Labour market protection across space and time: A revised typology and a taxonomy of countries’ trajectories of change

2022 ◽  
pp. 095892872110562
Author(s):  
Emanuele Ferragina ◽  
Federico Danilo Filetti

We measure and interpret the evolution of labour market protection across 21 high-income countries over three decades, employing as conceptual foundations the ‘regime varieties’ and ‘trajectories of change’ developed by Esping-Andersen, Estevez-Abe, Hall and Soskice, and Thelen. We measure labour market protection considering four institutional dimensions – employment protection, unemployment protection, income maintenance and activation – and the evolution of the workforce composition. This measurement accounts for the joint evolution of labour market institutions, their complementarities and their relation to outcomes, and mitigate the unrealistic Average Production Worker assumption. We handle the multi-dimensional nature of labour market protection with Principal Component Analysis and capture the characteristics of countries’ trajectories of change with a composite score. We contribute to the literature in three ways. (1) We portray a revised typology that accounts for processes of change between 1990 and 2015, and that clusters regime varieties on the basis of coordination and solidarity levels, that is, Central/Northern European, Southern European, liberal. (2) We illustrate that, despite a persistent gap, a large majority of Coordinated Market Economies experiencing a decline in the level of labour market protection became more similar to Liberal Market Economies. (3) We develop a fivefold taxonomy of countries’ trajectories of change (liberalization, dualization, flexibility, de-dualization and higher protection), showing that these trajectories are not always path-dependent and consistent with regime varieties previously developed in the literature.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Simko ◽  
David Cunningham ◽  
Nicole Fox

Abstract Following the racially motivated shootings at an African American church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, a wave of contentious campaigns around Confederate statuary emerged, or at least intensified, in communities across the country. Yet local struggles have culminated in vastly different alterations to the built environment. This paper develops a framework for differentiating distinct “modes of recontextualization” rooted in the relocation and/or modification of commemorative objects. Building on models of memory as an iterative, path-dependent process, we track recontextualization efforts in three communities—St. Louis, Missouri; Oxford, Mississippi; and Austin, Texas—documenting how each mode alters the meaning of contested symbols. An analysis of local news sources in the year following recontextualization shows how each mode exerts identifiable proximate effects on broader political debates and, through that process, structures the horizon of possibility for longer-range outcomes. 


2000 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-250
Author(s):  
Norbert Berthold

Abstract The situation on the German labour market is still a catastrophe. The institutional set-ups on the labour market and the welfare state obviously no longer fit the fundamentally changed economic environment. There is next to no competition on the labour market and unions and employers' associations use the generous welfare state to transfer the burden of adjustment to changes in the economic environment onto the public at large. Institutional mismatch is prevalent. The red-green coalition government has not only realized that persistently high unemployment inflicts tremendous economic damage but that it is also politically destabilizing. It has therefore announced that the performance on the labour market during its term of office shall be its own measure of success or failure. This paper discusses whether the regulatory steps taken by the red-green coalition government, like implementing stricter employment protection legislation, reintroducing full pay when sick, and changing the law concerning low-paid jobs, are suitable for reducing this institutional mismatch.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
K. V. Bhanumurthy ◽  
Manoj Kumar Sinha

Outward FDI is considered as a developed countries phenomenon. However FDI outflows from developing countries particularly Asian countries such as China and India have been growing over the past few decades. The paper focuses on outward FDI from developing countries in terms of outflows and outward stock. The paper studies the impact of socio-economic variables such as infrastructure, human capital, labour, market, trade openness, resources etc. on FDI outflows from developing countries. With the help of Principal Component Analysis, we construct a set of six composite indices, namely, human resource, infrastructure, labour, market, trade openness and resource, as determinants of OFDI. We use a Panel Regression approach both in terms of OFDI stock and flow, for the period 1990-2009. Outward FDI flows from developing countries do not show a significant pattern. FDI outward stock from developing countries represents stable patterns. It shows that steadily this is growing at 4.4 percent per annum, although the initial level is low. Top ten countries show a significant growth rate of 8 percent per annum, in the case of outward stock. Infrastructure is the only single variable whose elasticity is slightly over one in the case of top ten countries and is highly significant. Therefore, the FDI outflow is going from those countries amongst developing countries that have a significant infrastructure base.


2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-44
Author(s):  
Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski ◽  
Przemysław Włodarczyk

This article presents the impact of the global crisis on employment in the OECD countries, and in particular is an attempt to explain why the impact is of a different scope in particular countries. Particular attention has been paid to the question of the role played by labour market institutions (such as employment protection legislation and fixed-term employment). The global economic crisis has influenced the situation in the labour markets of OECD countries, causing declines in employment and increases in unemployment. Changes in the level of employment in individual countries varied. Between 2007-2012 declines in production took place in the majority of OECD countries. Declines in real wages were also observed in those countries. On the other hand, in the period of 2005-2012 relatively small changes in labour market institutions occurred. With respect to both the stringency of employment protection legislation, as well as the share of fixed-term employment, there were no clearly visible trends in the data during the period of economic crisis. The econometric verification of theoretical hypotheses was performed using annual data from the 2005-2012 period for 26 OECD countries, and it shows that GDP and real wages were statistically significant determinants of employment size in the analyzed period. The study also confirmed the hypothesis of the existence of a non-linear (U-shaped) relationship between employment elasticity with respect to GDP and the level of stringency of employment protection legislation, as well as the share of fixed-term employment in the total number of employment contracts. The results show that the smallest declines in employment during a crisis might be expected in countries where the level of EPL is close to 2, and the share of fixed-term employment in the total number of employment contracts is close to 18%.


2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 408-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martí López Andreu

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of changes in employment regulation in Spain on individual labour market trajectories. It is well known that the Spanish labour market has been strongly hit by the 2007 recession. Furthermore, after 2010 and in the benchmark of “austerity”, several reforms were implemented to further flexibilise employment regulation. At the same time, public sector budgets suffered severe cutbacks, that impacted working conditions and prospects of public sector workers. These reforms were implemented by different governments and substantially changed previous existing patterns of employment. This paper explains how these reforms have reinforced previous existing trends towards greater flexibility and weaker employment protection and how they lead to a shift in the position of work in society. Design/methodology/approach The emerging patterns that these changes provoked are illustrated thorough data from narrative biographies of workers affected by a job loss or a downgrading of working conditions. The workers of the sample had relatively stable positions and careers and were affected by changes that substantially modified their paths. Findings The paper shows how reforms have expanded work and employment insecurities and have broken career paths. It demonstrates how the reforms have weakened the position of work and organised labour in society and how, when institutional supports are jeopardised, the capacity to plan and act is harassed by the traditional social inequalities. Originality/value The paper enhances the knowledge about the impact of institutional changes by analysing their effects in individual working lives by means of narrative biographies.


Author(s):  
Jitka Svobodová ◽  
Ludmila Dömeová ◽  
Andrea Jindrová

The article deals with the economically weak regions in the border areas of the Czech Republic (CR). The main goal is the selection and application of the most important variables, as the methodology of selection and evaluation of economically weak regions is not united. The following research question was formulated as whether the border regions are economically weaker when compared with the Czech Republic average of selected indicators. Two working hypotheses were set: whether the situation of the border regions is different from each other among the border regions and whether the economy of the neighbouring country impacts these disparities in border regions. The secondary goal of this article is to find homogenous clusters and describe these clusters of border regions. The result of the principal component analysis was determination of three components Labour market, Transnational commuters and Population migration. The variables that set up the component Labour Market was found to be the most important for economically weak border regions. The three components were used for cluster analysis and the territories were broken up into four clusters, none of which is above average of the CR with the result that the situation in the border region is dependent on the neighbouring country.


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