I theoretically and empirically show that dismissal laws - laws that impose hurdles on firing of employees - spur innovation and thereby economic growth. Theoretically, dismissal laws make it costly for firms to arbitrarily discharge employees. This enables firms to commit to not punish...

This paper revisits the role of the manufacturing sector during the middle-income stage. By exploiting a large dataset that covers internationally comparable sectoral information, we prove that the manufacturing sector is imbued with three important characteristics. First, for middle-income...

This paper uses the task content model of occupations to investigate whether technology and trade have had differential effects on male and female workers in India. It describes trends in employment shares and wages for female and male workers based on whether they have routine manual, routine...

This paper examines how the services sector could provide decent and gainful employment in developing Asia. Using living wages as a reference point, this paper reports that a significant portion of the workforce in developing Asian economies, the majority of which are employed in the...

With its portable, storable, and zero-emission features, hydrogen energy is regarded as one of the most promising alternative energies for the next generation. Along with developing hydrogen technology applications, Japan's pilot experiments have demonstrated the feasibility of a hydrogen...

Labor income shares have been falling in many advanced and emerging economies within the last few decades, partly as a result of a combination of impacts from technology and increased global integration. This in turn is associated with the relatively slow growth of wages, especially for...