For instance, do commonalities in displaced workers' experiences across all countries reveal fundamental features of modern industrialized economies? Are international differences informative about the efficacy of different public policy approaches to worker displacement across countries?
Within-country patterns are described using a number of demographic characteristics including age, tenure, gender, and skill level. Results are also offered from cross-national comparisons in the levels of key variables (such as the frequency of displacement, and the duration of post-displacement unemployment) and the association of these variables with international differences in labor market structure. While these sorts of results are generally the most difficult to generate, they are potentially the most rewarding. And in the case of these efforts, they are thought-provoking as well.
