scholarly journals Wage Bargaining in the Presence of Social Services and Transfers

2004 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabela Mares
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Full Employment ◽  
Wage Bargaining ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Wage Determination ◽  
Labor Market Institutions ◽  
National Differences ◽  
The Impact

OECD economies were able to reconcile the pursuit of welfare state expansion and full employment during the first decades of the postwar period. Yet the trade-off between these two policy objectives widened in recent decades. To explore the question ofwhy this change occurred, this article extends familiar models of wage determination by adding a number of parameters that capture cross-national differences among welfare states. The model identifies the conditions under which unions deliver wage moderation in exchange for social policy benefits and transfers and explores how different labor-market institutions magnify or decrease the impact of wage choices on the equilibrium level of employment. Next, the author examines the impact of changes in the composition of social policy expenditures and in the level of the tax burden on. unions' wage choices. She shows that mature welfare states, characterized by high tax burdens and a high share of transfers devoted to labor-market outsiders, reduce the effectiveness ofwage moderation in lowering unemployment. The author tests the main propositions using OECD panel data for the period 1960–95.

scholarly journals Social policy and labor supply: The impact of activating labor market institutions on reservation wages

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Fuchs ◽  
Sebastian Prechsl ◽  
Tobias Wolbring
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Labor Supply ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Labor Market Institutions ◽  
Unemployment Benefit ◽  
Market Institutions ◽  
Gainful Employment ◽  
Reservation Wages ◽  
The Impact

Activation as a social policy that facilitates transitions into the labor market continues to influence modern welfare states until today. Taking the case of Germany, we study the relationship between embeddedness of benefit recipients in activating labor market institutions and individual labor supply. Using panel data, we estimate the effects of transitions between key institutional states with different degrees of activation on reservation wages. We show that reservation wages are sensitive to activation: The transition from gainful employment into unemployment benefit receipt leads to an average 3.2 percent decrease in reservation wages. The transition from gainful employment into welfare benefit receipt - an institutional state with far more rigorous activation - leads to a stronger decrease of 4.9 percent. Mediation analyses show that the income associated with different institutional states is the predominant mechanism that drives the effect on reservation wages. However, subjective social status also partly mediates the effect.

Globalisation, Competitiveness, and the Social Democratic Model

2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelyne Huber ◽  
John D. Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Full Employment ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Active Labour Market Policy ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Raising Children ◽  
The Impact

For a long time, the discussion about the impact of economic globalisation on the full employment/generous welfare state policies pursued by social democratic governments was characterised by doom and gloom. Glib neo-liberal arguments about the impossibility of maintaining social democratic policies, that were presumably hindering competitiveness through excessive wages and taxes in the new international environment were difficult to counter, because social democrats could not resort to an equally elaborate and internally consistent economic doctrine that could substitute for evidence, and the evidence was not yet in to counter these arguments on empirical grounds. Recently, careful and comprehensive comparative studies have provided evidence that, despite undeniable problems posed by economic internationalisation, social democratic welfare states and employment regimes have proven to be highly resilient (Scharpf and Schmidt, 2000; Huber and Stephens, 2001). Indeed, some kinds of traditional social democratic policy, such as an emphasis on labour mobilisation through active labour market policy and social services that make it possible to combine labour force participation with raising children, and an emphasis on human capital formation have facilitated adaptation to the new economic conditions. Moreover, newly available data on skill distribution (OECD/HRDC, 2000) and income distribution (LIS) suggest that the egalitarian thrust characteristic of social democratic policy has made an important contribution to raising literacy skills at the bottom, which in turn facilitates the integration of the entire labour force into productive activities that are competitive in high-quality markets.

scholarly journals Impacts of Labor Market Institutions and Demographic Factors on Labor Markets in Latin America

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (155) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Kugler
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Market Performance ◽  
Demographic Factors ◽  
Employment Protection ◽  
Labor Market Institutions ◽  
Market Institutions ◽  
Payroll Taxes ◽  
The Impact

This paper documents recent labor market performance in the Latin American region. The paper shows that unemployment, informality, and inequality have been falling over the past two decades, though still remain high. By contrast, productivity has remained stubbornly low. The paper, then, turns to the potential impacts of various labor market institutions, including employment protection legislation (EPL), minimum wages (MW), payroll taxes, unemployment insurance (UI) and collective bargaining, as well as the impacts of demographic changes on labor market performance. The paper relies on evidence from carefully conducted studies based on micro-data for countries in the region and for other countries with similar income levels to draw conclusions on the impact of labor market institutions and demographic factors on unemployment, informality, inequality and productivity. The decreases in unemployment and informality can be partly explained by the reduced strictness of EPL and payroll taxes, but also by the increased shares of more educated and older workers. By contrast, the fall in inequality starting in 2002 can be explained by a combination of binding MW throughout most of the region and, to a lesser extent, by the introduction of UI systems in some countries and the role of unions in countries with moderate unionization rates. Falling inequality can also be explained by the fall in the returns to skill associated with increased share of more educated and older workers.

scholarly journals How Do Labor Market Institutions Influence the Preference to Work in Family Firms? A Multilevel Analysis Across 40 Countries

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 1067-1093 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörn H. Block ◽  
Christian O. Fisch ◽  
James Lau ◽  
Martin Obschonka ◽  
André Presse
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Occupational Choice ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Family Firm ◽  
Wage Determination ◽  
Labor Market Institutions ◽  
Employer Branding ◽  
Market Institutions ◽  
National Labor Market

Family firms must attract talented employees to stay competitive. They have different employer characteristics than nonfamily firms. For example, although they generally offer lower wages, they also typically offer higher job security and a more cooperative and entrepreneurial work environment. However, drawing on occupational choice theory, we argue that the importance of these unique family firm characteristics depends on the national labor market context in which the family firm is embedded. A multilevel investigation of 12,746 individuals in 40 countries shows that individuals prefer to work in family firms in labor markets with flexible unregulated hiring and firing practices, centralized wage determination, and low labor–employer cooperation. A cross-level analysis further shows that the national labor market context moderates the effects of individual-level factors determining the preference to work in a family firm (e.g., entrepreneurship intention). Our article is the first to consider labor market institutions in research on family firms as employers. Practical implications exist for family firms regarding their employer branding and intrapreneurship strategies.

Political Parties and Social Policy Responses to Global Economic Crises: Constrained Partisanship in Mature Welfare States

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER STARKE ◽  
ALEXANDRA KAASCH ◽  
FRANCA VAN HOOREN
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Economic Crises ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Party Composition ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Generous Welfare

AbstractBased on empirical findings from a comparative study on welfare state responses to the four major economic shocks (the 1970s oil shocks, the early 1990s recession, the 2008 financial crisis) in four OECD countries, this article demonstrates that, in contrast to conventional wisdom, policy responses to global economic crises vary significantly across countries. What explains the cross-national and within-case variation in responses to crises? We discuss several potential causes of this pattern and argue that political parties and the party composition of governments can play a key role in shaping crisis responses, albeit in ways that go beyond traditional partisan theory. We show that the partisan conflict and the impact of parties are conditioned by existing welfare state configurations. In less generous welfare states, the party composition of governments plays a decisive role in shaping the direction of social policy change. By contrast, in more generous welfare states, i.e., those with highly developed automatic stabilisers, the overall direction of policy change is regularly not subject to debate. Political conflict in these welfare states rather concerns the extent to which expansion or retrenchment is necessary. Therefore, a clear-cut partisan impact can often not be shown.

Eastern European welfare states: the impact of the politics of globalization

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bob Deacon
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Costs ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Maintenance Policy ◽  
Transition To Capitalism ◽  
The Impact

This article is divided into four parts. First there is a summary of the social policy of the old state-socialist regimes, some description of the legacy of social problems which they bequeathed to those making the transition to capitalism and a brief summary of the major social costs of the early years of the transition process. Second, the broad social-policy strategies of the new governments of Eastern Europe and the former USSR are reviewed as they have attempted to manage both the legacy of social problems from the past and the new social costs of transition. Third, in more detail developments in five specific fields are described: levels of public expenditure on social welfare; income maintenance policy; health and medical care; housing; and education. The article concludes by attempting to explain these changes, asking whether the policy changes have been motivated by a perceived need to reduce social provision, with a view to becoming more competitive within the global economy.

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