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Europe > Norway

You are looking at 1 - 8 of 8 items for :

  • Type: Journal Issue x
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Cover Selected Issues Papers
Japan’s Fertility: More Children Please
Kohei Asao
,
Danila Smirnov
, and
TengTeng Xu
Japan’s fertility has declined in the past three decades. Raising Japan’s fertility rate is a key policy priority for the government. Using cross-country analysis and case studies, this paper finds that the most successful measure to support the fertility rate is the provision of childcare facilities, particularly for children aged 0-2. Offering stronger incentives for the use of paternity leave can alleviate the burden of childcare on mothers, supporting fertility. On the other hand, there is limited evidence that cash transfers are effective in supporting fertility, based on international experience.
Keywords:
Fertility; childcare; gender; labor market; fertility growth; TengTeng xu; Japan's fertility; fertility rate; fertility rate growth; Women; Gender inequality; Gender diversity; Employment; Aging; East Asia
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Japan: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. Asia and Pacific Dept
This Selected Issues paper analyzes the main drivers of persistent gender gaps in leadership in Japan and identifies public policies that can play a role in closing these gaps. Despite its economic relevance, analysis on the drivers of women leaders and managers in Japan is limited. There are a few existing studies, such as Yamaguchi (2013), that use firm level or survey-based data to identify the key constraints to women’s career advancement. Women are also underrepresented in policy-making positions. The availability of public childcare facilities has improved, and is positively associated with the share of female managers. As witnessed in the case of Japan, increasing female labor force participation is not sufficient to ensure that women have good jobs and good careers. In order to foster the advancement of women into managerial and leadership positions, policy efforts need acceleration. Reforming current employment practices and policies are essential for improving women’s quality of jobs. This will also help increase productivity, wages and advance an equal society. First, further progress should be made on work-style reforms, such as encouraging the use of flexible working schedules and teleworking options.
Keywords:
funding affect startup performance; labor market dualism; risk culture; childcare leave cause; wage income; Income inequality; Income; Women; Income distribution; Gender inequality; Global; East Asia
Cover IMF Working Papers
Dissecting the Decline in Average Hours Worked in Europe
Diva Astinova
,
Romain A Duval
,
Niels-Jakob H Hansen
,
Ben Park
,
Ippei Shibata
, and
Frederik G Toscani
Three years after the COVID-19 crisis, employment and total hours worked in Europe fully recovered, but average hours per worker did not. We analyze the decline in average hours worked across European countries and find that (i) it is not cyclical but predominantly structural, extending a long-term trend that predates COVID-19, (ii) it mainly reflects reduced hours within worker groups, not a compositional shift towards lower-hours jobs and workers, (iii) men—particularly those with young children—and youth drive this drop, (iv) declines in actual hours match declines in desired hours. Policy reforms could help involuntary parttimers and women with young children raise their actual hours towards desired levels, but the aggregate impact on average hours would be limited to 0.5 to 1.5 percent. Overall, there is scant evidence of slack at the intensive margin in European labor markets, and the trend fall in average hours worked seems unlikely to reverse.
Keywords:
hours worked; working hours; labor market; Europe; policy reform; worker level; scant evidence; summary statistics; full time worker; Labor markets; Women; Labor supply; Labor force participation
Cover IMF Working Papers
Reducing and Redistributing Unpaid Work: Stronger Policies to Support Gender Equality
Cristian Alonso
,
Mariya Brussevich
,
Ms. Era Dabla-Norris
,
Yuko Kinoshita
, and
Ms. Kalpana Kochhar
Unpaid work, such as caring for children, the elderly, and household chores represents a significant share of economic activity but is not counted as part of GDP. Women disproportionately shoulder the burden of unpaid work: on average, women do two more hours of unpaid work per day than men, with large differences across countries. While much unpaid care work is done entirely by choice, constraints imposed by cultural norms, labor market features or lack of public services, infrastructure, and family-friendly policies matter. This undermines female labor force participation and lowers economy-wide productivity. In this paper, we examine recent trends in unpaid work around the world using aggregate and individual-level data, explore potential drivers, and identify policies that can help reduce and redistribute unpaid work across genders. Conservative model-based estimates suggest that the gains from these policies could amount to up to 4 percent of GDP.
Keywords:
WP; unpaid work; Female Labor Force Participation; Gender Equality; care work; employment status; work arrangement; job matching; Women; Gender diversity; Gender inequality; Labor markets; Global; Africa
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Norway: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
This paper examines various factors driving the uptrend in house prices, with a particular focus on institutional and structural factors. The extent of a possible valuation gap is gauged empirically in the context of a cross-country panel analysis of long-run fundamental determinants of house prices using data from 20 OECD countries. Norway has seen a long housing boom since the mid-1990s apart from a brief and mild downturn during the global financial crisis, with house price inflation exceeding income growth by a wide margin. Although real house prices have also been up strongly during the same period in the majority of advanced economies, Norway experienced one of the highest increases in the OECD. With house prices rising ahead of income, the average cost of a home relative to the median household income nationwide has almost doubled since the mid-1990s, rising much faster than OECD average. In absolute terms, the house price-to-income (PTI) ratio is also high relative to a range of countries.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; rate; tax rate; house price; wage gap; employment rate; oil price slump; responsiveness of housing supply; VAT rate; Women; Housing prices; Tax incentives; Wage gap; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Gender Diversity in Senior Positions and Firm Performance: Evidence from Europe
Lone Engbo Christiansen
,
Ms. Huidan Huidan Lin
,
Ms. Joana Pereira
,
Petia Topalova
, and
Ms. Rima A Turk
This paper examines the link between gender diversity in senior corporate positions and financial performance of 2 million companies in Europe. We document a positive association between corporate return on assets and the share of women in senior positions and establish two potential channels through which gender diversity may affect firm performance. The positive correlation is more pronounced in, first, sectors where women form a larger share of the labor force (such as the services sector) and, second, where complementarities in skills and critical thinking are in high demand (such as high-tech and knowledge-intensive sectors).
Keywords:
WP; firm; firm performance; industry; share; Gender diversity; senior management; company board; single-manager firm; firms in Ukraine; industry level; performing firm; firm in an industry; Women; Labor force; Personal income; Europe
Cover Departmental Papers
Unlocking Female Employment Potential in Europe: Drivers and Benefits
Lone Engbo Christiansen
,
Ms. Huidan Huidan Lin
,
Ms. Joana Pereira
,
Petia Topalova
, and
Ms. Rima A Turk
With an aging population and declining productivity growth, Europe faces serious challenges to raising its output growth. Adding to these challenges are the various gender gaps in the labor market. Despite significant progress in recent decades, there are still fewer women than men participating in Europe’s labor market, and women are more likely to work part time. Furthermore, a smaller share of women reaches the top rungs of the corporate ladder. Could greater gender equality in the labor market help mitigate the slowdown in Europe’s growth potential? Against this backdrop, this paper investigates the drivers of female labor force participation in Europe as well as what effects greater gender diversity in senior corporate positions might have for Europe’s economic performance. Reexamining the factors driving women’s labor force participation is particularly important because in many European countries the process of closing the gender gap has stalled despite greater gender equality in human capital investment, declining birth rates, changing social norms, and equal legal access to employment opportunities. Investigating whether firm performance could be improved if women held a greater share of senior positions is also essential given that the empirical evidence from past research into this question has been inconclusive.
Keywords:
DPPP; DP; firm; firm performance; return on assets; country; country policy; performance in Europe; unlisted firm; family allowance; Women; Gender diversity; Labor force; Gender inequality; Europe; East Asia
Cover IMF Working Papers
What Can Boost Female Labor Force Participation in Asia?
Yuko Kinoshita
and
Fang Guo
Both Japan and Korea are trying to boost female labor force participation (FLFP) as they face the challenges of a rapidly aging population. Though FLFP has generally been on a rising trend, the female labor force in both countries is skewed towards non-regular employment despite women’s high education levels. This paper empirically examines what helps Japan and Korea to increase FLFP by type (i.e., regular vs. non-regular employment), using the SVAR model. In so doing, we compare these two Asian countries with two Nordic countries Norway and Finland. The main findings are: (i) child cash allowances tend to reduce the proportion of regular female employment in Japan and Korea, (ii) the persistent gender wage gap encourages more non-regular employment, (iii) a greater proportion of regular female employment is associated with higher fertility, and (iv) there is a need for more public spending on childcare for age 6-11 in Japan and Korea to help women continue to work.
Keywords:
WP; Japan; country; wage; female labor force participation; fertility; labor market duality; wage gap; impulse response; Nordic country; labor force; seniority wage feature; Women; Employment; Gender inequality; Labor force; Asia and Pacific