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1. Employment Patterns in OECD Countries: Reassessing the Role of Policies and Institutions. OECD Economics Department Working Papers No. 486

Author

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Bassanini, Andrea, and Duval, Romain

Abstract

This paper explores the impact of policies and institutions on employment and unemployment of OECD countries in the past decades. Reduced-form unemployment equations, consistent with standard wage setting/price-setting models, are estimated using cross-country/time-series data from 21 OECD countries over the period 1982-2003. In the "average" OECD country, high and long-lasting unemployment benefits, high tax wedges and stringent anticompetitive product market regulation are found to increase aggregate unemployment. By contrast, highly centralised and/or coordinated wage bargaining systems are estimated to reduce unemployment. These findings are robust across specifications, datasets and econometric methods. As policies and institutions affect employment not only via their impact on aggregate unemployment but also through their effects on labour market participation -- particularly for those groups "at the margin" of the labour market, group-specific employment rate equations are also estimated. In the "average" OECD country, high unemployment benefits and high tax wedges are found to be associated with lower employment prospects for all groups studied, namely prime-age males, females, older workers and youths. There is also evidence that group-specific policy determinants matter, such as targeted fiscal incentives. The paper also finds significant evidence of interactions across policies and institutions, as well as between institutions and macroeconomic conditions. Consistent with theory, structural reforms appear to have mutually reinforcing effects: the impact of a given policy reform is greater the more employment-friendly the overall policy and institutional framework. Certain more specific interactions across policies and institutions are found to be particularly robust, notably between unemployment benefits and public spending on active labour market programmes as well as between statutory minimum wages and the tax wedge. Finally, it is shown that macroeconomic conditions also matter for unemployment patterns, with their impact being shaped by policies. (A bibliography is included. Contains 144 footnotes, 9 figures, 3 boxes and 27 tables.)

Published
2006
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2. How Has the Global Economic Crisis Affected People with Different Levels of Education? Education Indicators in Focus. No. 1

Author

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

Abstract

This paper reports that between 2008 and 2009, unemployment rates across OECD countries increased among people at all educational levels, but rose to especially troubling heights among people without an upper secondary education. In 2009, the average employment rate across OECD countries was much higher for individuals with a tertiary (i.e. higher) education--indicating a better match between the skills these people have and the skills the labour market required. Between 2008 and 2009, the earnings advantage for people with a tertiary education remained strong in OECD countries. In some countries, earnings inequality between people with a tertiary education and those without an upper secondary education widened even further.

Published
2012
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3. Democracy (and Employment) in Portugal and Spain: Legacies of Revolution and Reform.

Author

Fishman, Robert M.

Subjects
*JOB creation, *DEMOCRACY, *WOMEN'S employment, *BANK loans, *WELFARE state
Abstract

Portugal and Spain manifest many fundamental political and economic contrasts along with numerous similarities, thus presenting social scientists with a series of puzzles requiring explanation. Focusing on Portugal’s success and Spain’s failure in employment creation, and on differences in the quality and vitality of democracy, the paper argues that much of the explanation for these contrasts lies in enduring legacies of the two very different transitions to democracy. The analysis of the Iberian employment puzzle emphasizes the contribution of Portugal’s revolutionary path to democracy to the country’s subsequent success in generating employment as a result of several intervening factors: 1) a substantial increase in the participation of women in the labor force, 2) bank lending practices that have offered much more credit to Portuguese small companies than has been made avilable to their Spanish counterparts, and 3) certain employment-friendly characteristics of the Portuguese welfare state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2003
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4. Rethinking the Iberian Transformations: How Democratization Scenarios Shaped Labor Market Outcomes.

Author

Fishman, Robert

Subjects
DEMOCRATIZATION, AUTHORITARIANISM, UNEMPLOYMENT, DEMOCRACY, WELFARE state, PORTUGUESE politics & government
Abstract

This article examines how dissimilar democratization scenarios in two historically important cases helped to shape a major societal outcome, that of unemployment levels. With an empirical focus on the neighboring countries of the Iberian Peninsula, the paper argues that Portugal's relative success and Spain's persistent failures in the provision of employment cannot be fully explained by the focus of some analysts on comparative labor costs, and that the Iberian countries' employment levels also rest on a set of factors connected in sometimes complex ways with the two societies' very different paths from authoritarianism to democracy in the 1970s. Factors emphasized include the degree of incorporation of women into the labor force, the availability of adequate financing for small and medium enterprises—and the impact of national financial systems and state policies on that intermediary outcome—and the extent to which the two countries' welfare states are employment friendly. Central to this article's argument is the claim that the divergence between these Third Wave pioneers in their democratization scenarios accounts for the dissimilar penetration into the Iberian cases of another global wave of the late twentieth century, that of market-centric economic liberalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2010
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5. Reconceptualizing social work in times of crisis: An examination of the cases of Greece, Spain and Portugal.

Author

Ioakimidis, Vasilios, Santos, Clara Cruz, and Herrero, Ines Martinez

Subjects
BANKING industry, COMPARATIVE studies, ECONOMICS, INTERVIEWING, CASE studies, PRACTICAL politics, POPULATION geography, SOCIAL justice, SOCIAL services, UNEMPLOYMENT, PROFESSIONAL practice, CRISIS intervention (Mental health services), SOCIAL worker attitudes
Abstract

What started as a peripheral banking crisis in 2008 within five years triggered the deepest recession Europe has seen in decades, escalating to manifold socio-political crises. Under these circumstances, many social workers find themselves in a situation of extreme pressure and insecurity. Traditional theories and orthodox practices are now challenged by frontline social workers. This article explores such a ‘reconceptualization’ process, evaluating recent developments and changes in Spanish, Portuguese and Greek social work. We argue that the current crisis has generated a profound (re)politicization of social workers which leads to the redefinition of the core values and principles of social work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Published
2014
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