scholarly journals Activation is not a panacea: active labour market policy, long-term unemployment and institutional complementarity

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
LUC BENDA ◽  
FERRY KOSTER ◽  
ROMKE VAN DER VEEN
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Employment Protection ◽  
Unemployment Benefit ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Active Labour Market Policy ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
Labour Market Policies ◽  
Active Labour Market Policies ◽  
Active Labour

AbstractEvaluation studies of active labour market policy show different activation measures generate contradictory results. In the present study, we argue that these contradictory results are due to the fact that the outcomes of activation measures depend on other institutions. The outcome measure in this study is the long-term unemployment rate. Two labour market institutions are of special interest in this context: namely, employment protection and unemployment benefits. Both institutions, depending on their design, may either increase or decrease the effectiveness of active labour market policies in lowering long-term unemployment. Based on an analysis of macro-level data on 20 countries over a period of 16 years, our results show that employment protection strictness and unemployment benefit generosity interact with the way in which active labour market policies relate to long-term unemployment. Our results also indicate that, depending on the measure used, active labour market policies fit either in a flexible or in a coordinated labour market. This suggests that active labour market policies can adhere to both institutional logics, which are encapsulated in different types of measures.

scholarly journals The Effects of Expenditures for Labour Market Policy on Unemployment Rate

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-64
Author(s):  
Laura Južnik Rotar
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Unemployment Rate ◽  
Panel Regression ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Active Labour Market Policy ◽  
Unemployed People ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
Labour Market Policies ◽  
Active Labour Market Policies ◽  
Active Labour

Abstract Background: Labour market policy aims to fight against unemployment and to raise employment. With this study we attempt to contribute to the evidence of the effectiveness of active labour market policy. Objectives: In the empirical part of the paper we aim to research the relations between the labour market policies and macroeconomic variables. Methods/Approach: In order to distinguish the effects of expenditures for labour market policies on unemployment rate, we separately analysed the effects of expenditures for active labour market policies and the effects of expenditures for passive labour market policies on unemployment rate using panel regression analysis. Results: The expenditures for active labour market policies have negative and statistically significant effect on unemployment rate, whereas the expenditures for passive labour market policies have positive and statistically significant effect on unemployment rate. Conclusions: Not only the activation strategies with benefit conditioning, but also encouraging and enabling unemployed person to actively approach in searching for a job should be implemented. The implementation of activation strategies which create favourable conditions for unemployed people to develop their skills, fulfil their potential, continuously maintain contacts with the employers and actively participate in the society should be supported.

Social Democracy and Active Labour-Market Policies: Insiders, Outsiders and the Politics of Employment Promotion

2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 385-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID RUEDA
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Employment Protection ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Active Labour Market Policy ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
Labour Market Policies ◽  
Active Labour ◽  
Employment Promotion

Active labour-market policy is an important tool for governments interested in the promotion of employment. This article explores a topic in the comparative political economy literature in need of more attention: the politics behind the promotion of active labour policies. It is argued here that social democratic governments are often not interested in employment promotion measures; labour is divided into those with secure employment (insiders) and those without (outsiders); it is contended that social democratic governments have strong incentives to pursue labour-market policies that benefit insiders but not outsiders. There are factors, however, that either exacerbate or limit the effects of insider–outsider differences on social democracy. These claims are tested in three ways. First, the interplay of government partisanship and employment protection is explored in the British case. Secondly, the individual preferences assumed in the model are tested with Eurobarometer data. And thirdly, the effects of social democracy on active labour-market policy are analysed using data from sixteen industrialized democracies.

scholarly journals The state and class discipline: European labour market policy after the financial crisis

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Umney ◽  
Ian Greer ◽  
Özlem Onaran ◽  
Graham Symon
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Market Institutions ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
Labour Market Policies ◽  
Active Labour Market Policies ◽  
Active Labour ◽  
Before And After

This article looks at two related labour market policies that have persisted and even proliferated across Europe both before and after the financial crisis: wage restraint and punitive workfare programmes. It asks why these policies, despite their weak empirical records, have been so durable. Moving beyond comparative-institutionalist explanations which emphasise institutional stickiness, it draws on Marxist and Kaleckian ideas around the concept of ‘class discipline’. It argues that under financialisation, the need for states to implement policies that discipline the working class is intensified, even if these policies do little to enable (and may even counteract) future stability. Wage restraint and punitive active labour market policies are two examples of such measures. Moreover, this disciplinary impetus has subverted and marginalised regulatory labour market institutions, rather than being embedded within them.

French employment market policies: dualisation and destabilisation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hélène Caune ◽  
Sotiria Theodoropoulou
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Active Labour Market Policy ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
Labour Market Policies ◽  
Active Labour ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Protection Legislation ◽  
Fiscal Austerity

In this chapter explores whether the direction of labour market reforms in France has changed since 2010 by comparison with the previous two decades. It looks into broad labour market policy areas, namely, income support for the unemployed, active labour market policies and employment protection legislation before and after 2009 and asks the following questions. What form has retrenchment taken under the recent fiscal pressures and how has it been distributed across these policy domains? Has the emphasis of active labour market policy instruments changed? How have policy changes affected insiders and outsiders in the labour market? It is shown that during economic crisis and the subsequent fiscal austerity period there were no paradigmatic changes in French labour market policies, which continued to develop along a path pursued since the early 2000s. Successive governments, both centre-right and centre-left, have implemented flexicurity à la française, with a focus on flexibility at the expense of security. External flexibility – firms’ ability to hire and dismiss workers – has been developed for both core workers and more precarious forms of employment (temporary work). Furthermore, new measures also introduced important changes in the field of internal flexibility (working-time organisation, wages).

Active Labour Market Policy and Unemployment Scarring: A Ten-year Swedish Panel Study

2008 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 357-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
MATTIAS STRANDH ◽  
MADELENE NORDLUND
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Capital Investments ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Active Labour Market Policy ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
Active Labour ◽  
Human Capital Investments ◽  
Over Time

AbstractPrevious studies have shown mixed results concerning the effects of participation in active labour market policy programmes (ALMPs) on the longer-term scars in the form of poor income development and low job stability following the end of an unemployment spell. Most previous studies, however, have been limited both in the time frame used and to particular programmes. We argue that human capital investments are long-term investments and should therefore also be investigated from a long-term perspective. ALMP training and ALMPs as subsidised employment also represent different types of human capital investments that may produce effects that are differently distributed over time. In order to handle these issues, this article uses a longitudinal register-based dataset in which all long-term (more than six months) unemployed Swedes in 1993, who had no labour market problems in 1992, were followed for ten years. We found positive effects of ALMP participation concerning both the probability of reaching pre-unemployment incomes and a reduction in the hazard of exiting the labour market, while the effect on the probability of having an unemployment-free year was mixed. The effects of the two forms of ALMPs were differently distributed over time, with ALMP employment having an immediate effect that decreased relatively quickly and ALMP training having a longer-term effect.

Active and passive labour market policies on the Russian labour market: Centralization or regionalization?

2019 ◽  
pp. 79-98
Author(s):  
Marina A. Giltman ◽  
Natalia V. Obukhovich ◽  
Oksana E. Tokareva
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Financial Support ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Active Labour Market Policy ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
Labour Market Policies ◽  
Active Labour ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Employment Programs ◽  
Federal Center

The article explores the evolution of active and passive labour market policies in the Russian Federation from the 1990s to nowadays, highlighting the roles of the federal center and the regions in its implementation. The study was based on descriptive and institutional analysis, as well as content analysis of regional employment programs. The results have shown that decentralization was applied only to an active labour market policy. At the same time the most ambitious goals were continued to be reached with additional organizational and financial support from the centre.

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