlarge the analysis by including all the macro variables typically used in macroeconomic setups. One of the objectives is to check whether one sector can be regarded as a wage leader or wheter there are mutual influences between the private and the public sectors. This study will be further extended in the case of Luxembourg to include three sectors and to study the role of the financial sector.

Labor Force Diversity and Firms' Perfomance: a Microeconomic Approach (2013 - 2015)

Financing: Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS)

Promoter: Fr. Docquier

Project description:

A recent strand of literature has emphasized a strong cross-country association between cultural diversity in the labor force (measured in term of birthplace, ethnicity, religious affiliation, genetic characteristics), competitiveness and economic growth. These links have been studied at the macroeconomic level, which raises serious concerns about the identification of causation and the understanding of the channels of transmission. For the first time, this project will investigate the link between diversity and competitiveness at the microeconomic level. Our analysis will exploit firm-level data and aims at identifying industries and firm types benefitting from diversity, which concept of diversity is relevant for predicting economic performance, and which segments of the labor market are affected. Two empirical application will be conducted: the first one will cover the whole population of German firms in 2007, the second one will conver European football clubs before and after the 1995 Bosman rule.

Employment, Wage and Poverty (EDIPO) (2012 - 2015)

Financing: Belgian Science Policy

Promoters: V. Vandenberghe (IRES, UCL), Fr. Rycx (ULB), J. Konings (KULeuven)

Project description:

The aim of the project is to assess the situation in terms of i) employability, ii) wage discrimination and iii) relative wage of groups facing labor-market barriers, displaying low employment rates, high unemployment rates and a higher-than-average risk of poverty due to wage inequality. These groups comprise, older women (aged 50 or more), low-educated individuals and residents of non-EU origin. More precisely, the objectives of this project is to assess their situation.

Carry-along Trade (2012 - 2015)

Financing: Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS)

Promoters: V. Vandenberghe (IRES, UCL), H. Vandenbussche (KULeuven), I. Van Beveren (KULeuven)

Project description : This project analyzes firms’ behavior on international market and its impact on international labor market.

Age, femmes et emploi: une évaluation (WOLDEMP) (2012 - 2015)

Financing : Belgian Science Policy

Promoters: M. Dejemeppe, B. Cockx and B. Vanderlinden

Project description :

In 2005, due to the low employment rate among older workers (particularly female workers), the Belgian government set up the “Intergenerational solidarity pact”. This pact comprises a large number of measures intended to keep older workers longer in employment and also to get them back to work. This study aims at evaluating the overall effectiveness of employment policies targeting older workers in Belgium and to identify policies that are most likely to improve employment prospects for older people, particularly women.

The Fringe of the Labor Market : Social Production of Job (In)security in the Postindustrial Society (2010 - 2015)

Financing : Action de Recherche Concertée (ARC), Communauté française de Belgique

Promoters: M. Nyssens, G. Herman (IPSY), E. Léonard (IACCHOS) and D. Desmette (IPSY)

Project description :

Employment integration is the outcome of different types of processes. Beyond the rationality of the labor market in terms of labor productivity, other mechanisms intervene in the adjustments between supply and demand at several levels, which determine wages and employment conditions. These include relationships between individuals and social groups, whereby stereotypes and prejudice influence employment integration of specific categories. At a broader level, organisations establish hierarchies and human resource management practices that result in differentiated access to employment integration.
Finally, the broader institutional environment set up norms and regulation in which organisational and individual behaviours are embedded. Looking at these different types of processes, this research programme addresses the following core questions: what are the institutional, organisational and inter-group mechanisms that produce employment integration, particularly for ‘low-status’ workers and jobseekers? And how do institutional, organisational and intergroup mechanisms interact to produce employment integration? Answering those questions requires an analysis at several levels and the contribution from different disciplines. Accordingly, this research programme
aims at providing a multi-disciplinary and multilevel analysis of the production of employment integration.