Do employment protection policies reduce the relative disadvantage in the labour market experienced by unhealthy people? A natural experiment created by the Great Recession in Europe

As the asylum crisis hit Europe in tandem with the Great Recession, concerns about declining support for equal welfare provision to immigrants grow. Although studies on welfare deservingness show that immigrants are deemed least entitled to welfare compared to other target groups, they have fallen short of isolating welfare claimants’ identity (i.e. foreign origin) with competing deservingness criteria that might explain the immigrant deservingness gap. This article studies the importance of welfare claimants’ foreign origins relative to other theoretically relevant deservingness criteria via a unique vignette experiment among 23,000 Dutch respondents about their preferred levels of unemployment benefits. We show that foreign origin is among the three most important conditions for reduced solidarity, after labour market reintegration behaviour (reciprocity) and culpability for unemployment (control). Furthermore, favourable criteria do not close the gap between immigrants and natives in perceived deservingness, emphasizing the difficulty of overcoming the immigrant penalty in perceived welfare deservingness. We conclude our findings in the light of ongoing theoretical and political debates.

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Trends in the association of different forms of precarious employment and self-rated health in Germany. An analysis with the German Socio-Economic Panel between 1995 and 2015

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health ◽

10.1136/jech-2018-211933 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 73 (11) ◽

pp. 1002-1011 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Timo-Kolja Pförtner ◽

Holger Pfaff ◽

Kira Isabel Hower

Keyword(s):

Labour Market ◽

Great Recession ◽

Job Insecurity ◽

Market Reforms ◽

Precarious Employment ◽

Adjusted Risk ◽

The Great Recession ◽

Labour Market Reforms ◽

Working Poverty ◽

Perceived Job Insecurity

BackgroundPrecarious employment has increased in Germany by means of labour market flexibilisation throughout the 1990s and 2000s. In this study, trends in the association of self-rated health (SRH) with different dimensions of precarious employment by gender in Germany between 1995 and 2015 were assessed considering different periods of labour market reforms and the Great Recession.MethodsAnalyses were conducted using the German Socio-Economic Panel from 1995 to 2015. All employed individuals aged 18–67 years and living in private households were considered for analysis to examine the risks of poor SRH by low wage, working poverty, non-standard working time arrangements and perceived job insecurity by gender. Predicted probabilities, adjusted risk ratio (ARR), adjusted risk difference (ARD) and trends were examined using pooled interval logistic regression with individual-clustered standard errors.ResultsRelative and absolute differences in SRH rose significantly over time by perceived job insecurity for men, but not for women. Working poverty appeared to be significantly associated with SRH in the Great Recession and the post-Recession period for both gender. Non-standard working time arrangements were not significantly associated with SRH for both gender, and low wage appeared to be significantly associated with SRH only for men in the post-Recession period.ConclusionsThe results highlighted the relevance of labour market reforms of deregulation and flexibilisation in Germany to differences in SRH by specific forms of precarious employment and gender differences in the impact of labour market reforms on precarious employment and health.

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Labour Market Disadvantages of Second-Generation Turks and Moroccans in the Netherlands: Before and during the Great Recession

International Migration ◽

10.1111/imig.12411 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 56 (2) ◽

pp. 97-116 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Dirk Witteveen ◽

Richard Alba

Keyword(s):

The Netherlands ◽

Labour Market ◽

Great Recession ◽

Second Generation ◽

The Great Recession

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Mismatch on the Dutch Labour Market in the Great Recession

De Economist ◽

10.1007/s10645-015-9257-9 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 163 (4) ◽

pp. 435-459 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Hugo Erken ◽

Eric van Loon ◽

Wouter Verbeek

Keyword(s):

Labour Market ◽

Great Recession ◽

The Great Recession

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Employment Policy in Spain

The Oxford Handbook of Spanish Politics ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198826934.013.35 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 577-592

Author(s):

Mariely López-Santana

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Welfare State ◽

Labour Market ◽

Great Recession ◽

Employment Policy ◽

Employment Policies ◽

Labour Market Policies ◽

The Great Recession ◽

Early Twentieth Century ◽

Territorial Organization

This chapter provides an overview of the emergence, consolidation, recalibration, and liberalization of employment policies in Spain. By identifying five developmental periods, it reviews transformations in the nature and regulation of labour market policies from the early 1900s to the mid-2010s. In addition, it explores changes in the territorial organization and governance of labour-market policies with a focus on decentralization, (re-) centralization, and delegation reforms. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of the Great Recession on Spanish labour market policies and structures, including its dualized labour market. All in all, the chapter sheds much light on the nature and changes of the Spanish welfare state since the early twentieth century.

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