IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/wbrobs/v39y2024i2p259-288..html

Is There Job Polarization in Developing Economies? A Review and Outlook

Author

Listed:
  • Antonio Martins-Neto
  • Nanditha Mathew
  • Pierre Mohnen
  • Tania Treibich

Abstract

In this paper we analyze the evidence of job polarization—the relative decline of mid-wage jobs—in developing and emerging economies. We carry out an extensive literature review, revealing that job polarization in these countries is only incipient compared to advanced economies. We then examine the possible moderating aspects explaining this lack of job polarization. We distinguish three groups of explanations: Limited technology adoption; structural change; and changes in the global value chains. Finally, we suggest new microeconomic data and empirical analyses that should be developed in order to guide evidence-based policy-making addressing those issues in developing and emerging economies.

Suggested Citation

  • Antonio Martins-Neto & Nanditha Mathew & Pierre Mohnen & Tania Treibich, 2024. "Is There Job Polarization in Developing Economies? A Review and Outlook," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 39(2), pages 259-288.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:wbrobs:v:39:y:2024:i:2:p:259-288.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/wbro/lkad008
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Didier, Nicolas, 2024. "Turning fragments into a lens: Technological change, industrial revolutions, and labor," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    2. Antonio Martins-Neto & Xavier Cirera & Alex Coad, 2024. "Routine-biased technological change and employee outcomes after mass layoffs: evidence from Brazil," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 33(3), pages 555-583.
    3. Mariia Vasiakina & Christian Dudel, 2024. "From efficiency to illness: do highly automatable jobs take a toll on health in Germany?," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2024-041, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    4. Mariia Vasiakina & Christian Dudel, 2025. "The hidden costs of technological change: investigating pathways through which highly automatable jobs undermine workers’ health in Germany," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2025-032, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    5. Mariia Vasiakina & Christian Dudel, 2025. "The glass is half empty: the role of highly automatable jobs in shaping drinking behaviors in Russia," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2025-027, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    6. Harry Moroz & Mariana Viollaz, 2024. "The Future of Work in Central America and the Dominican Republic," World Bank Publications - Reports 42043, The World Bank Group.
    7. Eric Rougier & Matthieu Clément & François Combarnous & Dominique Darbon, 2025. "“You Can't Always Get What You Want”: Middle‐Class Expectations and Incomplete Social Contracts in the Global South," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 78(4), pages 1463-1478, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:wbrobs:v:39:y:2024:i:2:p:259-288.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wrldbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.