Labour market and human capital

Why only globally connected, knowledge-intensive services — not local services — can drive long-term development and productivity growth. This Commentary was originally published on stimson.org For decades, manufacturing was considered the indispensable engine of economic development, creating jobs, boosting productivity, and integrating countries into global markets. But automation, robotics, and intensifying global competition have made industrialization far harder for d ...

Closing Morocco's gender employment gap could increase GDP per capita by 40-50 percent; yet female labor force participation stands at just 19 percent—among the lowest in the world and still declining. This policy paper argues that investing in the care economy is not merely a social expenditure, but a productive economic strategy with measurable returns. Drawing on international evidence from Uruguay, Mexico, Colombia, and India, the brief demonstrates that well-designed care syste ...

This paper is the second in a series examining services-led development and global value chain (GVC) integration in the Global South. It applies a three-category analytical framework covering knowledge services (ICT and professional business services), enabling services (transport, logistics, and finance), and local services (retail, hospitality, health, and personal services), to OECD Trade in Value Added indicators. The paper thus  ...

Cette chronique a été initialement publiée sur le site lesechos.fr Les économies en développement font face à un double défi : créer des emplois à grande échelle tout en soutenant la productivité. Quels types de services permettent cette convergence ? Les économistes Hinh T. Dinh et Karim El Aynaoui répondent dans la chronique du « Cercle des économistes ».Les services peuvent-ils se substituer à l'industrie manufacturière comme moteur du développement ...

This paper was published as a book chapter in “The Economic Potential of Islamic Countries, Part B: Sustainability, Governance, Energy and Digital Transformation,” released by Emerald Publishing. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed significant deficiencies within social protection systems worldwide, especially in Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries. This underscores the urgent need to fortify these social protection schemes to ensure resilience in the face of crises (Sa ...

Résumé exécutif stratégiqueLe Maroc s’est engagé avec détermination dans une trajectoire de modernisation fondée sur la transition numérique, la transition verte et l’innovation. Ces dynamiques sont devenues des leviers stratégiques pour la compétitivité, l’attractivité et la création d’emplois à forte valeur ajoutée. Pourtant, l’analyse des données microéconomiques récentes révèle un paradoxe préoccupant : les entreprises les plus modernisées, moteurs de la croissance de demain, re ...

Historically, manufacturing has served as the primary pathway to economic development, offering strong scale economies, learning-by-doing effects, and the capacity to generate the foreign exchange necessary to import capital goods and technology. However, advances in robotization and artificial intelligence (AI) are fundamentally undermining manufacturing’s traditional role, making it increasingly skill- and capital-intensive while limiting its ability to absorb labor. Thi ...

Le 27 janvier 2026, le gouvernement espagnol a adopté par décret royal une mesure de régularisation extraordinaire visant les personnes en situation administrative irrégulière ou engagées dans une procédure de protection internationale. Le choix du décret royal permet une mise en œuvre rapide de la mesure, sans passage par un débat parlementaire, dans un contexte politique fortement polarisé sur les questions migratoires.La régularisation concerne les personnes pouvant justifier d’u ...

This Paper was originally published on sciencedirect.com This study provides an original and significant contribution to evaluating educational service quality in Morocco by leveraging, for the first time, microdata from the Service Delivery Indicators (SDI) survey. The survey covers a nationally representative sample of 300 public and private primary schools across rural and urban areas. The use of SDI data represents a major methodological advancement, shifting away from perc ...

L’« uberisation », terme né du nom de l’entreprise américaine Uber au début des années 2010, désigne initialement un modèle économique fondé sur la mise en relation directe entre offre et demande via des plateformes numériques. Rapidement popularisé, le concept s’est élargi, avec Airbnb dans l’hébergement, puis à une multitude d’autres secteurs : livraison de repas, services à domicile, commerce en ligne, voire des métiers traditionnellement régulés ou corporatistes. Ce néologisme t ...

“Uberization,” a term derived from the American company Uber in the early 2010s, initially refers to an economic model based on directly matching supply and demand through digital platforms. Rapidly popularized, the concept has expanded with Airbnb in accommodation, and then to a wide range of other sectors: food delivery, home services, e-commerce, and even traditionally regulated or corporatist professions. This neologism thus reflects a transformation of economic and social relat ...

 Global GDP growth has proven resilient in 2025, despite the shocks caused by the trade policies implemented by United States President Donald Trump in the first year after his return to office. The gloomy projections offered by multilateral and private institutions in the first quarter of 2025 have given way to revised levels mostly in the 2.5% to 3% range for the year. ...

This Policy Paper analyses the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) through the critical lens of technological colonialism. It argues that the fusion of physical, digital, and biological technologies is not merely a technical phenomenon but a civilizational shift reshaping the foundations of global power. The article traces a historical continuum from previous industrial revolutions, demonstrating how patterns of inequality and extraction persist, now transposed into the digital realm ...

La modélisation classique de la croissance repose sur des outils – notamment la fonction de production agrégée et la comptabilité de la croissance – dont les incohérences logiques et les ambiguïtés épistémologiques sont connues depuis la Controverse de Cambridge et les travaux d’Anwar Shaikh. Pourtant, ces failles continuent d’alimenter des raisonnements fallacieux dans le débat économique et les discours institutionnels. Cet article montre que la nature tautologique de ces outils n ...

Morocco has emerged as one of Africa's success stories, achieving significant progress in economic transformation and the green transition over the past 25 years. Continuing and deepening this transformation is essential to reach the country’s goal of becoming a high-income economy in the coming decades. Significant challenges include managing the risk of the middle-income trap, addressing demographic pressures, promoting inclusive growth, ensuring environmental sustainability, and ...

Conventional wisdom holds that the United States has undergone massive deindustrialization in recent decades, with the country's manufacturing sector supposedly withering as it lost ground to China. This narrative has fueled debates about industrial policy, economic nationalism, and the reshoring of manufacturing production. But what if this story is only partially true? What if, instead of disappearing, American industry simply changed its address?  ...

Global economic growth has been more resilient than expected, as the artificial intelligence-led growth seems to be compensating for the negative impacts of trade conflicts. Overstretched asset values and slowing jobs growth may be signaling that the balanced crossing of those two paths will be challenged. ...

Le constat est unanime et est constamment souligné : le modèle de développement en vigueur au Maroc a atteint ses limites. La Vision Royale, refusant « un Maroc à deux vitesses », vient formaliser au plus haut niveau cette préoccupation systémique, documentée par une décennie de rapports officiels. La  Vision de Sa Majesté le Roi Mohammed VI est un hymne à une dynamique de croissance dont les retombées doivent être plus équitablement réparties et à un développement te ...

Les questions des inégalités sociales et des inégalités territoriales sont profondément liées.  Les politiques publiques ne peuvent réduire l’une sans s’attaquer à l’autre.  Le phénomène des inégalités peut s’accentuer avec la fragilité de la situation socio-économique de certains territoires d’autant que le développement territorial n’est pas spontanément équitable. La réduction de ces inégalités, un des enjeux majeurs des politiques publiques, oblige à con ...

Ce travail apporte un éclairage critique sur l'alignement des dispositifs publics d'orientation des étudiants marocains à l'étranger avec les ambitions de développement du pays. Il interroge la capacité de ces mécanismes à transformer la mobilité étudiante d'une potentielle "fuite des cerveaux" en un véritable "gain de cerveaux". S'appuyant sur une étude de cas qualitative, nous avons mené une analyse de contenu systématique (cartographie) de 204 programmes promus par le ministère d ...

This paper was originally published on tandfonline.comThis study investigates the long-term impact of hosting the FIFA World Cup on unemployment using panel data of 10 countries from 1983 to 2022. The empirical analysis used two estimation techniques namely the Robust Weighted Least Squares (RWLS) and Estimated Generalized Least Squares (EGLS) with fixed and random effects. Our findings reveal that hosting the FIFA World Cup can reduce long-term unemployment by 2.86% to 3.60% over f ...

This paper was originally published on tandfonline.comYouth’s life paths have become increasingly challenging, especially for those classified as ‘Not in Education, Employment, or Training’ (NEET), who comprise 31.2% of North Africa’s youth population. This paper contributes to the growing discourse on the NEET phenomenon by exploring its structural and psychosocial dimensions in North Africa, with a specific focus on gender. Using a rich micro-level dataset of 7,815 individuals age ...

This Paper was originally published on ilo.org A guide by the Mainstreaming Employment into Trade and Investment in the Southern Mediterranean (METI) Programme to advise policymakers on how to develop and implement trade, investment and employment.The PRG is a strategic framework designed to align trade and investment policies with employment goals in the Southern Mediterranean. The guide promotes practical solutions and supports policies that foster economic growth, empow ...

Available soon on livremoi. The 2025 edition of the African Economic Report continues in the spirit of previous versions. It presents a broad overview of the continent’s economic evolution and offers insights into Africa’s relationship with the rest of the world. In other words, it explores how Africa navigates the effects of global fragmentation within its regional spaces while pursuing its ambition of continental integration. ...

This Paper was originally published on springer.com This study investigates the impact of female agricultural cooperatives on women’s empowerment in Morocco, with a focus on the rural Marrakech-Safi region. The research evaluates the effectiveness of these cooperatives in enhancing women’s empowerment through economic opportunities, participatory governance, and leadership roles. The Global Empowerment Index (GEI) was adopted to measure empowerment across five key dimensions: p ...

The author of this opinion, Isabela Carvalho, is a 2018 alumna of the Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders Program. In today’s interconnected world, knowledge plays a vital role in driving change and shaping solutions. Yet despite the rise of digital tools and global collaboration, persistent gaps in how knowledge is managed and shared continue to limit the Global South’s ability to fully harness its potential. Strengthening resilient knowledge ecosystems fosters inclusive ...

This paper was originaly published on journals.aserspublishing.eu   This article aims to explore the impact of migrants’ remittances on life expectancy and mortality rate of adult women left behind in north African countries. The study contributes to the literature by highlighting how remittances can support the achievement of sustainable development goals. At the same time, it investigates the extent to which remittances may challenge social policies in these countries. ...

Le marché du travail marocain traverse des défis structurels majeurs, avec un taux de participation relativement faible (43,5 %) et encore plus marqué chez les femmes, dont la participation reste inférieure à 20 %. Le chômage, quant à lui, est élevé, particulièrement parmi les jeunes diplômés, atteignant 30 %, et une grande partie de l'emploi urbain se trouve dans le secteur informel, représentant entre 20 et 40 % des emplois. Ce marché est également marqué par des d ...

This paper was originaly published on erf.org.eg   Youth's life paths have become increasingly challenging, especially for those classified as "Not in Education, Employment, or Training" (NEET), who comprise 31.2% of North Africa's youth population. The region faces high youth unemployment rates, with 22.3% in 2023, rising slightly to 22.5% in 2024, and projected to return to 22.3% in 2025 (ILO, 2024). Notably, North African youth not only exhibit the highest desire to m ...

Chaque jour, en moyenne, les femmes marocaines consacrent près de cinq heures à des tâches domestiques (cuisine, ménage, courses, soins aux enfants, etc.). Elles assurent plus de 90 % du temps total consacré aux tâches domestiques par l’ensemble des hommes et des femmes. Ce travail non rémunéré représente des services indispensables qui participent au bien-être matériel des personnes et des foyers sans pour autant apparaître dans la production nationale, telle que mesur ...

This paper was originally published on accscience.com The Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly affected the global workforce, with certain occupational groups facing greater challenges than others. Atypical part-time, temporary, and gig job workers are among the most vulnerable. This paper first examines the impact of the COVID-19 health crisis on atypical/ contingent workers by firm size, industry, and region. Second, we explore the factors determining ...

This paper was originaly published on muse.jhu.edu   This study analyzes the influence of local labor market characteristics on student dropout pathways in Morocco. Beyond individual determinants, early school leaving may depend on dropouts’ local environment. This study mobilized original empirical material that combines individual and spatial data from Morocco’s 75 provinces. First, we conducted a cartographic analysis of 10- to 14-year-old children who left the educat ...

At the recent Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils in Dubai (15-17 October), a thought-provoking session titled “Skills in the Age of AI” brought together international experts to examine how artificial intelligence will impact the future of work and education. The discussions highlighted an impending transformation, with AI poised to reshape and redefine the skills landscape over the next decade. Here, we explore some key ideas from the session and the essential skills need ...

This paper was originally published on springer.com Wage subsidy policies’ impact on access to the first job is crucial for workers; however, their influence on job quality holds greater significance for society as a whole. This paper evaluates the impact of the “IDMAJ” wage subsidy program on job quality, extending beyond the traditional focus solely on job placement. Utilizing the complete database from the IDMAJ program survey conducted by the Ministry of Employment, this study ...

This paper was originally published on thebrenthurstfoundation.org   Situated at the northwest borders of the continent, between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, Morocco has established itself as a stable and dynamic economy and a gateway to Africa. A part of the Maghreb and Arab world, the country has for many decades embraced a policy of economic and financial openness, aiming to integrate its economy into global markets. According to the United Nations Co ...

Using panel data from a large group of developing economies and a Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator, we examine the effects of trade and other factors on female labor-force participation and wage employment. We focus particularly on comparing the effects of trade openness in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region with Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The empirical results indicate that trade openness affects female labor-force p ...

The digital revolution is bringing about a dramatic shift in power, from labor to capital. We assess what the impact of this transformation might be on land as a factor of production. The digital revolution is not happening in a historical vacuum. It unfolds within a framework of confrontation or collusion between market forces and government forces. Depending on the market power that companies can exercise, the digital transition will have different impacts on income distributions ...

This paper was originally published on cambridge.org   This paper explores the (de-)routinisation of employment structure in developing countries, through the case of Morocco. We investigate employment (de-)routinisation from an often-overlooked perspective, aiming to elucidate the interplay between the dynamics of occupational employment composition by the level of routine tasks intensity and two structural aspects: premature deindustrialisation and the prevalence of in ...

Ce rapport explore en profondeur le rôle stratégique de la formation professionnelle au Maroc dans le contexte de l’éducation nationale et du développement socio-économique. Il examine les missions et les objectifs du département de la Formation professionnelle (DFP), en mettant l’accent sur l’alignement des compétences individuelles avec les besoins dynamiques du marché du travail. À travers une analyse détaillée, le rapport décrit l’organisation du système de formatio ...

This Paper was originally published on emerald.com   Purpose Young graduates in Morocco are encountering an increasingly challenging labor market environment. Confronted with intense competition, job insecurity, and unclear career trajectories, many find themselves in low-skilled positions despite possessing relevant qualifications. This issue is particularly pronounced among vocational training graduates, who experience professional downgrading at a rate three times hi ...

This Paper was originally published on emerald.com   Purpose This paper examines the dynamics of structural transformation in Morocco since 1970 by analyzing input-output tables expressed in terms of employment and output levels across 24 sectors. Design/methodology/approach This study employs a twofold methodological approach. Firstly, it examines the evolution of sectoral employment shares over time using World Bank data. Secondly, it utilizes Input-Output analysis to ex ...

This paper was originally published in Project Syndicate   Fourteen high-income countries have shown how immigration can help offset declining fertility rates and maintain population levels. But with anti-immigrant sentiment on the rise, politicians in these countries face a difficult choice: welcoming foreigners or facing the economic challenges brought about by an aging population. WASHINGTON, DC – Populations around the world are aging, as mortality and fertility rate ...