Scars that Never Heal: Dualisation and Youth Employment Policies in Spain from the Great Recession to the Corona Crisis

2021 ◽  
pp. 111-132
Author(s):  
Oscar Molina ◽  
Alejandro Godino

This article analyses the evolution of the dual labour market in Spain in the post-crisis and provides a first assessment of the labour market impact of the Covid-19 crisis. With the only exception of reducing the distance between the regulation of temporary and permanent contracts, the reforms introduced during the great re-cession and the post-crisis period have not only failed to reduce inequalities in the labour market, but have amplified some of them in interaction with austerity policies. Policies targeting young workers have delivered limited success in improving the position of the most disadvantaged, and more generally, to reduce dualisation as temporary employment remains very high whilst employment conditions of younger groups have deteriorated and become more widespread among those with higher educational attainment.

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Reeskens ◽  
Tom van der Meer

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (11) ◽  
pp. 1002-1011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timo-Kolja Pförtner ◽  
Holger Pfaff ◽  
Kira Isabel Hower

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.


De Economist ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 163 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugo Erken ◽  
Eric van Loon ◽  
Wouter Verbeek

Author(s):  
Mariely López-Santana

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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