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Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue on "Labour, productivity and growth". Design/methodology/approach -- The paper discusses the articles in the special issue, which investigate the main theme -- labour, productivity and growth -- from different points of view by employing a variety of econometric methods. These include improvement of the evaluation of the impact of labour market flexibility on economic performance, analysis of the macroeconomic law of decreasing returns to labour, a new panel co-integration method, and a reinterpretation of co-integration analysis to assess the impact of incomes policy. Institutional variables, in particular the system of industrial relations, are duly considered. Findings -- The papers in the special issue highlight different causes of sluggish economic (productivity) growth in Europe, in the light of not only traditional macroeconomic variables, such as total factor productivity and labour market flexibility, but also such factors as neo-corporatist industrial relations and management practices, which are generally neglected in the literature. Originality/value -- The paper introduces a number of articles proposing innovations in the interpretation and application of a wide range of theoretical approaches and econometric methodologies. It also discusses several policy suggestions for fighting sluggish productivity growth, including investment in research and development, human capital, flexicurity, innovative industrial relations practices and high-performance workplace practices also considered capable of affecting macroeconomic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – To ease adjustments in the labour market, many countries have softened their legislation since the 1970s by introducing flexible labour contracts or by making their use easier. The purpose of this paper is to document labour management of temporary contracts during the last 20 years in Belgium, compared to the situation in its neighbouring countries. The authors investigate the determinants of the use of flexible labour contracts and the consequences of their introduction on labour dynamics. Design/methodology/approach – A dynamic Probit is considered to model the use of fixed term labour contracts (FTCs) and standard dynamic labour demand equations are used to test the impact of labour contracts on the labour adjustment at the firm level, using a panel of around 8,000 firms during the period 1998-2005. Findings – The results indicate that some firms follow labour management based on a core (indefinite term contracts – ITCs) and a peripheral component (FTCs) and manage temporary contracts on a "permanent" basis, from a long run perspective. Estimates also confirm a much faster temporary contracts employment adjustment, while ITCs adjustment does not depend on whether firms employ FTCs. ITCs short-term employment elasticity with respect to wages suggests that workers protection against redundancies is strengthened when firms manage work organisation with both types of contracts. In contrast to ITCs, FTCs are used to meet unexpected demand shocks. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the growing literature on the impact of the introduction of new flexible contracts on the labour demand at the firm level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with joining the EU and with the desire to be compatible with the European labor market, flexicurity begins to penetrate gradually the Romanian labor market, becoming a topical concept, an economic and social recovery tool. In the simplest possible way, flexicurity can be defined as the compromise between flexibility and work safety. The flexicurity principle was born as a solution to the European dilemma: how to increase the competitiveness of European enterprises in global competition without sacrificing the European social model. Although a gradual passage is attempted, the tradition of a profession inherited from one generation to another or a stable job still exists in the human resource mentality, but it no longer exists in the present society. The concept of flexicurity is relatively new, introduced in Europe in 2006, when the principles of flexicurity were developed, but they were implemented according to the economic specificity of each EU member state. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects that EU accession has had on the Romanian labor market and the subsequent steps to harmonize Romania with the European Union requirements from the point of view of human resources management, flexicurity at the labor market. In Romania, the flexicurity balance is balanced, in the sense that the trade unions support a broader level of security, and the employers tend to a greater degree of flexibility. In conclusion, the Romanian labor market to develop a high degree of flexicurity must aim at increasing employment and reducing long-term unemployment, promoting workplace security and reducing the rigidity of labor law, especially in case of voluntary dissolution of firms, or of collective redundancies. In addition, the flexibility of collective and individual work contracts is also sought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines changes in labor markets and labor rights for 13 post-communist states of East Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union. It focuses on the simultaneous pressures to increase the flexibility of labor markets and improve labor standards in the years since the collapse of communism. Comparative measures and patterns of both de jure and de facto standards and flexibility are presented, and the roles of key institutional promoters of change are analyzed. I find that a combination of democratic regime type and European Union accession has pulled East European states toward the strengthening of collective labor rights. The effect is strongest on the states that joined the EU in 2004, weaker for those joining in 2007, while the three post-Soviet, non-accession states remain significantly more labor-repressive. Labor market flexibilization has been a more uniform trend in the post-communist region. In the context of this project’s inter-regional comparisons, contemporary Eastern Europe has the strongest labor rights. At the same time, the decline of trade unions and limits of collective bargaining in most post-communist states undermine the effectiveness of transposed EU legislation and bargaining institutions in empowering labor. As shown by the exceptional case of Slovenia, strong unions are necessary to fully enforce rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I take issue with the services directive, commenting on the article by Nicolaïdis and Schmidt (2007). Unrestrained services trade, I argue, would broaden competition and benefit Central Eastern and Western Europe alike, in the presence of compensating factors or in the long run. Despite the welfare-enhancing effects, the services directive did not succeed in realizing the home-country principle. Instead the host-country retains its rights with regard to freedom of establishment, to posted workers and to self-employed persons temporarily crossing European borders. For employees, moreover, abolishing the host-country rule was never considered. I explain this result drawing on Machiavelli's, Rawls' and Olson's insight that numerically few losers can successfully oppose benefits for the whole economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses gender differences in regional employment in Europe. An industrial relations approach is used, which requires that regulations and institutions in the labour market be analysed in regard to power relations in the workplace. Gender relations and working conditions are seldom included when welfare-state arrangements and the functioning of the labour market are discussed at a national level. The results of this study show that welfare-state policies, in a broad sense, support women's opportunities to take part in paid work in the labour market. Women in Europe are beginning to occupy an increasing share of the new jobs that are created as they improve their labour-force participation rates. Women are also moving into higher growth sectors of the economy to a larger extent than men. But in terms of occupations, hierarchies and power relations, the mechanisms of segregation in the workplace are changing very slowly. While considerable literature exists on the segregation processes within organizations, very little deals with how to change segregation patterns and how to balance the differences in power between women and men in the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the impact of employment law on de facto labour market segmentation for 22 European countries from 1991 to 2014. Applying the concept of legal segmentation, the authors distinguish between the standard‐setting (protective), privileging and equalizing functions of employment law and use descriptive and multivariate statistics to indicate their effects on overall employment, and male and female standard and non‐standard employment. High privileging, in combination with high standard‐setting, is found to favour male standard employment and female non‐standard employment, while the equalizing function, aimed at improving the protection of women and other marginalized groups, actually increases male non‐standard employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

. 'Meta-regulation' describes the transnational governance of industrial relations emerging from attempts to resolve conflicts between national collective agreements and EU Member States' freedom to provide services and post workers abroad. The norm underpinning such meta-regulation is competition, not only between workers from different EU Member States but also between States' labour regulations. Using the concepts of 'structural power' and 'social field', the authors discuss judicial decisions that illustrate the gradual meta-regulation of industrial relations in the EU and show how the power asymmetry between labour and capital is growing in favour of the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the paper is to examine the relationship between employment protection regulations and profits in the European economies. Using regression analysis on the panel of 18 European countries over the period 1998-2008, we study the effect of EPL index on net operating surplus of mixed income (a measure of profits). Our findings confirm a statistically significant negative relation between EPL index and profits at the level of economies, implying that more rigid employment legislation, and by that higher hiring and firing costs, hinder an efficient allocation of resources, resulting in lower efficiency of companies and in decline of profits. Although the effect is small, we believe that further flexibilization of employment protection regulation presents an important determinant not only for labor market performance and productivity, but also for companies' profits and therefore for the competitiveness of the European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers insights on flexicurity, an approach to labour market regulation that is aimed at combining labour market flexibility with individual security in the European Union (EU) countries, and globalization. It explains the emergence of the approach as a new and common model for social policy under the European Employment Strategy (EES). Also explored is the political association between flexicurity and globalization. Key components of flexicurity are tackled, including comprehensive lifelong learning (LLL) strategies.

Employment protection legislation attracted particular attention in the past decade as a potentially important cause of persistently high unemployment in Europe. In response to this concern, a considerable number of OECD countries liberalised the rules governing employment. Italy opted for the deregulation of so-called «non-standard» employment relations for particular groups within the labour market, but left «standard» employment and pre-existing work contracts largely unchanged. This choice was justified by policy-makers with the argument that, in the long run, it may be a way to integrate the weakest components of the work force into the labour market -- that is, in standard, secure employment. This process has been referred to as «partial and targeted deregulation». As a consequence, non-standard employment has grown especially among the younger cohorts, creating a real «secondary, underprotected. labour market which arises substantial problems of social citizenship and potential marginalisation. In this paper we investigate the consequences of these flexibilisation efforts for the labour-market entry of recent cohorts. In particular, we ask whether these measures have effectively helped to integrate young people into the labour market, or whether they have simply added employment precariousness to pre-existing problems of social inequality that afflict Italian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on a study which examined the possibilities for a European Community system of labor market regulation. Information on the number of forces that are working in favor of convergence of European community; Conclusion of the study.

The aim of this study was to identify macro-level determinants of early work exit and investigate whether the effects of these determinants differ across educational groups. We used data from the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) (2011–2013) and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) (2010/2011–2012/2013) as well as macro-level data and included 10,584 participants in 14 European countries. We used logistic multilevel analyses to examine educational differences in macro-level determinants of early work exit. Macro-level determinants were: minimum unemployment replacement rates, expenditure on active labour market policies (aimed to help the unemployed find work) and passive labour market policies (unemployment and early retirement benefits), employment protection legislation (costs involved in dismissing individuals), unemployment rates, statutory pension age and implicit tax on continued work. We found low-educated workers to be more at risk of early work exit than higher educated workers. In low-educated men, higher unemployment replacement rates, higher expenditure on passive labour market policies, stricter employment protection legislation and a higher implicit tax on continued work were associated with a higher risk of early work exit, whereas no macro-level factors were associated with early work exit in highly educated men. In women, a higher expenditure on passive labour market policies and a higher implicit tax on continued work were determinants of early work exit, regardless of educational level. To conclude, low-educated men seem to be especially responsive to the effects of pull factors that make early retirement financially more attractive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The viability of coordinated, multi-employer bargaining arrangements as a cornerstone of labour market regulation in Western Europe has come under further threat following the crisis. Already, pressure for decentralization had corroded the capacity of sector agreements to specify universal standards applicable at company level. Procedural mechanisms articulating the two levels had become looser and more open-ended. This process has intensified in Northern European countries, whilst in Southern Europe, under pressure from the European institutions, a frontal assault on multi-employer bargaining arrangements is now underway. Reinforced European economic governance intensifies the need for coordination of bargaining across borders, but the capacity for achieving this is significantly reduced by the erosion of capacities for effective coordination within national bargaining systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

European nations substitute between employment protection regulations and labor market expenditures (e.g., unemployment insurance benefits) for providing worker insurance. Employment regulations more directly tax firms making frequent labor adjustments than other labor market insurance mechanisms. Venture capital (VC) investors are especially sensitive to these labor adjustment costs. Nations favoring labor market expenditures as the mechanism for providing worker insurance developed stronger VC markets over 1990-2008, especially in high-volatility sectors. In this context, policy mechanisms are more important than the overall level of worker insurance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For activation policies to succeed, the provision of social services in addition to labour-market services is essential, as social services are a prerequisite for integrating groups with complex social problems into the labour market. Activation policies based on social services can be termed inclusive. They require not only a sufficient financial basis, but also governance structures that deal with the organisational challenges associated with coordinated service provision, including fragmented competences and conflicts between different political arenas and territorial levels. This article analyses the capacity of five countries − Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the UK − to provide coordinated labour-market and social services from a multidimensional, multilevel and multi-stakeholder perspective. The findings show that coordinated service provision requires profound changes to national and local governance structures. Future research should take into account the organisational challenges of integrating social and employment services. Key Practitioner Message: ● The coordinated provision of employment and social services is an important precondition for integrating long-term unemployed and other disadvantaged groups into the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses Scandinavian activation policies through the study of Swedish and Danish labour market policies since the early 1990s. Active labour market policies have been an important component in the social investment policies of the Scandinavian countries, defined as 'an active corner' in Europe. In this study of the trajectories of Swedish and Danish labour market policies during the last two decades, I examined official documents and analysed OECD data on public expenditures on labour market programmes. The analysis shows that institutional change of activation policies has increasingly developed towards an incentive-strengthening, work-first approach. The policy development, specifically in the case of Sweden, is here conceptualised as demands on 'standby-ability', a specific policy configuration of stricter work incentives, contractualisation of citizenships rights, less generous unemployment benefits and less costly forms of activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, activation has become a rather fashionable European trend for policies in the area of welfare and work, facilitating the job inclusion especially of the long-term unemployed and other disadvantaged groups. The activation paradigm implies important challenges for related policy fields and the organisational provision of individualised, client-centred training, skills development and counselling services. The main aim of this Supplement is to shed new light on the ways through which activation strategies have been translated in policies and new governance arrangements. More specifically, the five articles in this Supplement deal with two essential challenges of current activation policies: (i) the tightrope walk between cost-effectiveness and comprehensive support; and (ii) the different facets and combinations of systemic coordination, collaboration, marketisation, decentralisation and individualisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, we have seen the development of a range of active labour market and social policies. In this article, we present an analytical framework ( Activation- Friendly Integration, AFI) in order to analyse these policies through the lens of their integration. AFI provides a synthetic analysis of the nature and intensity of the changes brought about by developments in the fields of employment and social cohesion policies. The core components of AFI are territorialisation, cross-sectoriality, conditionality/individualisation and contractualisation/marketisation. These key concepts are discussed on the basis of six national governance schemes implemented over the last decade, with regard to the levels, dimensions and actors involved. This comparison of French, British, Swedish, German, Italian and Polish activation policies points at a problematic misfit when the public is targeted for activation policies and there is a stronger use of tools for profiling and filtering beneficiaries, a greater reliance on contracting processes and a paradigmatic shift in the conception of welfare states' aims, tools and organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent event in France provides us with excellent opportunity to study the economic impact of the availability of the option to fire employees in Europe. Using stock market indices of eleven European countries as well as the U.S. S&P500 index, we find that the stock markets of several European nations, i.e., France, Germany, Netherlands, and Italy respond positively to the introduction of the contrat première embauche (CPE) suggesting that the right to fire enhances firm value. This conclusion is further evidenced by the negative stock returns when the CPE was withdrawn in April after mass protests broke out across France. Comparable reactions in countries such as Germany and Netherlands seem to be attributed to the similar labor market structure and/or the consolidated trading on Euronext. The significant event effect observed in Europe is not due to U.S.- related news, as we find U.S. markets generate only insignificant returns during these event dates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The timing and nature of industrialization in Britain and continental Europe had significant consequences for the growth and development of labour market institutions, effects which are still felt today and which are visible in the conceptual structure of labour law and company law in different countries. However, contrary to the claims of the legal origin hypothesis, a liberal model of contract was more influential in the civilian systems of the continent than in the English common law, where the consequences of early industrialization included the lingering influence of master-servant legislation and tie weak institutionalization of the juridical form of the contract of employment. Claims for a strong-form legal origin effect, which is time invariant and resistant to pressures for legal convergence, are not borne out by a growing body of historical evidence and time-series data. The idea that legal cultures can influence the long-run path of economic development is worthy of closer empirical investigation, but it is premature to use legal origin theory as a basis for policy initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the development of employment policies in the European labor market. It explores the labor market trends in the old and new European Union (EU) Member States and the problems being faced by Europe with regard to its labor market. Examples of labor market policies in some EU Member States as well as policy recommendations for the future rethinking and development of labor market policies in Central and Eastern European countries are presented.

This article outlines various explanations for singling out the right to work from the roster of human rights, and emphasizes the dilemmas associated with regulating the labour market as a barrier to the development of the right. It compares two frameworks that address these concerns from the contrasted perspectives of human rights and employment policy - namely, the General Comment of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the European Employment Strategy. While these approaches are not natural allies, they can complement each other and construct an institutional system guided by the right to work as a superordinate norm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author points to the contrasting performance of the labour markets of Europe and the United States. He attributes the superior performance of the US to greater labour market flexibility and identifies the areas of unemployment insurance, employment protection and active labour market policies as especially significant. A key element in helping generate better policies is experimentation and decentralisation of decision-making, something favoured by the distinction between federal and state responsibilities in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Books reviewed:Ola Bergstrom and Donald Storrie (eds).Contingent Employment in Europe and the United States.Reviewed by Ian KirkpatrickTonia Novitz.International and European Protection of the Right to Strike.Reviewed by Lord McCarthyDeborah Foster and Peter Scott (eds).Trade Unions in Europe—Meeting the Challenge.Reviewed by Michael GoldJeff Kenner.EU Employment Law. From Rome to Amsterdam and Beyond.Reviewed by Simon DeakinVladimir Gimpelson and Douglas Lippoldt.The Russian Labour Market: Between Transition and Turmoil.Reviewed by Gregory Schwartz [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the social dimension of the labor market regulation in Europe. Social and labor market provisions of the Single European Act; Clash of labor market philosophies; Argument for a transnational system of labor market regulation; Likelihood of a community industrial relations system.