Labor Markets Dynamics in the Middle East and North Africa

FromJul 27, 2015 To Jul 27, 2015

Cairo. Egypt

Labor market dynamism – the creation and destruction of jobs and the reallocation of labor to more productive uses – is an important part of healthy economies. In many Arab countries, the impact of the Arab Spring on MENA labor markets has been primarily mediated through economic crisis and government hiring and compensation practices. Yet, MENA labor markets continue to suffer from high levels of inertia and rigidity, as well as critically low rates of job creation and destruction.
Against this backdrop; ERF launched a research project with the aim of exploiting new data sources to better understand MENA labor market dynamics. The project capitalizes on the Labor Market Panel Surveys (LMPS) made available by the ERF, to identify the underlying strengths and weaknesses of the labor market, and to understand what policies could promote greater dynamism in the labor market.
This workshop serves as a platform for discussing the first drafts of the six papers generated under this project, which cover a variety of topics including employment and unemployment dynamics, informality, migration and household enterprise dynamics.

WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES

The objective of the workshop is to provide a platform for discussing the first drafts of the papers and their findings among authors and experts and receive feedback in order to improve the final output. The workshop is also intended to promote interaction between researchers with interest in the topic.

AGENDA

The workshop will convene for 1 day, gathering around 25-30 participants. Each session will last for an hour and a half where the presenters will speak for 20 minutes each, the discussant for 20 minutes. The remaining 30 minutes will be devoted to open discussion.