AEA Conference - Econometrics of Labour Demand

Understanding the behaviour of the labour demand has become more and more complex. Indeed, the labour demand has been challenged by recent economic changes like the emergence of new information technology, the increase of competition from low wage countries, new institutional rules for collective bargaining or the development of new management processes to stimulate labour productivity. These changes are often put forward to explain the segmentation of the labour demand and the development of different kinds of discrimination that can finally lead to unemployment or wage decrease. Different options are considered to solve these problems: training of lower skilled individuals, reduction of labour costs or of working time, human resource management or stimulation of entrepreneurship. The objectives of this conference are to better understand these mechanisms, stakes and policies and to apprehend whether some options are actually promising.