scholarly journals Lessons from the ongoing crisis for labour market institutions in Russia

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-71
Author(s):  
Irina A. Denisova

The paper discusses the role of unemployment insurance system in economic development in general and in the context of the ongoing crisis due to the forced lockdown related to COVID-19. The key elements of employment subsidy programs with reduced working hours or partial unemployment benefits, based on the experience of OECD countries get special attention.

Empirica ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 231-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Carlos Duque ◽  
Raúl Ramos ◽  
Jordi Suriñach

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-163
Author(s):  
Dimitrios Bakas ◽  
Yousef Makhlouf

Abstract Insider–outsider theory is often used as a basis for explaining the hysteretic behaviour of unemployment. Despite this, there is no empirical evidence about the validity of this theory on explaining the persistence of unemployment. This article addresses this gap, using various labour market proxies of insiders’ power for the OECD countries over 1960–2013 and employing panel unit root tests that exploit the information contained in these proxies. The results show that although the unemployment rate exhibits a pronounced hysteretic behaviour in OECD countries, this behaviour is reversed once we account for the insider–outsider proxies. Our findings thus validate the role of the insider–outsider theory as a key source of unemployment hysteresis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 375-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Bredgaard ◽  
Per Kongshøj Madsen

Before the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, flexicurity topped the European labour market and social policy agenda. It was acclaimed for combining the flexibility of liberal labour markets with the security of social welfare states, thereby offering a viable formula for success in the new global economy. Nowhere was this better exemplified than in Denmark, with the Danish system repeatedly highlighted as a good example of flexicurity in action. In this article, we revisit the flexicurity concept, assessing how the Danish labour market came through the crisis. We argue that the economic crisis and especially political reforms of the unemployment insurance system have challenged the institutional complementarities of flexicurity, but that the Danish labour market is recovering and adapting to new challenges. The Danish case illustrates that institutional complementarities between flexibility and security are fragile and liable to disintegrate if the institutions providing flexicurity are not maintained and supported.


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%.


2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Werner Eichhorst ◽  
Verónica Escudero ◽  
Paul Marx ◽  
Steven Tobin

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 1302-1340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ofer Setty

Abstract Unemployment accounts are mandatory individual savings accounts that can be used only during unemployment or retirement. Unlike unemployment insurance, unemployment accounts solve the moral hazard problem but provide no public insurance to workers. I study a hybrid system that borrows from concepts of both unemployment insurance and unemployment accounts, in which workers are mandated to save when employed and can withdraw from the account when unemployed. Once the account is exhausted, the unemployed worker receives unemployment benefits. This hybrid policy provides insurance to workers more efficiently than an unemployment insurance system because it provides government benefits selectively. As a consequence, young workers can reduce their precautionary savings and better smooth their consumption over the life cycle. Calibrating the model to the US economy, I find that, relative to an optimal unemployment insurance system, the optimal hybrid policy leads to a welfare gain of 2.4%, measured as consumption equivalent variation.


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