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As Europe begins to emerge from the Covid‐19 pandemic, two trends are clear: one, labour market reform is urgently needed, to cope with new economic and technological realities; and two, big government is back. The recent decision of the Irish Supreme Court in Náisiúnta Leichtreach Contraitheoir Éireann v Labour Court illuminates the relationship between collective bargaining and the regulatory state. In potentially one of the most important decisions in Irish labour law in decades, the Court rejected a constitutional challenge to legislation aimed at empowering social partners to regulate economic sectors through collective bargaining. This article situates that decision within recent scholarship on the 'labour constitution' model of labour law, under which the social partners should participate in economic governance. It also highlights the relevance of the decision for the 'Social Europe' agenda and the political economy of both national constitutional law and the EU internal market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By April 2021, the COVID-19 crisis in Europe had reached a magnitude that, in the eyes of some observers, either deepened lingering divides and threatened the EU's very existence, or, conversely, forced the Union to address the fundamental flaws of its euro area and provided an opportunity to reboot. From the outset, the EU had to confront fundamental challenges that require coordination; however, decentralised coordination is best as it improves the quality of policy, economic efficiency and civic virtues. While some argue for a debt union to provide the answer to the EU's call for shared adjustment, a solution should rather be sought in economic reform, accountability and enforcement of constitutional commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the implications of the Eurozone crisis for Italian penality. It begins by analysing the 'politics of austerity' – the economic reforms and new political mode entrenched by the Eurozone crisis. It then reflects upon the penal implications of such changes, focusing on the conceptual links between state–citizen relations, political institutional arrangements, and punishment in Italy. The article argues that Italy will continue to display an alternation of punitiveness and moderation. However, the meaning and contours of both punitiveness and moderation are changing. Punitiveness is likely to be exacerbated as punishment is used to impose cohesion on an ever more fragmented polity. Moderation, far from being a collective good and 'public philosophy', is likely to become a narrow, stratified and personalistic good. The article urges us to consider whether austerity may be engendering similar dynamics across other EU polities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates the impact of cross-border mergers and acquisitions on GDP per capita and domestic investment in 22 European transition countries from 2000 to 2014 by using the system Generalized Method of Moments estimator. The main implications are that cross-border mergers and acquisitions have a negative effect on GDP per capita in the year of merger or acquisition, while their lagged level shows a positive impact. From long-term perspective, this type of FDI has negative and significant effect on GDP per capita. The results show that one-year lagged cross-border mergers and acquisitions positively affects domestic investment, suggesting that spillover effects of this type of investment can be expected not earlier than one year after the merger or acquisition. The value of this paper is that our results show how the advances in structural reforms enhance GDP per capita whereas their influence on domestic investment activity is insignificant. We found that there is insignificant impact of the relationship between overall structural reforms and cross-border mergers and acquisitions on GDP per capita and domestic investment both in short and long run. The originality of this study lies in investigation of the dynamic nature of cross-border mergers and acquisitions and their economic effects depending on the quality of structural reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we conduct a meta-analysis of studies that empirically examine the relationship between economic transformation and foreign direct investment ( FDI) performance in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union over the past quarter century. More specifically, we synthesise the empirical evidence reported in previous studies that deal with the determinants of FDI in transition economies, focusing on the impacts of transition factors. We also perform meta-regression analysis to specify determinant factors of the heterogeneity among the relevant studies and the presence of publication-selection bias. We find that the existing literature reports a statistically significant non-zero effect as a whole, and a genuine effect is confirmed for some FDI determinants beyond the publication-selection bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hartz IV reforms are consistently regarded as a successful German model for the reduction of structural unemployment. Is it therefore appropriate to advise other member states of the European monetary union to carry out similar reforms? This paper strongly disagrees, arguing that the reduction in unemployment in Germany since 2005 is mainly due to cyclical factors and to the petering out of the negative employment effects caused by the economic transformation after German unification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that an important determinant of voters' support for economic reform is the strength of family ties. While the 'crisis hypothesis' predicts that crises facilitate reform, we show in a political economy model that this relation can break down, and even reverse, when agents take into account the effect of reform on their family members. Applied to southern European countries with strong family ties, the model rationalizes why the extremely high (youth) unemployment following the Great Recession has not led to more substantial labor market reforms. In such countries austerity might block rather than foster additional structural reforms. ( JEL D64, D72, J48) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study presented here is aimed at analyzing the comparative advantages in the European clothing sector with the focus on Balkan states. The dynamics of change over a 15-year period following economic reforms are revealed. For all Balkan countries export plays an important role in promoting economic growth and development and the clothing industries play a significant role and continue to contribute to the economic prosperity in this countries. The evolution of the RCA index for garment industry is decreasing for all countries in the Balkans. The evolution of the Lafay index is also decreasing in the most Balkan countries (except Greece, Montenegro and Slovenia) but still the values for Lafay index is positive what indicating that in these countries the sale of garments contribute positively to balance the trade balance of countries analyzed. Negative value of the Lafay index may be due to the fact that the garment industry is one of the key industries in the economy of that country and also because the earnings from garment industry in these countries is high. When the producers of the Balkan countries will create products with higher added value in garment industry the competitiveness of these countries will decrease. Also rising wages in this industry, as a result of trade union pressure or government policy, will lead to decreasing competitiveness of these products on the EU market and implicitly to the decrease of exports of garments from these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifty years ago, a Portuguese sociologist, Adérito Sedas Nunes (1964), used the image of a 'dual society under evolution' to refer to Portugal. Since then, the image of Portugal as a country simultaneously old and new, (post) modern and traditional was used by several social scientists in various fields of research (migration, urban studies, social policy, education, culture). In spite of the remarkable process of modernization the country has experienced during this period of time, inequalities and dualisms continue to be deeply embedded in the economic and social system and were even intensified by recent austerity measures in the context of massive unemployment and economic distress. In the article, I examine two specific domains where signs of dualism(s) persist, the labour market and the system of welfare, and investigate how the interconnectedness between the two is generating new forms of social and economic inequalities. Reforms in the labour market have been under constant reform within the last decades, representing, for a large and increasing number of individuals, more precarious working conditions, low paid jobs, unstable lives with intermittent careers. At the same time, governmental policies have contributed to diminish the level of social protection for labour market participants in precarious employment as well as for people without jobs. This article aims at providing a contribution to the literature on dualization focusing on the link between changing forms of integration in the labour market and transformations in the social protection system, examining its specific configuration in one of the countries belonging to the Southern European welfare regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following van Berkel's distinction between substantial and procedural reforms, the article analyses the governance changes in the strategies for improving labour market integration of young people - changes involving vertical and horizontal coordination in the context of the introduction and implementation of the Youth Guarantee initiative in Bulgaria.The empirical analysis is based on critical revision of secondary country-based literature, official documents, existing national policy/programme evaluations and statistics, and expert interviews with key officials from agencies involved in the implementation of the Youth Guarantee in Bulgaria. The article outlines the main changes in vertical and horizontal coordination and further suggests possibilities for development and recommendations for policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This note argues that one should lay the focus of future European growth policy on integration and technology. This focus should be on maximising the growth effects of their interaction, with an emphasis on the importance of deep integration. The note provides three examples that show how deep integration has contributed to stop the relative economic decline in the UK vis-à-vis the EU founding members; how deep integration increased productivity in Sweden, Austria, and Finland compared to that in Norway; and how a key mechanism to advancements in the new EU member states has been the capacity of deep integration to generate institutional change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines banking structural reforms introduced in the European Union (EU), placed in an international context. The concept of ‘regulatory cascading’ is put forward to investigate how European policy-makers tackle complex multi-faceted problems, such as that of banks which are ‘too big to fail’. The article shows that partial solutions to the problem introduced in other areas of banking regulation, coupled with strategic activism at the domestic level by key EU member states have constrained the opportunities to design a coherent EU framework regulating bank structures. In response to the Commission's proposal for harmonised European banking structural reforms, the Council has stressed in its position two approaches that closely correspond to the measures adopted in France and Germany, on the one hand, and the UK, on the other hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article talks about neoliberalism and economic reforms in Eastern Europe and Eurasia dealing with topics such as democratization and economic liberalization. Topics include economic theories as per Adam Przeworski, Ralf Dahrendorf, and Jon Elster, rise in authoritarianism and populism, and communism. Also discussed are topics such as privatization reforms in Kazakhstan, price liberalization in European Union, and transitional economic theory.

The literature on reform policy fulfillment after the collapse of Communism identifies mandate responsiveness as the weakest aspect of the quality of democracy in Eastern Europe. We build on this research and specify both direct and interaction effects of party promises and voter understanding on policy outcomes. On the empirical level, we develop a measure of citizen comprehension of party positions to analyze this component of the mandate model, previously omitted in much of the scholarship on the topic. Our findings suggest that elements of mandate responsiveness are emerging in the post-communist countries, and that they are present in some policy areas but not in others. The effect of campaign pledges on policy outcomes is contingent on voter awareness of what politicians promise. This knowledge is improved by the distinctiveness in party programs regarding democratization and marketization. Related Articles [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major aim of the recent updates of National Accounting standards (SNA2008 and ESA2010) is to provide a more complete picture of households' wealth. In this course it will become mandatory for European countries to publish annual estimates of unfunded public pension entitlements (UPPE) from 2017 onwards. This study describes the methodological concepts behind this new figure of national accounts. After a review of past studies we provide a large cross-country comparison for 18 EU countries and discuss a number of possible applications for policy makers and researchers. This includes the measurement of changes in pension obligations due to 2nd pillar pension reforms-observed recently in a number of Central and Eastern European countries. Also the use for estimating the offset between unfunded pension entitlements and savings rates (Feldstein in J Polit Econ 82:905-926, ) is discussed. Finally, we show the distribution of households' wealth across Europe including financial wealth, dwellings and UPPE. With respect to the pre-financial crisis year 2006, our data indicate that taking these three wealth categories into account many differences between countries with Beveridgean and Bismarckian pension systems as well as between western and central eastern European countries are eliminated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Market deregulation has been integral to economic globalization, but we do not know very much about the comparative dimension of reform, i.e., the performance of liberal and co-ordinated market economies. Co-ordinated market economies are often assumed to perform poorly in deregulation reform, while such reform is path-dependent to the liberal market economy model. The article compares the trajectory of market deregulation in these different ‘varieties of capitalism’. Drawing on the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's ‘product market regulation indicators', the analysis shows that co-ordinated market economies have implemented more extensive deregulation than have the liberal market economies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We position “smart specialization” (SS) as the third external and conditionality-based reform of economic policy rationales – after Washington Consensus and Europeanization – in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). We discuss what kind of state, policy, and administrative capacities, or routines, SS presumes. We show that over the years CEE economies have built very different routines, especially for policy coordination and public–private interactions. Design and implementation of functional SS strategies requires critical attention and development of these routines through contextual policy experimentation in all CEE regions. We provide some general guidelines for this. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An essay is presented which discusses proposals for reforming the European welfare state in the wake of an economic crisis in the twenty-first century, and it mentions Internal Markets, the modernisation of public finances in the European Union (EU), and reform measures for various EU public services. An economic recession in Europe is examined, as well as EU laws and structural reforms aimed at promoting economic growth. EU Member States and national welfare rules are assessed.

We study how the quality and instability of institutions and policies affect economic growth in 35 European countries. While stability entails valuable predictability, instability can reflect reforms that offer positive long-run consequences. We construct measures of quality and instability for a panel of countries for 1984–2009. Results suggest that the quality of policy is growth-promoting. Notably, this positive effect becomes larger the more unstable policies are. The findings suggest that for European countries, the benefits of policy flexibility – due to experimentation and learning or making rent seeking more difficult – dominate the costs of reduced predictability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the political discourse on the resolution of the Eurozone of the second Merkel government and its political contestation in plenary debates of the Bundestag. The empirical part demonstrates the high relevance of normative arguments in the debate, both for the case made by the government parties for a Stability Union and related concepts of austerity and economic reform, and for the competing discourse by the opposition parties for investment and debt mutualisation in the Eurozone. Moreover, the analysis reveals that a strong value- and identity-based commitment to European integration continues to be supported by all political parties in the Bundestag. To conclude, the final section discusses party political and institutional factors to explain why the political contestation of the European leadership by the Merkel government in the Bundestag played only a very limited role at the federal election in September 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the discussion of the armed conflict in Macedonia the economic theory of civil war was used, presented by Paul Collier, Anke Hoeffler and Dominic Rohner. The authors of the theory based their assumptions on a "feasibility hypothesis", that is the possibility of a rebellion, claiming that "where a rebellion is possible, it will take place", with relevant economic factors in place. Once they were analysed, it became clear that they were very important in the case of Macedonia as the economic crisis offered some groups of Albanians reasons for expressing their dissatisfaction more radically as well as claims vis à vis the state authorities in Skopje, but also led to corruption, discontinuation of reforms, and illegal trade on a large scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a semi-endogenous growth model for analysing the intertemporal effects of structural reforms in Southern European countries (Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece). The model follows the product-variety paradigm in a semi-endogenous setting, and includes a disaggregation of labour into different skill groups. We use a comprehensive set of structural indicators in order to calibrate the model to important macroeconomic ratios and levels of productivity and employment. Our results show that structural reforms yield significant economic gains in the medium and long run. The results point to the importance of product market reforms and labour market related education and tax reforms as the most promising areas of structural policy interventions. This paper also argues for placing more emphasis on education policy which is key in upgrading the labour force, especially in these countries where the share of low skilled labour is among the highest in the euro area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of this study is the retrospective comparative analysis of empirical models of the welfare state in Europe. It was preceded by a theoretical introduction, presenting the most important concepts of combining the advantages of the market mechanism with social protection. It follows from empirical analysis that in Europe the development of welfare state evolved into two basic models: 1) the redistributive and more egalitarian (interventionist), 2) the liberal model based on the dependence of social rights more on contributions to insurance schemes i.e. incomes and lesson inflows of taxes to the budget. The collapse of material bases of the welfare state in Europe in 1970s and 1980s resulted in the necessity of reducing its costs, which applied especially to the redistributive model, while the introduced systemic reforms impacted the growing importance of the liberal model supported by coordination policy in different forms and at different economic levels. However, the convergence of national models of the welfare state in the EU does not mean that it is the factor facilitating enough the possibility to introduce the common welfare state model. The study contains a long list of factors limiting the implementation of the European social model and it is apparent that social borders in Europe are still heavily marked and will be difficult to remove. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The parliaments in the EU are facing a choice. They may exploit the existing possibilities, continue business as usual (possibly with declining participation in inter-parliamentary cooperation, so no change), or bypass existing inter- parliamentary structures. The last and most extreme scenario would mean that some national parliaments, for example the six founding members or the Member States that have adopted the euro, create their own conference, with serious repercussions to "pre-in" countries, to the EU institutions, and to the inclusiveness of economic and financial governance. The second option (business as usual) does not help building a genuine Economic and Monetary Union either. Only the first scenario would help reduce the existing weakness in democratic accountability and legitimacy, both in general, and especially in connection with the genuine EMU in the making. An inter-parliamentary conference as a place to discuss these policies could have the positive effect of gradually becoming an arena in which the future direction of the Union's economic policy is shaped. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates decision makers' strategic use of European integration and globalisation discourses to justify and coordinate national sector reforms. This is done using the example of banking sector reforms in two small European Union (EU) member states, Ireland and Denmark. Two key arguments are put forward: (1) National governments' ability to make credible claims about their ability to influence the direction of European integration is crucial in enabling them to justify sector reforms. Thus, as a full member of the European Monetary Union (EMU), Irish decision makers are able to make credible claims about their influence on European financial integration, an option not available to Danish decision makers since Denmark is not a Eurozone member; (2) Globalisation comprises a particularly compelling set of discourses which enables decision makers to carry through sector reforms in line with European integration measures, even in the absence of national commitment to the latter. Discourses of globalisation have thus become ‘the last resort’ for Danish decision makers in justifying and coordinating reforms that are in line with EU regulations and recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of ifo Schnelldienst is the property of ifo Institute for Economic Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revue Internationale du Travail is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper, I compare two reforms that raised the minimum school-leaving age to 16 in France (1967) and in England and Wales (1972). Using a regression discontinuity design, I find that while the reform in England and Wales led to a 6−7 percent increase in hourly wages per additional year of compulsory schooling, the impact of the change to French law was close to zero. The results suggest that the major difference between the two reforms was that the fraction of individuals holding no qualifications dropped sharply after the introduction of the new minimum school-leaving age in England and Wales, whereas it remained unchanged in France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the onset of the sovereign debt crisis, the crisis-stricken countries in Europe have been pushed to take drastic steps to consolidate their finances and reduce their budget deficits. Despite strong public opposition and largely damaging short-run effects, the countries have undertaken many of the internationally recommended/mandated reforms and spending cuts. In this Forum, authors from Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Portugal report on the fiscal consolidation achieved in their respective countries - and the sacrifices that have made it possible. Furthermore, the authors detail what remains to be done to resolve the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper uses an agricultural household model in an imperfect market environment and data from Burkina Faso to explore the impact of potential immigration policy reforms in Europe on the welfare of rural households. Simulation results demonstrate that, in contrast to continental migration, increased intercontinental migration has strong positive household welfare effects. Similarly, an increase in the stay abroad of intercontinental migrants impacts positively on welfare of the migrant-sending household. Results of these simulations lend support to the introduction of a TMP, which would, in addition to facilitating migration control in host economies, improve the welfare of sending households by allowing for increased engagement in intercontinental migration. The temporary nature of such a program would ensure that “Dutch disease” effects would be mitigated through eventual migrant return. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the traditional model of international trade, labour market reforms in one country are often viewed as beggar-thy-neighbour policies, because they negatively affect the competitiveness and employment levels of the country's trading partners. Empirical evidence, however, suggests that this is not the case. By addressing labour market reforms in the context of intra-industry trade, this article explains how such reforms, while boosting employment, ultimately reduce a country's terms of trade, thereby benefitting the country's trading partners. The authors call for more international policy coordination to achieve optimal outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]