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This article investigates the employment effect of short-time work in the Netherlands during the Great Recession (2009–2011). Short-time work was introduced during the period as a special arrangement with the aim of reducing unemployment hikes by offering firms the possibility of adjusting the working time of specialised workers rather than adjust the size of their workforce. The authors focus on the effect of short-time work at the individual level of the worker and study whether short-time programme participants in surviving firms had a lower job turnover rate and transition rate to unemployment compared to workers who did not participate in the programme. Furthermore, the authors study whether the flexibility policies of the firm had a substantial influence on the effectiveness of short-time work in protecting workers from unemployment. Specifically, they investigate whether the effect of short-time work is related to the intensiveness of its use by the firm and the extensiveness of the use of external flexibility arrangements – i.e. temporary contracts and temporary agency workers – by the firm. For this purpose, the authors apply a discrete-time survival model using a unique dataset with monthly register data from Statistics Netherlands. Participants in the short-time work programme are compared with non-participant workers from firms that used short-time work and workers from firms that did not make use of the programme. The findings indicate that, in surviving firms, short-time work had a positive effect: the risk of unemployment and job separation is, in most cases, lower for short-time work participants than non-participants. Short-time work is most effective in protecting workers from unemployment in firms that extended the use of the programme to many workers and for a relatively small number of hours, and that made either moderate use of temporary agency workers or extensive use of fixed-term contracts.

This article examines the relationship between labour market flexibility and efficiency and social protection expenditures. Building on the theories of government expenditures and the empirical lit...

This paper highlights an inherent contradiction that exists within investment promotion activities in rich countries. Since the financial crisis, many inward investment agencies have shifted their activities from job creation per se to seeking to attract investment in high-tech activities. Such knowledge-intensive sectors are engaged in what has become referred to as “the war for talent”, so locations need to understand their value proposition to firms, especially where labour is tight. This paper explores the implications of this, in terms of the impact on employment and earnings of high skilled labour. We show that, because skill shortages already exist in many of these sectors, seeking to attract inward investment in these sectors simply causes the earnings of such workers to be bid up, and employment in the incumbent sector to fall. We highlight the over-riding importance that firms place on the availability of skilled labour when determining locations, and how policies which promote labour market flexibility, particularly through investment in skills to address skill shortages, can significantly mitigate the adverse effects, which tend to be more keenly felt in poorer regions of Europe where skilled labour is in even shorter supply.

This paper delves into the debates concerning labour market flexibility in India and suggests an improved measure of labour market flexibility to overcome the shortcomings of the existing measures. A state-wise time-variant composite index considering both de jure and de facto indicators of flexibility is constructed to account for the stringency of regulation of hiring and firing practices that affect labour adjustment mechanism of organised manufacturing sector firms in India. The newly built index reaffirms the criticism and limitations of the existing measures which solely rely on de jure indicators by pointing out that de jure measures alone are highly misleading and insufficient to identify a state’s labour market flexibility status. The index has been put to application in examining the role of spatial variation in labour market flexibility in explaining the difference in employment growth in India’s organised manufacturing sector. The paper finds no evidence in support of a statistically significant effect of spatial variation in flexibility in explaining the variation in employment growth. Interestingly, the paper demonstrates that employment elasticity of growth was lower in “flexible” states as compared to the “rigid” states, indicating that greater flexibility is associated with a weaker employment performance.

Research Question: The aim of this paper is to construct a numerical measure of EPL which takes into consideration the implementation of legislation and employment structure. Motivation: It is recognized in the literature that in countries with a significant share of the shadow economy the labour market flexibility is de facto higher than the original EPL index based on de iure conditions implies. Since the sub-index which refers to the workers with permanent contracts has the largest weight in the EPL index calculation, taking into consideration the share of workers with regular contracts in total employment would give a clearer picture about the real influence of individual sub-indices. Idea: For international comparisons of de iure strictness of the employment protection legislation, we use the latest official OECD data on EPL index and its sub-indices. The OECD data for Serbia shows only the values for EPR, EPC and EPRC sub-indices. After calculation of EPT sub-index and EPL index for Serbia, three adjusted indices are developed in order to capture the effective (i.e., de facto) strictness of the employment protection legislation in different countries. Data: The analysis was based on the latest available official OECD data on the EPL indices (2012 to 2015, depending on a country). For the calculation of missing sub-indices for Serbia, the main source of information was the Labour Law. Data on shadow economy are based on Krstic et al. (2013) and Schneider (2016), while the data regarding employment structure stem from Labour Force Surveys. Tools: Calculation of EPT and EPL indices was conducted in accordance with the official OECD methodology for calculating summary indicators of EPL strictness. The methodology for calculation of adjusted indices is developed on the initial basis of the previous research from Berger et al. (2016), Eamets & Paas (2007a), Boeri & van Ours (2008), Rutkowski & Scarpetta (2005) and Jandric (2014). Findings: The analysis was performed for 26 European countries. Rankings of European countries according to de facto strictness of the employment protection legislation differ significantly from the rankings made upon de iure strictness of the EPL. De facto external numerical flexibility of the labour market in Serbia is higher than when measured by the original unadjusted indices. Contribution: The main contribution of the paper is the development of the method for international comparisons of EPL, which provides a way to distinguish between de facto and de iure rigidity of employment protection legislation.

This paper deals with the role of the labor market in moderating the growth-effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing countries. FDI has developed rapidly and become the main source of economic growth in developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of labor market flexibility in mediating the impact of FDI on economic growth in developing countries. Panel threshold regression analysis proposed by Hansen (1999) is employed to assess the hypothesis of the study. Findings/Originality : The results provide the empirical finding of the role labor market in moderating the growth effect of FDI in developed and developing countries and fill this gap by assessing the role of labor market flexibility as an absorptive capacity in FDI-growth link in developing countries.

Existing study argues that labour market flexibility accompanied by trade liberalisation helped in building complementary relationship between formal and informal sectors in India. However, no direct relation is established between the labour market flexibility and trade liberalisation with respect to inter- and intra-sectoral movement of labour. The present study enquires whether the extent of labour mobility between and within formal–informal sectors affects the formal–informal growth linkages due to the tariff cut on traded goods, as a part of trade liberalisation in India. The findings based on static CGE analysis indicate that in absence of labour market segmentation (i.e. in absence of both wage rigidity and skill specificity) with full mobility of labour, formal sector growth is higher vis-à-vis the growth of those activities under segmented labour market with full mobility of labour. Amongst growing informal sector activities, output growth is lower in absence of segmented labour market with full mobility of labour. Finally, restricted labour mobility leads to largest expansion of formal activities, but further exacerbates the growth of informal activities. The study reveals that improvement in functional income distribution is mixed across households, depending on the degree of labour mobility, which implies labour market adjustment is costly due to structural reforms, that pitches for government intervention.

The paper is aimed at assessing efficiency of adopted measures of the concept of flexicurity in Sweden and Czech Republic in 2006-2015. It examines hypothesis that the matching process can be made more efficient by increasing the labour market flexibility. The Beveridge curve depicting the relationship between the unemployment and job vacancies is used to demonstrate a change in efficiency of labour market policies. The correlation analysis is used to address possible reasons for weaknesses of active labour market policies. Research findings show a better efficiency of the matching process in a rigid labour market, with the hypothesis being confirmed only for Czech Republic. However, the Czech labour market was fighting against higher imbalances than the Swedish one, throughout the whole period under review, with the most threatened unemployed having been both young and older people.

Overeducation describes the situation whereby workers are located in jobs for which they are deemed overqualified. This paper examines patterns in overeducation between countries using a specifically designed panel data set constructed from the quarterly Labour Force Surveys of 28 EU countries over a 12- to 15-year period. It is not the case that overeducation has been rising rapidly over time in all countries, and where overeducation has grown, the trend has been very gradual. Furthermore, overeducation rates were found to be static or falling in approximately 50% of the 28 EU countries. The evidence points towards convergence in overeducation at a rate of 3.3% per annum. In terms of the determinants of overeducation we find evidence to support policies aimed at improving effective female participation, labour market flexibility and the practical aspects of educational provision as a means of reducing the incidence of overeducation within countries.

According to the OECD, active employment policies include all social expenditure that are directed at improving the chances of finding a job and income generation (except education). Active labour market policies are around to assist in enhancing labour market flexibility at the times of economic changes. Their key components are the so-called activation strategies that act as typical prerequisites of benefitting from unemployment security/support systems in every EU country. The workfare concept lies behind the public work programmes. There are serious professional debates whether public work can primarily be seen as a ’compulsion and work test’ or, rather, as an opportunity of entering the primary labour market. The available efficiency analyses unanimously state that public work forms have the biggest role in testing willingness to work and the obligatory nature is the strongest of all active labour market policies. Research also indicates that public work reintegrates only few people back to the primary labour market and the majority are restrained from seeking a job and other income generating activities. There are several reasons for and against public work and opinions differ. The paper summarises the benefits and drawbacks on the basis of international and Hungarian analyses.

Relocation of production to countries with low labour costs has induced increased labour market flexibility, which has been praised as a silver bullet for economic growth and low unemployment. Within a unionised oligopoly framework, in which a multinational firm has the option to relocate its production to a foreign country, we analyse the welfare implications of both centralised and flexible wage-setting regimes. For very low foreign wages, wage flexibility leads to higher welfare than a rigid centralised regime. In contrast, for ‘intermediate’ wage levels in the foreign country, an industry-wide uniform wage leads to higher social welfare than flexible wages.

The post-reform scenario of inflow of capital and technology associated with labour market flexibility has changed the employment portfolio in Indian manufacturing industries. The shift of workers from directly employed status to contractual status has resulted in wage differences in different ways. This study is an attempt to determine inter-labour, inter-temporal and inter-state wage differences. The study also finds the impact of capital–labour ratio and labour productivity on wage disparity and the possibility of wage convergence (if any). The study is based on secondary data. Using simple statistical techniques and applying ordinary least square method, the study finds a difference in average daily earnings of directly employed workers and contract workers. The difference is found to be high from the average daily earnings of all employees. This is on account of increasing importance of non-production workers in relation to production workers in the manufacturing sector. Consequently, the share of wages in total emoluments is decreasing. The study suggests increasing labour productivity via appropriate education and skill in order to deal with wage disparity and drive the wages towards convergence in the long run.

South Africa relative to its peers (upper middle income countries) suffers from high unemployment and sub-optimal economic growth. This study investigates the ‘marginal effects of employment’ with respect to real output and capital in South Africa, using annual data covering the period 1946-2015. It estimates the responsiveness of employment to real output growth and capital, employing the short and long-run dynamic interactions between these variables via the application of the VAR/VECM Johansen (1991) framework. The results show that there exists a statistically significant long-run co-integrating relationship between labour employment and real GDP growth. Marginal employment growth effect is positive; a one per cent increase in GDP tends to increase employment by about one third of one per cent. Employment adjusts consistent with expectations when it overshoots its structural relationship with other variables. However, real output tends to adjust contrary to expectations, implying significant diminishing returns to employment in the economy. Growth in capital impacts positively on output and employment. The study concluded that greater labour market flexibility and higher worker productivity is needed across all sectors of the economy.

The rise in the unemployment rate across European countries has been one of the most evident effects of the economic downturn. The aim of this paper is to investigate: 1) the impact of economic crisis on youth and adult unemployment in Italy; 2) whether the labour market reforms have mitigated or strengthened the negative effect of the economic crisis on youth unemployment; and 3) which economic and institutional variables contribute to reducing unemployment. Econometric results, using data from the twenty Italian regions from 2001 to 2016, confirm that the economic crisis has had detrimental effects mostly on young people. Moreover, the paper shows no evidence that greater labour market flexibility improves youth unemployment outcomes. Regarding the other control variables, the regional export, ALMPs, regional political participation, increase in average wages, private investment and regional productivity contribute to mitigating the impact of a recession on youth and adult unemployment.

Labour market situation of young mothers highly depends on the convergence of family and employment policies. Since 2010 there have been important changes in the Hungarian policies in order to stimulate fertility and to enhance the female employment rate. In our research we combined legal and sociological methodologies to analyse the effect of these policies. We argue that Hungarian policy has been in a serious uphill struggle to find a balance between two contradicting principles: providing sufficient family allowances and maintaining labour market flexibility by weak protection of employees. This dichotomy of principles has led to an unsustainable employment policy and made women more vulnerable in the labour market. We suggest that the differences would be reconciled through labour reforms, measures concerning working time arrangements, part time work and protection against dismissal have to be revisited along with protection of fathers with young children.

This paper empirically investigates whether the nature of firm-level employment adjustment is affected by the flexibility of the labour market. Specifically, we take advantage of differences in local labour market conditions created by the non-uniform implementation of the hukou reform in China. Variations in the implementation across cities and time allow us to identify the employment effects of the reform by comparing firms in regions with hukou reform to those in regions without. Combining firm-level data and city-level hukou reform data from 1998 to 2007, we adopt a difference-in-differences approach to address this question. The empirical results show that firms exposed to the hukou reform have higher employment adjustment rates on average than similar firms without reform, indicating that an increase in labour market flexibility allowed more employment adjustment. We also find evidence that tariff reductions are associated with greater employment adjustment in reform than non-reform cities.

Flexibility proponents assert that rigid Latin American labour markets impede economic expansion and job growth; they advocate reforming labour codes through increased flexibility. Critics argue that heightened labour flexibility exacerbates inequality without expanding employment. From this perspective, precarious employment and inequality are remedied by strengthening labour’s bargaining power. Chile’s maintenance of flexible labour reforms adopted during the dictatorship make it appropriate for evaluating these competing perspectives. Based on flexibility proponents’ predictions, we should expect increased formal sector employment over time, particularly among the least skilled Chilean workers, as well as reduced wage inequality. Yet, the rate of unemployment among least skilled workers in Chile remains essentially unchanged since the democratic transition as does income inequality. These conditions persist despite a high degree of labour market flexibility. Thus, Chile’s continued adherence to...

The transformation of the modern world of work towards the information society, knowledge society, have a rapid course. These transformations take on a global character, and the most of their consequences are negative. One of them is to base the employment process on the flexible solutions. Nowadays, neither the high level of education, nor the high competences are not enough to give confidence in finding employment. The contemporary labour market is characterised by unstableness, ‘elusiveness’ and, above all, flexibility. The challenge has become a flexible company, which employs only flexible workers within the framework of flexible forms of employment. Despite its universality, the concept of flexibility still remains inconsistent and vaguely defined.

In this paper the authors present a new, extended approach, involving collaboration strategies between public employment services and private companies, which were under implementation in 2015 in Aarhus (Denmark). The main thesis of the paper is that the cooperation of public labour market institutions with labour demand representaives is crucial in realisation of active labour market policy. The Danish labour market policy is based on the flexicurity model that combines the flexibility of employment assisted by employment security assured by both, developed active labour market programmes and a rationalized system of benefits. The authors also propose some reccommendations for Poland in the area of boosting cooperation between public employment services and business representatives following the Danish example. The research method was the analysis of secondary data, such as literature overview, as well as strategies and reports made on behalf of the Jobcenter Aarhus.

This chapter examines the character and impacts on workers’ lives and strategies of labour market ‘flexibility’ through a case study of corporate food retailing. It expresses the sense of detachment and isolation that these working people come to feel in their experiences with ‘flexibility’. Changes in the local economy during the 1990s have meant a decline of its predominantly manufacturing base, which in the past had nurtured powerful union organisations. The chapter suggests that through these changes, worker subjectivity and attempts to make sense of restructuring also change. Specifically, workers tend to internalise the responsibility for their own survival at an individual level. In South Africa, retailers have also resorted to downsizing to lower wage bills, together with an increasing use of ‘casual’ and subcontracted labour. The impact of labour market flexibility combines a segmentation of workers at work and increasing economic insecurity in their households.

This paper examines the prevalence of non-standard workers in EU-28, rules for accessing social security, and these workers’ risk of not being able to access it. It focuses on temporary and part-time workers, and the self-employed, and offers a particularly detailed analysis of their access to unemployment benefits. It focuses on eligibility, adequacy (net income replacement rates) and identifies those workers which are at the greatest risk of either not receiving benefits or receiving low benefits. It offers a special overview of foreign non-standard workers, who may be particularly vulnerable due to the absence of citizenship in the host country. The paper also analyses access to maternity and sickness benefits for these three groups of workers, as well as their access to pensions. Its key contribution is in bringing together the different dimensions of disadvantage that non-standard workers face vis-a-vis access to social protection. This allows us to comprehensively assess the adaptation of national social security systems across EU-28 to the changing world of work over the past 10 years. The paper shows that there is a lot of variation between the Member States, both in the structure of their social security systems, as well as the prevalence of non-standard work. Most notably, the paper concludes that: i) access to unemployment benefits is the most challenging component of welfare state provision for people in non-standard employment; ii) policy reforms vis-a-vis access to social benefits have improved the status of non-standard workers in several countries, while they have worsened it in others, particularly in Bulgaria, Ireland and Latvia; iii) some Eastern European countries can offer lessons to other Member States due to their experiences with labour market challenges during transition and the subsequent adaptations of their social security systems to greater labour market flexibility. The paper also implies that a country’s policy towards non- standard work cannot be examined in isolation from its labour market conditions, as well as its growth model, and that uniform policy solutions for non-standard work cannot be applied across EU-28.

This work explores the relationship between temporary employment and product innovation focusing on five major European economies (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands) observed betwee...

Theory and economic intuition suggest that domestic institutions influence the employment impact of economic reform, but the evidence base is thin. This paper seeks to address this by examining the extent to which differences in regional labour market flexibility shaped the impact of unanticipated economic reforms on employment in informal (unregistered) manufacturing enterprises in India (1990&ndash, 2001). It employs a difference-in-differences strategy and finds that tariff reductions are not associated with significant employment shifts in informal enterprises, a finding that may be attributable to the fact that these enterprises rarely engage in international trade. However, on average and ceteris paribus, delicensing (FDI reform) is associated with statistically significant increases (increases) in informal employment and informal enterprise numbers in inflexible (flexible) labour markets. There is some evidence that the delicensing effect is attributable to increases in product market competition in delicensed industries. However, the channel underlying the result associated with FDI reform is less clear. In light of the persistent primacy of the informal sector in India and other developing economies, these findings have substantial policy relevance.

The world of work in the United Kingdom has for many years been characterised by major inequalities. Despite hosting some of the world’s highest executive salaries, basic employment and welfare standards tend to be relatively low. Moreover, a series of qualitative shifts in the labour market, in worker protections and in the nature of work have tended both to reproduce and to feed off workers’ unequal socio-economic position. A key causal factor is the ‘perforated’ industrial relations model caused by two generations of trade union decline. This has facilitated a specific mode of labour market flexibility, which is strongly biased towards employer short-term interests and militates against both longer-term employer security needs (for example, to underpin skill investment) and the kinds of flexibilities that might meet worker needs (for example, flexible careers and working time). This chapter investigates the relationship between inequalities and industrial relations and explores positive and negative outcomes via two case studies.

Part 1 Freedom from work or freedom through work?: citizen's income as a heretical political discourse - the Danish debate about citizen's income development of work and social (ex)inclusion. Part 2 Perspectives on new forms of differentiation and inclusion: the Portuguese late modernization and the complexities of social inclusion through work regulating the unemployed - from protection to participation atypical employment in the Netherlands non-standard employment, social exclusion, and the household - evidence from Britain employment and social exclusion - the policy context and the policy response in the United Kingdom trends in the Danish social mode of economic regulation labour market flexibility and regulation. Part 3 The European experience: European convergence or national specificities?.

Investigating in education, Hans Heijke and Lex Borghans. Part 1 Prospects: future developments in the job level and domain of high-skilled workers, Andries de Grip, et al the return to education, Jaap de Koning labour market forecasts and choice of education, Dinand Webbink. Part 2 Flexibility: a job to match your education - does it matter?, Joop Hartog and Nicole Jonker flexibility and structure of the Dutch labour market, Lex Borghans and Hans Heijke asymmetric skill substitution, labour market flexibility, and the allocation of qualifications, Adriaan van Zon, et al. Part 3 Curriculum: curriculum characteristics and labour market perspectives, Wim Nijhof does curriculum matter? a theoretical clue to an empirical puzzle, Arie Glebbeek, et al education, skills and wages, Hans Heijke, et al. Appendix: the Dutch education system.

This article examines the relationship between structural reforms commonly referred to as austerity and the growth of precarious labour in Greece. It argues that, in contrast to the proponents of labour market flexibility, the liberalisation of labour markets, employment protection systems, social protection systems and collective bargaining institutions have not increased employment in Greece or minimised the growth of precarious employment. Rather, liberalising structural reforms have resulted in the creation of the very precarity its proponents claim is the product of rigid labour markets, and they have failed to significantly reduce existing levels of unemployment and increasing employment rates.

Chapter objectives This chapter will enable readers to understand the: nature and causes of labour market flexibility in two industries that are high users of precariously employed workers attraction of many employers in retail and hospitality towards a minimalist approach to workplace flexibility, despite policy settings that facilitate employee-oriented flexibility international literature demonstrating that the strategic implementation of flexible working practices can be beneficial to both employers and employees potential for implementing flexible working arrangements in a way that reduces the adverse impacts of events such as the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Introduction As illustrated elsewhere in this book (see especially Chapters 2, 10 and 11), there has been a widespread shift in recent decades from full-time, ‘standard’ employment towards part-time, ‘non-standard’ employment, both in Australia and internationally. This trend has brought with it a proliferation of less secure, peripheral labour market participation. Focusing on retail and hospitality, two closely related industries that are characterised by high levels of ‘non-standard’ or precarious employment, this chapter examines how the strategic implementation of flexible working arrangements can enable people to achieve more secure and less peripheral labour market participation. The policy impetus for this discussion is provided primarily by the provisions of the Fair Work Act 2009 in relation to flexible working arrangements, set within the context of Australia’s experience during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). The chapter indicates ways in which the use of flexible working arrangements can be implemented to expand equitable labour market participation and to reduce the impact of macro-economic fluctuations.

To assess potential public concerns, this paper examines theory and evidence surrounding graduate educational underemployment (overeducation) in this era of mass higher education. Using a new, validated, index of graduate jobs, we find that the prevalence of graduate underemployment across 21 countries is correlated with the aggregate supply–demand imbalance, but not with indicators of labour market flexibility. Underemployment’s association with lower job satisfaction and pay is widespread. Yet in most countries there are external benefits (social trust, volunteering, and political efficacy) associated with higher education, even for those who are underemployed. Taken together with existing studies we find that, in this era of mass higher education participation, under-employment is a useful indicator of the extent of macroeconomic disequilibrium in the graduate labour market. We conclude that governments should monitor graduate underemployment, but that higher education policy should be based on social returns and should recall higher education’s wider purposes.

In this paper, we develop a matching model with both permanent and temporary contracts to address situations in which the quality of a match formed by a worker-firm pair is not observable to both workers and firms. The screening and cost-saving aspects of temporary employment contracts are two primary reasons that firms use them, but screening has received little attention in the study of employment protection. We show that increasing dismissal costs decreases job creation and that higher dismissal costs are likely to reduce the hiring threshold for temporary jobs and raise the threshold for permanent jobs. We also examine how changes in dismissal costs affect the average productivity of permanent jobs and discuss the effectiveness of the policy of increasing labour market flexibility by weakening firing restrictions for permanent employment.

A demand on national economies in the 1970s was that they should begin to increase their labour market flexibility, which came to mean transferring risks and insecurity onto workers. Education was one way to prepare future workers for this new situation. The present article examines this preparation of learning for precarity some 40 years on. It is based on long-term ethnographic research in the Swedish upper-secondary school sector in particular kinds of educational programmes that have been devised and promoted as a means of integrating ‘lost pupils’ into either academic or vocational studies. The findings show this is not what is developing in practice in these programmes.

The French labour market is divided between workers in permanent jobs and those who alternate fixed-term contracts with unemployment spells. Among other public policies aiming at reducing this duality, financial incentives could induce employers to lengthen contract duration or favour permanent contracts. This article develops a matching model fitted to the French labour market characteristics and calibrated on French data. A gradual decrease in unemployment contributions or a firing tax reduces the share of short-term contract in total employment but increases market rigidity and lowers labour productivity. However, decreasing unemployment contributions gradually is less favourable for new entrants than a firing tax and lengthens unemployment spells. An additional contribution levied on short-term contracts to finance a bonus for permanent-contract hirings also decreases labour market duality and increases activity by 0.13% but without negative impacts on labour market flexibility and productivity.

Many policymakers and economists have argued in favour of greater labour market flexibility as a part of structural adjustment reforms that are expected to improve economic performance. Existing post-Keynesian-Kaleckian (PKK) models are unable to address these issues because they assume away long-term labour by allowing employment to be short term and adjusting freely with output. This paper introduces long-term labour into PKK models. We develop a model that provides alternative ways of modelling labour market flexibility and suggest that when aggregate demand issues are important, an increase in employment flexibility is likely to have adverse growth and distributional impacts.

Many extensions of classical human capital theory regard labour market rigidities as a prerequisite for firms to invest in general training. From this perspective, the German labour market reforms since 2003 should have reduced their willingness to support the apprenticeship training system. This article demonstrates that, on the contrary, German firms did not abandon the training system but instead changed their training strategies after the implementation of the labour market reforms. We analyse the new training strategies that German firms deployed to cope with the increased labour market flexibility engendered by the labour market reforms. Switzerland, where no such reforms occurred, serves as the counterfactual. The results demonstrate that German firms successfully reduced the net costs of training by involving apprentices in more work and reducing non-productive tasks.

Examining the occupational variation within non-standard employment, this book combines case studies and comparative writing to illustrate how and why alternative occupational employment patterns are formed. Through expert contributions, a framework is developed integrating explanations based on labour market regulation, industrial relations and skill supply, filling the gaps in previous scholastic research.

The share of non-standard jobs in total employment has increased in Germany over recent decades. Research tends to attribute this in particular to labour market re-forms and socio-economic change. However, it becomes clear upon closer inspection that macro trends alone cannot provide satisfactory explanations. A striking yet rarely acknowledged aspect of the development in Germany is a large occupational heterogeneity, which is true for both current working conditions and trajectories of change. A process of asymmetric change has been witnessed in recent years, increasing the gap between occupational groups. Given this process, it seems increasingly questionable to aggregate data at the national level. Therefore, this paper analyses the role of different types of non-standard employment across occupations in Germany, explaining variation between occupations with reference to institutional conditions, industrial relations and patterns of labour supply and demand, in particular skill requirements.

Part 1 State, society and employment: flexibility - in search of a new social settlement flexibility and policies in employment - reflections from several European countries the new employment flexibility - the perversion of an ideal part-time employment, the "social movement" and citizenship - work in the arts "modernization" or insecurity - labour market deregulation and state retrenchment - the British case. Part 2 Employment uncertainty and economic security: mobility of manpower in Europe and the transfer of social rights flexible labour markets, citizenship and pension provision - a view from the UK are proposals for pension reform compatible with adaption to employment flexibility? minimum wages, flexibility and social exclusion. Part 3 Citizenship rights, and employment security: labour market flexibility, security and self-respect flexibility, economic security and social rights citizenship and work obligation in Britain and France labour market flexibility in relation to citizenship conclusion.

Over this chapter, we go over the interplay between globalization, labour flexibility and labour standards. We highlight the discourse of flexibility of labour put out by bodies such as the World Bank and contrast it with the labour standards espoused by UN and ILO, particularly in relation to contract labour. It is also noted that international political interactions encourage many international organizations to selectively advocate decent labour standards and state regulations, while on other platforms the same organizations or their counterparts propagate deregulation and labour market flexibility. We conclude by emphasizing that both these—labour flexibility and labour standards—need to be balanced together to govern labour relations.

A common explanation to German economic success for 10 years has been its ability to reform its labour institutions: from 1990, the percentage of firms abiding by the traditional sectoral contracting wage-setting system decreased significantly, allowing new firms to pay lower wages. This increasing heterogeneity of firms would explain, to some extent, the rising wage inequality observed in Germany for 25 years (Dustmann et al. 2009; Card et al. 2013). The Hartz laws (2003–2005) were also supposed to strengthen labour market flexibility by reducing reservation wage and implementing active labour market policy, by creating mini-jobs, etc. (Eichhorst and Marx 2009. The adoption of working time accounts also allowed to adjust employment volume by working hours rather than hiring and firing (Burda and Hunt 2011; Blot et al. 2015). This widespread set of reforms implemented by Germany would explain how Germany managed to cross the subprime crises without lasting fall of employment. This success also contrasts with “sclerotic” French economy, unable, according to many economists, to evolve so as to take globalization constraints into account and to reform its institutions (Hairault 2015) or to promote trust and cooperation (Aghion et al. 2010).

In this article the different phases social cohesion in Spain has passed through from 1980 to 2010, which is analysed using time series based on developments within the work market and the area of social protection. By observing unemployment rates taken from the survey of the working population a clear change of tendency can be noted in the year 1985, when as a result of the first work market reform, temporary employment was introduced, and in the years 1994, 2001 and 2010. The rates of temporary employment demonstrate the plateau produced from 1992 to 2006. As regards the area of social protection, we use the time series SEEPROSS of retirement pensions with the six important work market reforms of 1985, 1990, 1995, 2002, 2007 and 2010. Health with the inflection points at 1984, 1990 and 2003 when the transfers to the autonomous communities are finalized and of benefits for unemployment, family, survivors, social exclusion and housing. In a comparison with neighbouring countries a important distance can be observed as regards developments in the work markets, while the position is more discrete in the area o social market.