scholarly journals A fuzzy set approach to economic crisis, austerity and public health. Part I. European countries’ conformity to ideal types during the economic downturn

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (18_suppl) ◽  
pp. 41-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Therese Saltkjel ◽  
Mari Holm Ingelsrud ◽  
Espen Dahl ◽  
Knut Halvorsen
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Fuzzy Set ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Current Economic Crisis ◽  
Welfare Generosity

Aims: This is the first part of a two-part paper that takes an explorative approach to assess crisis and austerity in European countries during the Great Recession. The ultimate aim of this two-part paper is to explore the “crisis–austerity” thesis by Stuckler and Basu and assess whether it is the interplay between austerity and crisis, rather than the current economic crisis per se, that can led to deterioration in population health. In Part I of this paper we offer one way of operationalizing crisis severity and austerity. We examine countries as specific configurations of crisis and policy responses and classify European countries into “ideal types.” Methods: Cases included were 29 countries participating in the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) surveys. Based on fuzzy set methodology, we constructed two fuzzy sets, “austerity” and “severe crisis.” Austerity was measured by changes in welfare generosity; severe crisis was measured by changes in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita growth. Results: In the initial phase of the Great Recession, most countries faced severe crisis combined with no austerity. From 2010–2011 onward, there was a divide between countries. Some countries consistently showed signs of austerity policies (with or without severe crisis); others consistently did not. Conclusions: The fuzzy set ideal-type analysis shows that the European countries position themselves, by and large, in configurations of crisis and austerity in meaningful ways that allow us to explore the “crisis–austerity” thesis by Stuckler and Basu. This exploration is the undertaking of Part II of this paper.

scholarly journals Social origins and the decision to leave university during the Great recession: the role of the field of study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loris Vergolini ◽  
Eleonora Vlach
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Drop Out ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Drop Out Rate

The recent economic downturn has had profound influences on contemporary European societies. This paper analyzes how the Great Recession affected the drop-out rate among university students in Italy, and whether their chosen field of study moderated its effect. To examine the potential long-term effects of this economic downturn on social inequality, we also explore whether students from less-advantaged families who enrolled in prestigious fields were those pushed out from university in disproportionally high numbers. We investigate the interacting influence of the economic crisis, social inequalities and field of study on drop-out rate using data from the Istat “Survey on the educational and occupational paths of high school graduates” in two cohorts of university students (one who attended university prior to and one during the Great Recession). Results obtained from propensity score matching show that the economic crisis had a negative effect on university participation, which was however less strong for Medicine students. Students from lower socio-economic backgrounds in the most remunerative fields of study (those leading to liberal professions), tended to leave university more often than their well-off peers.

scholarly journals The Well-Being Gap during the Great Recession: The Role of Growth and Institutions

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Marco Ciziceno ◽  
Pietro Pizzuto
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Well Being ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
The Great Recession

The purpose of this paper is to examine the well-being dynamics across European countries during the Great Recession and to investigate the potential role of the quality of formal institutions in mitigating the negative effect of the economic downturn. This study uses the club convergence methodology by Phillips and Sul (2007; 2009) to group EU-28 countries that present similar features in terms of well-being during the period 2005-2017. The study also applies probit models to investigate the potential role of several social and institutional characteristics that are supposed to affect subjective well-being levels. The results show the existence of a “well-being gap” among European countries. The economic downturn started in 2008 has impacted the perceived well-being more in low-income and low-growth countries (less developed transition and Southern countries), than in high-income and more developed transition countries. The study also shows that countries that present well-functioning institutional systems and, more in general, good institutional performances show higher life satisfaction levels and tend to be more resilient to the negative effects generated by the economic shock.

“I never saw such people”

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Jonathan Dyen
Keyword(s):  
Great Recession ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Grand Narrative ◽  
Literary Response ◽  
Grapes Of Wrath ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Current Economic Crisis

In this essay, I argue that John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath has taken on renewed significance in the midst of the current economic downturn known in the United States as “the Great Recession.” While in the 1930s Steinbeck’s novel offered a way of understanding and responding to the economic conditions of the Depression, today the novel foregrounds the degree to which postmodernism has foreclosed the utopian possibilities of the novel’s grand narrative. I contend that the novel’s methodology can provide a flawed but potent framework for an effective literary response to the current economic crisis.

scholarly journals CONTEMPORARY POPULISM AND THE ECONOMIC CRISIS IN WESTERN EUROPE

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Daniela Poli
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
New Wave ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Principal Feature ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Common Enemy ◽  
The Relationship

Given a threatening new wave of populism crossing Europe, this article examines the link between populism and crisis as a Gordian knot and explores the relationship between contemporary populism and the Great Recession in Western Europe by underscoring how the principal feature of this relationship is the perception of the European Union as a common enemy.

Does Early Career Unemployment at the Peak of a Recession Leave Economic Scars? Evidence from Estonia

2020 ◽  
Vol 688 (1) ◽  
pp. 246-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marge Unt ◽  
Kadri Täht
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Main Mechanism ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
Income Loss ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Poverty Risk ◽  
Lower Productivity ◽  
Lifetime Earnings

On average, individuals who have experienced unemployment are disadvantaged in terms of later lifetime earnings. Those who graduated from school during the Great Recession are especially prone to have experienced bouts of unemployment, but we know little about how much they suffer in later career earnings. Estonia was heavily hit by the economic crisis but recovered relatively quickly. This study explores poverty and earnings effects for a cohort of recession graduates in Estonia, finding that early career unemployment is not a direct trigger for poverty risk and income loss five years later. The main mechanism for disadvantage among recession graduates is recurring unemployment, meaning that the scars of initial unemployment are avoided only if graduates succeed in avoiding unemployment later. Findings also indicate that during an economic downturn, employers may not regard unemployment as a signal of lower productivity or depreciation of skills.

The Great Recession as a ‘stress test’ of migrant incorporation in Europe. Are Southern European countries really lame ducks?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Ponzo
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
European Countries ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
European Model ◽  
Economic Downturns ◽  
Migrant Integration ◽  
Southern European Countries

Abstract Southern European countries are generally portrayed as lame ducks when it comes to migrant integration. In this article, I will analyse some of the reasons that have led to this outcome including potential biases in migration studies. I argue that Southern European countries in fact hold their own specific ways of incorporating migrants which may be equally or even more positive than those of older immigration countries. At the same time, I maintain that they appear rather heterogeneous in this regard, questioning the idea of a single Southern European model. I will test these hypotheses by comparing Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Greece with some Western European older immigration countries and by observing the trends of migrant incorporation during the Great Recession which started in 2008. The economic crisis is here regarded as both a factor of change and a ‘stress test’ of the actual robustness of migrant incorporation in the target countries. The empirical data are framed in a typology of migrant incorporation modes conceived of as a heuristic tool to conceptualise the processes occurring during deep economic downturns.

scholarly journals Deepening Neoliberalism via Austerity and ‘Reform’: The Case of Ireland

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alistair Fraser ◽  
Enda Murphy ◽  
Sinéad Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Labour Markets ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Corporation Tax ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Current Economic Crisis ◽  
Private Banks ◽  
New Phase ◽  
Bubble Burst

The current economic crisis – the ‘great recession’ – raises numerous questions about neoliberal ideas and practice, not the least of which is whether (and if so, how) neoliberalism can survive it. Our paper takes on these issues using the case of Ireland. This is the first proper neoliberal crisis in Ireland. From the early 1990s to 2008, Ireland was held up by many neoliberal champions as a place that gained from deregulation, openness to inward investment, and low corporation tax rates. But the build-up of contradictions in Ireland exploded rapidly in 2008, when its property bubble burst and private banks and government finances collapsed. Rather than examining what caused Ireland's crisis, we look at what has happened between 2008 and 2013. We focus on structural adjustments regarding the property, finance, and labour markets and then on the government's austerity programme as a whole. In addition to demonstrating how these adjustments have been an attack on workers and ordinary citizens, we identify some particularly striking elements, which we use to argue that a new phase of disturbance and restructuring is deepening and extending neoliberalism's influence in Ireland.

scholarly journals The European Union Green Deal: Clean Energy Wellbeing Opportunities and the Risk of the Jevons Paradox

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 4148
Author(s):  
Estrella Trincado ◽  
Antonio Sánchez-Bayón ◽  
José María Vindel
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
European Union ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Financial Framework ◽  
The Common

After the Great Recession of 2008, there was a strong commitment from several international institutions and forums to improve wellbeing economics, with a switch towards satisfaction and sustainability in people–planet–profit relations. The initiative of the European Union is the Green Deal, which is similar to the UN SGD agenda for Horizon 2030. It is the common political economy plan for the Multiannual Financial Framework, 2021–2027. This project intends, at the same time, to stop climate change and to promote the people’s wellness within healthy organizations and smart cities with access to cheap and clean energy. However, there is a risk for the success of this aim: the Jevons paradox. In this paper, we make a thorough revision of the literature on the Jevons Paradox, which implies that energy efficiency leads to higher levels of consumption of energy and to a bigger hazard of climate change and environmental degradation.

scholarly journals Taking Back Control over Markets: Jürgen Habermas on the Colonization of Politics by Economics

2021 ◽  
pp. 003232172110186
Author(s):  
Peter J Verovšek
Keyword(s):  
Great Recession ◽  
International Market ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Market Forces ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Human Control ◽  
Jurgen Habermas ◽  
Recent Developments

Recent developments have highlighted the tension between democracy and late capitalist economics. In the wake of the Great Recession, international market forces have increasingly taken de facto control of politics. My basic thesis is that a modified version of Jürgen Habermas’ colonization thesis, which opposes the takeover of social and political life by the forces of power (administration) and money (economics), productively conceptualizes these developments. I argue that this framework can help to both diagnose and combat the dangers associated with the overexpansion of functional systemic forces, as well as the broader instrumentalization that they promote. By drawing on his political writings on the future of the European Union after the crisis of the Eurozone, I oppose interpretations of Habermas as a pacified liberal by demonstrating that he shares Karl Marx’s commitment to combatting naturalized views of economics and material reproduction as a force that lie outside of human control.

The Great Depression and the Great Recession in Interwar Greece and Today: A comparison

2015 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia Lazaretou
Keyword(s):  
Great Recession ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
The Past ◽  
Greek Crisis ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Terra Incognita ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
Nominal Anchor

AbstractThe past Greek crisis experience is more or less terra incognita. In all historical empirical studies Greece is systematically neglected or included only sporadically in their cross-country samples. In the national literature too there is little on this topic. In this paper we use the 1930s crisis as a useful testing ground to compare the two crises episodes, ‘then’ and ‘now’; to detect differences and similarities and discuss the policy facts with the ultimate aim to draw some ‘policy lessons’ from history. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to study the Greek crisis experience across the two historical episodes. Comparisons with the interwar period show that the recent economic downturn was faster, larger and more severe than during the early 1930s. More importantly, analysing the determinants of the two crises, we conclude that Greece’s problems arose from its inability to credibly adhere to a nominal anchor.

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