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This article investigates whether the varying prevalence of temporary employment contracts across Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) countries can explain their different unemployment dynamics. Using a database of labour market institutions, dynamic panel regressions are carried out for 11 eurozone countries for 1995-2013. Labour market duality - i.e. the co-existence of permanent and temporary contracts - is found to have a robust and significant effect on unemployment dynamics: a high duality rate increases the response of unemployment to output shocks while decreasing its persistence. The authors suggest that introducing a 'single contract' could improve stability at both eurozone and country level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article investigates the evolution of job tenure for the time period 2002–2012 using microdata from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU‐LFS). Overall, the data show a slight increase in average job tenure at the EU level, which can be explained by disproportional lay‐offs of short‐tenured workers during the crisis. When controlling for changes in the demographic composition of the workforce, an underlying negative trend in mean tenure becomes visible. Job tenure evolved very differently across the EU before and during the crisis, highlighting the importance of institutional frameworks, especially employment protection legislation (EPL). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, this paper investigates wage inequality and wage mobility in Europe. Decomposing inequality into within- and between-group inequality, we analyze to what extent wage inequality and mobility can be explained by observable characteristics. Furthermore, we investigate which individual and household characteristics determine transitions within the wage distribution. We find that overall, mobility reduces wage inequality. While a large part of wage inequality is due to unobservable characteristics, the equalizing effect of mobility mainly occurs within groups. Furthermore, both personal and household characteristics play an important role for wage transitions. Finally, our findings reveal large cross-country differences across Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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ABSTRACT With the onset of recession in the UK in 2008, it was assumed that immigration from other European Union countries would decline. However, this has been shown to not be the case, with the volume of new arrivals from most of the East-Central European 'Accession 8' countries actually increasing. The focus of this paper is Latvia, a country that had a relatively buoyant economy following its accession to the European Union in 2004 but that now has one of the highest unemployment and emigration rates in Europe. Interviews carried out with labour providers, policymakers, and employers are used to examine the labour migration channels that reflect and structure labour migration flows from Latvia and how these have evolved in the period between accession and recession. The findings indicate that intermediaries such as labour providers, the state, and informal social networks exert considerable influence on the nature of labour migration flows and that the relative importance of these channels displays significant temporal and spatial variations. This research represents an original contribution to the literature on labour migration channels by focusing on movements from a low-wage to higher-wage economy in the context of the introduction of free movement of labour between Eastern and Western Europe and the later onset of severe global recession. These findings are of relevance to how labour market channels are theorised and suggest that analysts need to be sensitive to how the function served by intermediaries, and their influence on migration systems, evolves over time and across space. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the growth rate volatility of European regions' per capita GDP from 1992 to 2008. We measure the regional volatility using a new methodology based on Markov matrices, and investigate its main determinants. Volatility displays a geographical pattern and a significant spatial dependence. Output composition appears one of the main drivers of volatility; among the other determinants we find a negative impact of the size of regional economies and of labour market flexibility, and a positive impact of sectoral concentration, financialization of the economy, and, occasionally, of participation in EMU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT European labour markets have undergone several important innovations over the last three decades. Most countries have reformed their labour markets since the mid-1990s, with the liberalization of fixed-term contracts and temporary work agencies being the common elements to such reforms. This paper investigates the existence of a change in the dynamic behaviour of the aggregate employment for major European Union countries - France, Germany, Italy and Spain. According to our results, partial labour market reforms have made the response of the aggregate employment to output shocks larger and quite comparable to that found for the UK - the most flexible labour market in Europe since the Thatcher reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing interest in the academic and policy making communities in understanding the effects of sectoral specialisation on labour market performance. The existing empirical evidence, mainly based on US data, generally finds a positive correlation between sectoral specialisation and labour market indicators such as wages and unemployment. The policy implication one can draw from these results is that fostering sectoral diversification may reduce unemployment. However, this lesson may not hold for all countries. In particular, in the case of Europe, the diversity of labour market institutions may play a distinct role in shaping the relationship between sectoral specialisation and labour market performance. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between regional sectoral specialisation and regional unemployment rate in the context of different collective bargaining institutions in the EU countries. We find that collective bargaining institutions do play a role in shaping the unemployment rate differentials across regions belonging to the same country. Furthermore, the relationship between regional specialisation and the regional unemployment rate is stronger in countries with intermediate and decentralised collective bargaining institutions in comparison to countries with centralised collective bargaining institutions. Our results suggest that labour market institutions are likely to influence the outcome of policies aiming at fostering regional diversification. While such policies may result in reducing regional unemployment in countries with decentralised and intermediate levels of collective bargaining, they may not make a big difference in countries with centralised collective bargaining institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As shown by the intense legislative effort at the European Union level, the mutual recognition of professional qualifications represents an important step towards the completion of the single EU labor market. In this paper we provide the first empirical evidence on the link between intra-EU mobility and mutual recognition of professional qualifications. Our results show that bilateral EU migration is positively affected by the destination country's rate of recognition of professional qualifications obtained in another EU member state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shift of policy focus from job security to employment security calls for a more dynamic measurement of young people's labour market performance. This article uses data on monthly employment status trajectories and job duration to investigate young Europeans' employment security around five years after they finished education. The authors show that almost 40 per cent of 'job-insecure' individuals actually enjoy employment security - i.e. they are able to re-enter paid employment rapidly after losing their job. The article highlights the need for policy measures to enhance employment security, and the positive role that stricter temporary employment protection, and ALMP expenditure, could play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the end of 1990s, Danny Quah devoted several papers to the analysis of polarization and stratification in the convergence processes of economies, creating the image of the 'convergence clubs' and suggesting the importance of studying the distribution dynamics of the macroeconomic variables. As for the labour markets, Overman and Puga (2002) showed that a progressive polarization of unemployment was in fact occurring among the European regions in 1986-1996, causing a phenomenon of cross-border clusterization. Here we propose to analyse the evolution of the unemployment rates of the EU 27 regions in the last two decades assuming that the unemployment rates evolve according to a Gompertz stochastic process. The estimated parameters of the process - intrinsic growth rate, deceleration factor, volatility - represent the evolutionary path of the unemployment rate and allow for estimating the steady state of the process. A cluster analysis is performed on the steady state values of the unemployment rates. The analysis confirms the emergence of several 'convergence clubs' among the European regional labour markets, which are compared to the clusters resulting from the more traditional clusterization on the current unemployment rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to provide a comparative analysis of higher education and the graduate labour markets in selected European countries (France, Germany, Spain and United Kingdom) in the context of the expectations of graduates and prospective employers, and respective recruitment and selection practices. Expectations of graduating students from a number of European collaborating universities are sought and analysed in order to find out about a match between the knowledge and skills of graduates and the needs of European employers. The study examines the process of graduate recruitment, employee and employer expectations, and the role of higher education institutions in meeting such expectations. Primary data was gathered from 252 employers and 485 final year (graduating) students through the use of questionnaires. The analysis of the data collected has revealed different approaches to but similar methods of graduate recruitment between the four countries. Despite the current differences in higher education systems and labour market trends, the expectations of employers and graduating students are more similar than different. It is concluded that EU graduates will have good employment prospects in an integrated labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How many domestic workers are there in Europe? How have their numbers evolved? Do the patterns differ across countries? Examining European Union Labour Force Survey data for the EU15 over the period 2000-10, the author finds that the numbers of domestic workers grew in this period, particularly those caring for children and frail adults. His analysis confirms the coexistence of two contrasting models that broadly divide Europe between northern countries relying mainly on public services and southern countries relying on private solutions. Considering the explanatory capacity of public policy, labour market dynamics and gender relations, however, he argues for a more nuanced approach to understanding cross-country patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an alternative explanation of the gender pay gap resting on a simple Hotelling-style duopsony model of the labour market. Since there are only two employers, equally productive women and men have to commute and face travel cost to do so. We assume that some women have higher travel cost, e.g., due to more domestic responsibilities. Employers exploit that women on average are less inclined to commute and offer lower wages to all women. Since women's firm-level labour supply is for this reason less wage-elastic, this model is in line with Robinson's explanation of wage discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the effects of European Monetary Union (EMU) on the optimal amount of labor-market reforms, from a policy maker's perspective. Positive economics of rigid labor markets; Interaction between EMU and labor-market reforms; Discussion on whether EMU will push the politico-economic equilibrium toward reforming the labor market; Conclusions.

The author argues that Europe's future industrial relations will be shaped by the resolution of three paradoxes embedded in today's labour markets, unionization dynamics, and EU policy. The first is the increasing individualization of employment relationships versus fictional 'individual autonomy' and workers' growing market dependency and vulnerability. The second centres on the deterioration of job quality and precarious workers' growing need for protection versus their low unionization and the failure of unions to reach out to them despite declining membership. The third is the EU's current market-oriented stance, encouraging employment conditions ultimately conducive to a political backlash against the EU itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using case-study data, the article examines the contention that protective labour market policies and trade union action are responsible for growing divisions between labour market 'insiders and outsiders'. Case studies are reported on developments in collective bargaining in the hospitals and engineering sectors from seven western and central European countries. The article finds that managerial strategies, and interactions between management and unions, have to be considered to give a full account of the growth of precarious employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines female part-time employment in 23 European countries, distinguishing between 'short' and 'long' part-time employment. The short form, defined as less than 20 hours per week, is associated with the youngest and oldest age groups, slight disability, a higher number of children, lower skill levels, and employment in community, social and personal services. Although the incidence of part-time employment varies considerably across countries, long part-time employment is generally more widespread than short part-time employment, albeit with matching cross-country variations in the incidence of the two types. This suggests that they are complementary, rather than substitutes for one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores how the attitude of people can change from indifference towards a conscious consideration of differences in relation to the efforts towards further European integration. It discusses the concept of frames of relevance in relation to a fully fledged theory of spatial action. It attempts to explain both indifference or cross-border immobility as well as cross-border mobility from a specific theoretical approach.

Why are regional unemployment differentials in Europe so persistent if, as the wage curve literature demonstrates, there is no compensation through wages? Using Urban Audit data for 142 cities over 12 EU countries, as well as a Dutch household survey, we estimate relationships between local labour market indicators and the average house price level. The evidence suggests that workers are compensated in housing markets to a significant extent, so that regional differences in unemployment may reflect an equilibrium outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing literature suggests social democratic policies, as exemplified by the welfare state and active labour market policies, promote higher levels of life satisfaction compared to the neoliberal agenda of austerity, smaller government and more 'flexible' labour markets. In this article, this inquiry is extended to low‐income countries. A theoretical argument is developed for why labour market regulation (LMR) (rather than social welfare spending or the general size of government) is a more appropriate locus of attention outside of the industrial democracies. The relationship between LMR and several measures of well‐being is then empirically evaluated, finding robust evidence that people live more satisfying lives in countries that more stringently regulate their labour market. Moreover, it is found that positive benefits of LMR on well‐being are the largest among individuals with lower incomes. The implications for public policy and the study of human well‐being are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Big claims that are often unsubstantiated are made about the likely impact of Brexit on the UK labour market. This article seeks to go beyond the rhetoric and present a careful assessment of the employment relations consequences of Brexit for the UK. It addresses four key questions in particular: will Brexit end UK engagement in the EU's free movement of labour regime and if so, what will be the labour market consequences for the UK?; to what extent will Brexit weaken employment rights in the UK?; what impact will Brexit have on the behaviour of trade unions and on the functioning of collective bargaining in the UK?; and finally, what will be the effect of Brexit on the interactions between London and Brussels on wider employment policy questions. The article argues that Brexit poses acute policy dilemmas for the UK Government that are likely to generate considerable political and economic uncertainty. The fallout from this uncertainty is hard to predict in advance. It could either open the door to a Corbyn‐led Labour Government or alternatively to an even more thorough‐going deregulation of the UK labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Job polarization instead of pure upgrading is emerging in European industries. This article focuses on polarization of the employment structure and contributes empirical evidence to explain patterns of occupational change in relation to four major groups: managers, clerks, craft workers and manual workers. Building on the structural approach, the author aims to analyse employment dynamics at the sectoral level and shed light on job polarization trends in Europe. Job polarization clearly emerges, mainly in service sectors, and in some European countries it is leading to a rejection of the hypothesis of skill upgrading sustained by the skill-biased technical change paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The collapse in GDP brought about by the global economic crisis in 2008 affected female employment less than male employment, whereas austerity has been particularly harsh on women, a gendered impact described in the literature as "he-cession to sh(e)-austerity". This article analyses gendered trends in the labour markets of eight European countries, decomposing quarterly changes in labour participation of women and men and in employment by sector. The "hecession to sh(e)-austerity" scenario is not observed in all countries. Other channels through which austerity policies can jeopardize gender equality and women's rights are identified with reference to a typology of such policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution will show how institutions in Spain and Germany facilitated intra-European labour mobility as a solution to a mismatch in the labour market. To this end, we have chosen the recruitment of Spanish job candidates for German employers as an example. Employing Bourdieu's field-theoretical framework as well as expert interviews, we highlight the role of institutional agents encouraging labour migration. We analysed 30 expert interviews to gain insights from institutional agents that facilitate labour migration in the Spanish and the German labour market. Our findings show how these agents use their resources to legitimize policies and create sustainable structures steering labour migration and integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than 8 years ago the Council Directive 2009/50/EC of 25 May 2009, which is also (and much better) known as Blue Card-directive, came into effect. Although in general the passing of the directive can be regarded as a milestone in the history of EU migration policy, the first proposals of the directive brought forward by the European Commission envisaged a much deeper and more binding framework including less room for maneuver for the member states. It is well known that particularly the German government at that time spoke out against a (more) extensive Europeanisation of labour migration policy. In sharp contrast to this rather reluctant stance towards ?more Europe? in this area recent developments indicate a significant policy change in the German way of dealing with the question of how much Europe is necessary in labour migration policy. This article seeks to retrace this rather sudden shift and to put it into a broader context of migration policy change in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the functioning of Lombardy's networked employment services system, inspired by quasi-market and horizontal subsidiarity principles, and specifically addresses a gap in the quasi-market literature, where little attention is devoted to the role played by institutions at lower levels of government. A qualitative study of the Lombardy system, with a focus on the municipality of Milan, is relied upon in order to explore the extent to which the principles of quasi-market and multi-level governance pursued by the regional government are allowed to co-exist in practice. Here, sub-regional levels of government are directly involved in services provision, but enjoy a more privileged condition relative to the private providers, thereby jeopardizing the implementation of an effective quasi-market. The article contributes to existing theories by suggesting that horizontal subsidiarity and marketization cannot neglect multi-level governance in those sectors where public bodies at various levels of government are directly involved in implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financial crisis and the sovereign debt crisis have been attributed to a number of causes. Whether these are economic, social, cultural or legal, they are all by and large also political. The aim of this article is not to delve into the myriad of heated political arguments that continue to dominate the scene but to assess the impact of the financial crisis on the employment protection rights and the corporate rescue regimes in Greece, Portugal, France and the UK. In light of the crisis, the rights of the workforce have been severely compromised to afford financially troubled companies a greater opportunity to recover. In order to minimise the catastrophic impact of financial turmoil on their economy and society, all four jurisdictions introduced reforms to their labour codes and corporate rescue mechanisms, often in the name of austerity. This article will offer a snapshot of the changes and their effects and an assessment whether or not the reforms of pre-insolvency regimes have operated as an effective embankment for the protection of social and economic welfare. The purpose of this piece is to shed a light on the changes that have occurred and that have affected employment rights in the domestic legal systems of individual member states, as influenced to some extent by the EU in its expectations of improvements to increase labour market flexibility, and whether corporate rescue mechanisms in individual member states are able to provide some counterbalance to the erosion of employment rights generally. Copyright © 2017 INSOL International and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifty years ago, a Portuguese sociologist, Adérito Sedas Nunes (1964), used the image of a 'dual society under evolution' to refer to Portugal. Since then, the image of Portugal as a country simultaneously old and new, (post) modern and traditional was used by several social scientists in various fields of research (migration, urban studies, social policy, education, culture). In spite of the remarkable process of modernization the country has experienced during this period of time, inequalities and dualisms continue to be deeply embedded in the economic and social system and were even intensified by recent austerity measures in the context of massive unemployment and economic distress. In the article, I examine two specific domains where signs of dualism(s) persist, the labour market and the system of welfare, and investigate how the interconnectedness between the two is generating new forms of social and economic inequalities. Reforms in the labour market have been under constant reform within the last decades, representing, for a large and increasing number of individuals, more precarious working conditions, low paid jobs, unstable lives with intermittent careers. At the same time, governmental policies have contributed to diminish the level of social protection for labour market participants in precarious employment as well as for people without jobs. This article aims at providing a contribution to the literature on dualization focusing on the link between changing forms of integration in the labour market and transformations in the social protection system, examining its specific configuration in one of the countries belonging to the Southern European welfare regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an age of 'permanent austerity', growing economic insecurity may increase the demand for protection against labour market risks. At the same time, economic pressures may push governments to scale down on the provision of social protection. In this article, this contradiction is examined by focusing on reforms of two labour market institutions: unemployment benefits and employment protection legislation. It is argued that the incidence of reforms of both institutions follows a different set of logics, depending on the type of economic pressures as well as the political and institutional settings. The article makes use of a new data set on labour market reforms in 14 European countries over the period of 1980-2007. Results from discrete-time logit-regression analysis support the main hypotheses that (1) reforming unemployment benefits (UBs) does not follow the same logic as reforming employment protection legislation (EPL), and (2) factors that contribute to expansion/regulation are not the reverse of those that lead to retrenchment/deregulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does the economy affect patterns of far-right party support across countries? This article reconceptualizes micro-level analyses that focus on the effect of unemployment through a framework of costs, risks and the mediating role of labour market institutions. It then derives several hypotheses and tests them on the results of the previous three EP elections in all EU Member States. Findings from multiple regression analyses indicate that unemployment, real GDP growth, debt and deficits have no statistically significant effect on far-right party support at the national level. By contrast, labour market institutions influence costs and risks: where unemployment benefits and dismissal regulations are high, unemployment has no effect, but where either one of them is low, unemployment leads to higher far-right party support. This explains why unemployment has not led to far-right party support in some European countries that experienced the severity of the 2008 eurozone crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Net inward migration from the EU has been running at record levels in recent years, although the steep increase in new National Insurance numbers issued suggests that the official data may be understating the level of immigration. There was a clear step up in inflows after both expansions of the EU into central and eastern Europe, while the relative strength of the UK labour market has been an important driver of the more recent rise in inflows., High levels of immigration have helped to offset the impact of an ageing population and ensured that the UK has enjoyed stronger labour supply growth than many of its peers. With migrants typically being better educated than their UK-born counterparts, the quality of the stock of labour has also improved, and migrants have been found to have a net positive fiscal impact., But there have been some downsides, with evidence that high immigration has had a small dampening impact on wages. That migrants tend to head to London and the other southern regions over other destinations has exacerbated the imbalances in regional housing markets., Given that a desire to have greater control over immigration is usually one of the key motivations for those favouring Brexit, a vote in favour of leaving the EU is likely to see the UK abandon the policy of free movement of labour. This would probably see the UK extend the points-based system that it currently uses for non-EU countries to include EU migrants., Our modelling suggests that the adoption of a 'populist' immigration policy which lowers net inward migration by 60,000 a year could reduce the level of GDP by 1.1% in 2030 compared with our baseline forecast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an overview of the monetary benefits available in the context of long-term care provided by family or other informal carers in 11 old and 10 new EU member states. All but one country in our sample offer at least some monetary benefits that can be used to help finance informal care. Old EU member states tend to direct benefits to individuals in need of care, whereas new EU member states place more emphasis on benefits for carers. Among new EU member states, monetary benefits are less often means-tested and tend to be lower compared with benefits in old EU member states. Because social policies in many countries increasingly rely on monetary benefits rather than on benefits in kind and because the share of informal care in the overall provision of elderly care will scarcely decline, monetary benefit incentives for labour market participation need to be carefully monitored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the micro-level rule enactment of the posting of workers framework in the German construction sector. I examine how actors draw on different power resources in order to influence policies without formal negotiation within transnational workspaces and thereby initiate institutional change. Drawing on interviews with posted workers, managers, unionists, works councillors and labour inspectors I show how transnational subcontracting allows the emergence of different regulatory spaces at national and workplace level. The article concludes that the informal renegotiation of employment relations in transnational workspaces is likely to destabilize the posting framework negotiated at policy level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bulk of the literature on 'social Europe' has suggested that social policy at the level of the EU remains to be characterized by the interplay of courts and markets. While we do not disagree with this argument, our objective is to shed light on the European Commission's entrepreneurship, an element which appears to be somewhat bereft of scholarly attention. We show how, by displaying social acuity, defining problems and building teams, the Commission has actively promoted a policy agenda focused on liberal market building at the expense of socially minded regulation. This was however only made possible by a new constellation among the Member States after 2004. We substantiate this claim by documenting the activity of the Commission in two crucial policy domains of the post-Lisbon era: the liberalization of service provision, and the impact of the new macro-economic governance on social policy after the financial and debt crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most Continental European labour markets and welfare states have experienced a substantial transformation. Germany is a case in point as it exhibits increasing levels of employment and a growing share of low pay and non-standard work. The article claims that changes in labour market institutions play a major role, but changes in industrial relations at the sectoral level and individual firms' staffing practices are equally important. Regarding labour market institutions, the pattern found in Germany shows sequences of reforms addressing the margins of the labour market and contributing to a growing dualization of employment. This dualization trend was reinforced by micro-level dynamics in industrial relations and company employment practices, where we can observe growing reliance on mechanisms of internal flexibility for the skilled core workforce and increasing use of non-standard types of employment in less specifically skilled occupations, in particular in the private service sector. Hence, the adjustment of the German model can only be understood by taking into account the interaction of policy change and actors' adaptive behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration has risen substantially in many European economies, with far-reaching if still uncertain implications for labour markets and industrial relations. This article investigates such implications, focusing on employment flexibility, involving both 'external flexibility' (fixed-term or temporary agency and/or involuntary part-time work) and 'internal flexibility' (overtime and/or balancing-time accounts). The article identifies reasons why immigration should generally increase the incidence of such flexibility, and why external flexibility should rise more than internal flexibility. The article supports these claims using a dataset of establishments in 16 European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within and between nations, spatial inequalities in relation to health, labour markets and employment shape the barriers faced by those trapped on disability benefits, and thus create challenges for public policy. To provide context for such analyses and policy discussions, this article presents evidence on levels of poverty, welfare support and inequality across Europe. It compares and contrasts especially the position and support for those out of or at the margins of the labour market under different welfare states to reveal the significant differences between the UK on the one hand and the Nordic and Benelux countries on the other hand. Applying insights from theories and practices of endogenous growth, universalism and inclusion, it is demonstrated that lessons are to be learnt from the better economic and social performances of the more inclusive and coherent nations of northern Europe. In particular, it is argued that the very high levels of poverty and inequality inherent in the neo-liberal policies of the UK cannot generate the conditions for simultaneously reducing public sector deficits and stimulating demand so that worklessness and exclusion inevitably will continue. The article concludes that an alternative social democratic paradigm is required based on solidarity, equity and fiscal responsibility to address this self-defeating feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Employment Strategy ( EES) aims to promote convergence towards higher employment and lower unemployment by soft law instruments. Previous studies in the Europeanization literature on the impact of the EES are mainly focused on active labour market policies. This article explains cross-national variation in national passive labour market policies. Building on new pooled time-series data, the empirical findings reveal the presence of a convergence process among the most advanced economies regarding passive labour market policy efforts, with the EES fostering this trend even further. Furthermore, the findings support the argument that the EES creates pressure on governments to reform domestic labour market policies, but this pressure varies across countries and over time. The findings provide new insights into the relationship between Europeanization and convergence, which may be relevant for EU co-ordination more generally - for example, for the EU 2020 strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Protocol and the Agreement on Social Policy annexed to the Treaty on European Union (the so-called 'social protocol') stipulated the procedural rules of the European system of industrial relations about twenty years ago. It has been pointed out, however, that the procedure has such distinct features as centricity of cross-sectoral agreements and a close nexus between legislation and negotiations, which most of the national social systems lack. This article locates the origins of these features in the historical processes towards the 1991 social partners' agreement through some primary and secondary documents as well as a series of structured questionnaire studies and hearings. It is discussed that, contrary to what some conventional interpretations assume, the social protocol was an original model of horizontal subsidiarity, with actors' different preferences on the desirability of labour market order governed by both legislation and negotiations in its background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the demand for migrant labor in older-adult care as one of the key aspects of the aging and migration nexus. It reviews the demographic determinants that have shaped demand for and provision of older-adult care across Europe. Using the EU Labour Force Survey, new comparative estimates are generated on the employment of migrants in care occupations and the channels of entry into the European labor market. Projections on demand for and supply of care to the older population reveal a future gap in both formal and informal provision. It is shown that, owing to institutional, economic, and social constraints, the significant growth of the care workforce that will be required to meet the future needs of Europe's aging populations is unlikely to be achieved by relying exclusively on EU labor supply. The conclusions outline some implications for future immigration policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European integration through mutual recognition has facilitated the growth of a pan- European labour supply system in which transnational subcontractors 'post' workers from low-wage areas to higher wage areas. This allows employers to create spaces of exception in which the national industrial relations system of the country where work occurs does not fully apply. Drawing on interviews with managers, workers, unionists and works councillors at the European Central Bank construction site in Frankfurt, Germany, this article shows how transnational subcontracting allows employers to access, and create competition between, sovereign regulatory regimes. It concludes that high-cost, high-collective good national systems such as the German one, which depend on territorial boundedness for their integrity, are likely to be destabilized by this aspect of European integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, Poland became the main sending country in Central Europe. Despite the lack of institutional barriers to settling in member states of the European Union since 2004, many Polish migrants continued to undertake temporary labour mobility including repetitive, back-and-forth moves. This article examines the relationship between migrants' back-and-forth international mobility and their activity in the labour market of the sending country. It describes changes in the labour market status of migrants engaging in repetitive migration, based on two surveys conducted in Poland in 2001 and 2007, complemented by qualitative follow-ups. The results show that migrants deploy various economic strategies: reconcile employment in both countries; abandon jobs in Poland; or only remain economically active abroad. In many cases back-and-forth migration led to being unemployed in Poland, which constitutes an important challenge for labour market policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on fiscal policies is paying increasing attention to the impact of the composition of public expenditures on long-term economic growth. Public policy endogenous growth models recommend to change the composition of public expenditures to items considered productive expenditures. In this sense, European institutions are encouraging the rise in the share of productive outlays like public investments, R&D, and active labor market policies, among others. The article analyzes whether these recommendations are followed by European Union countries and whether a convergence to a new pattern of public finances with a higher share of those items considered productive expenditures by European institutions is arising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its creation in 1958, the European Social Fund (ESF) has played a major role in supporting the development of vocational training in the Member States. However, compared to other, more recently launched, EU programmes and initiatives in the area of education and training, the ESF has not made a significant contribution to the debate about European cooperation in this field. This article argues that the ESF has made a mistake in this respect. It also seeks to illustrate and analyse the important changes that the ESF has undergone over the years in addressing the issue of vocational education and training (VET) and to demonstrate that it has substantial resources, in terms of money and experience, that can be used to adapt education and training systems to labour market requirements and to the needs of a knowledge-based economy. The article places a deliberate, though not an exclusive, emphasis on vocational education and training for young people and on the extension of transnational cooperation within the framework of the ESF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

. 'Natural rate theory', the Efficient Market Hypothesis and its labour market application dominated interpretations of economic trends and policy prescriptions from the 1970s onwards, with their views of public policy and regulation as distorting otherwise well-functioning free markets. The upheaval of the current crisis is shaking these theories to the core. In this context, Schettkat examines European experience from the 1990s onwards and shows the theories to be unsubstantiated: high unemployment persisted post-recession despite structural reforms to labour market institutions, and the resumption of economic growth was hindered by then-dominant deflationary monetary and fiscal policies inspired by these theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We document and compare labour market institutions, policies and outcomes in the EU Member States, for the period between 1999 and 2006. Higher employment rates are in general positively associated with measures of policy generosity, especially with the use of active labour market policies (ALMP), and negatively with institutions and policies which induce rigidity in the labour market. We also find evidence that the relation between ALMP and employment levels is non-monotonic and that it is conditional on the informal institutions prevailing in different countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares the gap in employment records between the U.S. and major European Union (EU) countries in the 1980s and 1990s. The employment population rate in the early 1970s was similar in both continents while unemployment rates were lower in EU. Evidence shows that EU produces relatively more goods and services through household production and less through the market than U.S. Many studies have tried to find the inverse relation between wages and employment growth at the sectoral level.

We analyse worker recruitment and retention outcomes, contrasting production worker skill profiles in the UK subsidiaries of five multinationals with, in each case, a matched plant in another EU state. From personnel records' we build up plant distributions of worker pay, age, schooling, prior experience and tenure. We find evidence of local management discretion, with differences in unit labour costs and in recruitment/retention outcomes between the matched subsidiaries. UK plants have a 'hire and fire' environment and a less skilled worker mix. Such outcomes can be linked to the UK's lower labour costs and less regulated labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the historical and legal framework, present status and future prospects of labor mobility in the European Union. Historical background; Obstacles to mobility; Necessary changes; Need for skilled workers; Regional policy; Guarantees for security, justice and fundamental rights; Labor mobility in the context of a comprehensive social and political plan for the EU.