High Levels Of Employment Research Articles

Implementation of the welfare state in the Visegrád countries

ABSTRACT. This paper aims to match the Visegrad countries which joined the European Union in 2004 and are usually analysed as a separate group of their own (often referred to as the catching-up countries) with the welfare models functioning in Western Europe. The empirical part includes an analysis of the practical functioning of the welfare state in the Visegrad countries against the broader background of the EU-15. The working hypothesis is that the models differ in terms of the effectiveness and justice of embraced solutions, as well as the influence of public spending on the quality of life and reduction of poverty.Our analysis shows that one can classify Czech Republic as a country of the Nordic model, Hungary and Slovakia as Continental and Poland as Mediterranean. The Nordic system performs the best among all the welfare state models in terms of the principal assessment criteria that include the labour market situation, as well as the reduction of poverty and social inequalities. However, their policies have not been very cost-effective; public spending exceeds 30% of the GDP, and the global crisis has increased it even further. The example of Anglo-Saxon Ireland shows that public expenditure can be used more effectively to fight poverty; Ireland has managed to reduce poverty by almost as much as Sweden, Finland, or Denmark, but at a much lower cost.In the analysis, the Visegrad countries, the Czech Republic (the Nordic model) and Slovakia (the continental model) in particular, achieve satisfactory results across all indicators.Keywords: welfare states, the European Social Model (ESM), Visegrad countries, labour market, reduction of poverty.JEL Classification : E24, I31, I38, J21IntroductionIn the aftermath of the Second World War, the countries of Western Europe have adopted a special socio-economic model, known today as the welfare state or the European Social Model (ESM). The model can be considered a specific example of social policy implemented on European soil (hereinafter, the terms 'social policy' and the 'European social model' will be used interchangeably). However, it is worth noting that despite many similarities, the details of its implementation have varied from one state to another (see Strielkowski et al., 2014; or Strielkowski and Cabelkova, 2015). The Visegrad countries, which joined the European Union in 2004, have usually been analysed as a separate group of their own, referred to as the catching-up countries. The purpose of this article is to match them with the welfare models functioning in Western Europe. The research part includes an analysis of the practical functioning of the welfare state in the Visegrad countries against the broader background of the EU-15. The hypothesis is that the models differ in terms of the effectiveness and justice of embraced solutions, as well as the influence of public spending on the quality of life and reduction of poverty.1. Basic concepts and definitionsThe European Social Model (ESM) is not easy to define, as the EU member states have adopted many different variants of the model within their national frameworks. This is mainly due to the difference in traditions, cultures, and experiences, as well as the level of economic development. However, there also exist certain similarities between the different national solutions, and, consequently, it is possible to propose a general and coherent definition of ESM by enumerating its most important features (Borowiec, 2011).The Treaty on the functioning of the European Union (TFEU) emphasizes that:* In all its activities, the Union shall aim to eliminate inequalities, and to promote equality, between men and women (art. 8);* art. 9: In defining and implementing its policies and activities, the Union shall take into account requirements linked to the promotion of a high level of employment, the guarantee of adequate social protection, the fight against social exclusion, and a high level of education, training and protection of human health. …

Multi-scalar residential context and recovery from illness: An analysis using Swedish register data

The aim of this paper is to analyse if recovery from ill-health is influenced by geographical context using a multi-scalar approach to context measurement and Swedish longitudinal register-based data on sickness benefit recipiency as an indicator of onset of and recovery from illness. Our sample consists of individuals that have stayed healthy and in work for a three-year period (2000–2002) and then falls ill during the fourth year (2003), some of who recover to good health in the fifth year (2004). The results show that in areas with above-average percentages of people receiving sickness-benefit there is a reduced probability of recovery. In contrast, high levels of employment in the neighbourhood and in the local area have a positive effect on the chances of recovery. These contextual effects are statistically significant but relatively weak in comparison to the influence of individual level factors such as age, sex, marital status, and income. Our conclusion is that individualised scalable neighbourhoods constitute a potentially valuable addition to the toolbox used in neighbourhood effect studies.

Kultura i dyplomacja kulturalna Unii Europejskiej na przykładzie Programu „Kreatywna Europa”. Analiza politologiczna

The intention of the author of this paper is to present a scientific analysis of the influence of culture and the cultural diplomacy of the European Union on the animation and stimulation of Europe’s integration process, which is in a constant state of perturbation and lack of stability. It examines the problem-related approach to the European Union’s change and development strategy, including the „Europe 2020” strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, which envisages the implementation of many new communal initiatives and practical solutions introduced by the European Union, including ones that concern both the cultural sector and the creative and audiovisual sector. The European Union, from 2020 onwards, intends to be ready to reach a high level of employment and efficiency, and a higher level of social integration. To enable this, the European Union must ensure attractive framework conditions for innovation and creativity. In that respect, the cultural sector and the creative and audiovisual sector are the source of groundbreaking ideas which may develop into products and services that could contribute to economic growth and job creation, thereby fighting the crisis and social problems. The economic and social crisis in Europe has also been influencing the world of culture. A series of problematic issues associated with the fragmentation of culture and its inventions are identified, including globalisation and digitalisation, underinvestment, inadequate protection of intellectual property and copyright, and insufficient international cultural cooperation.

Context, Service Provision, and Reflections on Future Directions of Support for Individuals With Intellectual Disability in Singapore

AbstractThe author examined how individuals with intellectual disability (ID) are supported in Singapore and what are the needs for further service development. Service provision for individuals with disabilities in Singapore is broadly reflective of its changing needs as a developing nation. Disability service provision began in the pre‐World War II period and then advanced greatly during the last 20 years with the proliferation of early intervention and specialized programs for school‐aged children as well an expansion of adult‐focused supports. Social services are organized along the “Three Ps Model” (public, private, and people), involving a collaboration of nongovernmental organizations, the government, and the corporate sector. With respect to school‐age services, although a fairly comprehensive system has been put in place to support the education of students with disabilities, the system continues to evolve. The situation is more limited with respect to supports for adults. With Singapore reaching high levels of employment, there is an impetus for some individuals with ID to be part of the workforce; for those without work skills, day options for some include workshops and developmental activity centers. For parent carers, supports remain limited and there is a disparity between the goals outlined in the World Disability Report and currently available options for most adults and their families. Recommendations include studies to better understand the population of persons with ID and their needs, a reexamination of the diffused responsibility for disability‐related services within the government, and an evaluation of the way services are delivered by the voluntary sector.

Fifty Years Later: From a War on Poverty to a War on the Poor

> “There is no blight on American life so great as the enduring poverty in our great cities and of the still unseen poor in the rural and mountain regions. And, of course, in the larger world.” > > John K. Galbraith, The Affluent Society ([1958] 1998:xii) It was images of poor families taken in rural Appalachia by photographers Billy Barnes, John Dominis, and Andrew Stern, coupled with the writings of The New York Times journalist Homer Bigart and seminal books by scholars Michael Harrington ( The Other America [1962]) and John Galbraith ( The Affluent Society [{1958}1998]) that brought poverty to light as a major social problem facing a relatively affluent America of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Concerned with expanding opportunities and increasing income for the 37 million Americans living in poverty at the time, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared an unconditional war on poverty on January 8, 1964, initiating a “new era of direct federal involvement in schools, hospitals, labor markets, and neighborhoods” (quoted in Bailey and Danziger 2013:1-3). The overarching goals of the War on Poverty were to: sustain high levels of employment; accelerate national and regional economic growth; improve labor markets; regenerate urban and rural communities; expand educational and training opportunities for youth as well as adults; advance the nation’s health; and expand support to the elderly and disabled (Bailey and Danziger 2013:7). To address these goals, Johnson worked with Congress to pass more than 200 pieces of legislation, resulting in the largest expansion of social safety net programs in U.S. history. This legislation created the Medicaid and Medicare programs providing health care to low-income people and the elderly; expanded the Head Start early education program; increased funding for K-12 and postsecondary education; established Food Stamps (currently known as SNAP) and other school and community-based nutrition programs; …

Competition, work rules and productivity

I develop a theory to explain why workers want restrictive work rules, those that induce wages to be paid for non-productive labor hours, and why competition reduces them. Work rules allow workers to maintain both high levels of employment and wages. They generate a fixed payment that transfers the firm׳s surplus to workers, which wages alone cannot do, making them robust to alternative modeling assumptions. Competition loosens work rules by reducing the firm׳s surplus, which increases productivity.

Rural Community Nurses: Insights into Health Workforce and Health Service Needs in Tasmania

Rural Community Nurses: Insights into Health Workforce and Health Service Needs in Tasmania

The Shock Heard round the Suburbs: Assessing the Vulnerability, Resilience, and Transportation Affordability of Higher Fuel Price Scenarios

With transportation the second highest household expenditure, understanding the disproportionate impact that a drastic increase in the gas price might have on a major city and region is vital. This study sought to increase the understanding of resiliency, vulnerability, and transportation affordability issues by asking the following questions: What would happen if the cost to drive suddenly doubled or tripled? Who would be better off and why? How much would residency near downtown or near one's job make a difference? What would matter in terms of transit infrastructure? How much of a role would current travel behavior play? This study derived resiliency scenarios in which the cost to drive increased one and one-half, two, and three times with the use of a multinomial logistic regression mode choice model developed with major travel surveys conducted in 1997 and 2008, a time period during which gas prices more than tripled. The focus of this study was on work trips, which were those trips most likely to be nondiscretionary. The annual cost to commute was estimated as a percentage of the median household income. Transit infrastructure, active transportation, built environment, land use, and socioeconomic status were assessed for their influences on resiliency, vulnerability, and transportation affordability. Although high income represented one path to resilience, the study results suggested that higher resilience could also be found in locations with proximity to high levels of employment, with more compact and connected street networks, and with better transit infrastructure. Beyond current travel behaviors, a significant option value to transit was also found in the resiliency scenarios. Transportation choice was found to create network redundancy and to facilitate adaptability under extreme conditions.

A Spatial Analysis of Precarious Forms of Employment in France

AbstractThis paper provides the first detailed analysis of the spatial dimensions of precarious employment across the French territory. We find that different forms of precarious employment exhibit different spatial patterns. The most striking locational pattern is shown by fixed‐term contracts and part‐time work where we observe clusters of high levels of precarious employment primarily in southern regions. Northern regions, in contrast, are characterised by clusters of low levels of precarious employment. We also find that precarious employment is predominantly a rural phenomenon with the exception of temporary (interim) work which displays higher average levels in urban communes. Finally, modelling results suggest that the geographical distribution of precarious forms of employment is linked to factors such as the unemployment rate, the industrial composition of a region, gender and the structure of family households.

Targeting educational disadvantage by area: continuity and change in urban areas in England, 1968–2014

Focusing on data and policies from England, trends in educational disadvantage by area are traced from the late 1960s when the first pilot projects were established in the UK, to the present. The origins of these developments and the subsequent rises and falls of such area-based policies in England are reviewed. Specially collected data for the pilot areas from the 1960s and national data for England from 2000 are used to draw out some striking patterns of changes over the period. Though many of the areas remain highly disadvantaged, educational measures at age 16 and at entry to higher education (HE) indicate some important changes. Thus the settled, white working-class pilot area in the 1960s with just below average results had fallen back very substantially by 2013, particularly in entry to HE. By contrast the newly settled Asian immigrant area in Birmingham where educational performance was exceptionally poor in the 1960s had moved above average despite remaining highly disadvantaged. Analysis of the national results since 2000 using local area data showed that these trends were widespread across England. Disadvantaged ‘multicultural urban areas’ were doing markedly better than the disadvantaged white working-class urban areas, where in many cases traditional industries had closed. This was especially marked at entry to HE where multicultural areas had rates close to the national average of 40% while white working-class urban areas had rates of entry to HE of between 10% and 15% of the age group and this gap has widened rapidly in recent years. These trends are likely to be the source of major resentment, with one group finding itself increasingly excluded from higher level employment opportunities, and the other failing to find opportunities that match their expectations once they leave education.

Coping with Imbalances in the Euro Area: Policy Alternatives Addressing Divergences and Disparities between Member Countries

In this paper we outline alternative policy recommendations addressing the problems of differential inflation, divergence in competitiveness and associated current account imbalances within the Euro area. The major purpose of these alternative policy proposals is to generate sustainably high demand and output growth in the Euro area as a whole, providing high levels of non-inflationary employment, as well as preventing 'export-led mercantilist' and 'debt-led consumption boom' types of development, both within the Euro area and with respect to the role of the Euro area in the world economy. We provide a basic framework in order to systematically address the related issues making use of Thirlwall's (1979; 2002) model of a 'balance-of-payments-constrained growth rate' (BPCGR). Based on this framework, we outline the required stance for alternative economic policies and then we discuss the implications for alternative monetary, wage/incomes and fiscal policies in the Euro area as a whole, as well as the consequences for structural and regional policies in the Euro area periphery, in particular.

Garegnani’s ‘theoretical enterprise’ and the theory of distribution

This paper reconstructs the essential traits of Garegnani's thought on the theory of distribution. In particular, it reconstructs the central point of his work (which saw him involved in debates with economists such as Blaug, Bliss, Hahn, Hollander, Joan Robinson and Samuelson) – namely, the development of Sraffa's work, both regarding the critique of the marginalist theory of value and distribution, and the revival of the surplus approach of Smith, Ricardo and Marx. It also reconstructs a characteristic which was a constant of Garegnani's activity – that is, his attention to concrete economic phenomena and the search for economic policies able to assure high levels of employment and the well-being of the greatest part of the population. These two traits of Garegnani's work are traceable since his first contributions to economic theory – namely, from his 1958 PhD thesis entitled A Problem in the Theory of Capital from Ricardo to Wicksell to his 1962 work for Svimez, where Garegnani faced the issue of how to achieve a higher rate of growth in a case like that of Italy, characterised by large areas with high labour underemployment. The two traits were of course strictly interconnected, as, for instance, the suggestion in favour of Keynesian economic policies, or the criticism (especially in the absence of full employment of resources) to Pareto optimality and its implications for policy analysis could not but pass through a critique of the marginalist theory and the simultaneous clarification and development of an alternative theoretical approach.

Keynes and the International Clearing Union: A Possible Model for Eurozone Reform?

AbstractEconomic and monetary union in Europe, as currently constituted, has a number of structural weaknesses. Large, persistent international payments imbalances necessitate deficit nations to deflate their economies or squeeze social wages in order to restore competitiveness. Surplus nations accrue reserves, with little pressure to maintain related contribution to spending power in the real economy. The asymmetric treatment of credit and debit nations reduces aggregate demand in the eurozone. This article examines a solution, first proposed by John Maynard Keynes, whereby symmetrical treatment of balance of payments transactions may promote economic growth and higher levels of employment. It outlines the key features of the system and highlights the relevance of the solution to the issues faced by the eurozone.

"Some Aspects Of Employment In Romania‘s Agriculture In The European Context "

Employment in agriculture is an important component of the policy of sustainable rural development. This has implications for the effective use of agricultural potential that Romania has in stabilizing rural population by achieving revenue to ensure an adequate quality of life. The analysis presented in this paper highlights common characteristics of employment in agriculture and the disparities recorded in Romania and other countries that joined the European Union later (Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria) against one of the European countries with developed agriculture (Germany). Raised disparities concern especially the high level of employment in agriculture in Romania and low labor productivity, but other features of employment-related to demographics, mode of employment, training and education are analyzed.

The Transition from School to Work for Children of Immigrants with Lower-Level Educational Credentials in the United States and France

This paper compares the transition from school to work among Mexican-origin youth in the United States and North African-origin youth in France relative to the native-majority youth with similar low-level credentials. The goal is to understand the extent to which these groups experience ethnic penalties in the labor market not explained by social class, low-level credentials, or other characteristics. The patterns of employment for second-generation minorities play out differently in the two contexts. In France, lack of access to jobs is a source of disadvantage for North African children of immigrants, while in the united States, second-generation Mexicans do not suffer from a lack of employment. Indeed, the Mexican second-generation shows a uniquely high level of employment. We argue that high levels of youth unemployment in the society, as is the case in France, means greater ethnic penalties for second-generation minorities.

Predators and Prey on Wall Street

Much financial activity is zero-sum. While providing transactional and diversification services to others, participants also prey upon each other. High-ability predators trade opportunistically with less-able prey. In our dynamic model these features amplify real shocks. The presence of more low-ability traders reduces expected losses to high-ability traders, leading to equilibria with high levels of financial activity and employment. Shocks to profits can motivate exit by low-ability traders, rendering those of intermediate skill more vulnerable. Thus, our relatively simple model generates boom-bust dynamics suggestive of Wall Street.

The postwar business cycle in Western Europe and the role of government policy

The article examines the factors which have modified the operation of the business cycle in the post-war period and analyses the extent to which the experience of high levels of demand and employment has been due to accidental and temporary circumstances, to permanent changes in the structure and behaviour of the economy, or to improvements in economic policy. The author first characterizes the post-war record in statistical terms and sets it in historical perspective. The factors that have contributed to high levels of European demand are then described, distinguishing between temporary and more permanent changes. Finally, the changed role of government is analysed in detail.

The geography of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A population-based study of Norway

Research on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that includes geographic information is important in order to improve care and appropriate allocation of resources to patients suffering from COPD. The purpose of this study is to investigate the geography of COPD and factors associated with the spatial patterns of COPD prevalence. Particular emphasis is put on the role of the local socioeconomic environment. Utilising information from the Norwegian Prescription Database on all lung medication prescribed in 2009 we identified 62,882 persons with COPD in the Norwegian population. Patterns of spatial clustering in the prevalence of COPD are clearly evident, even when age and gender are controlled for. Gender and age are strongly related to COPD risk. Socio-economic characteristics of the community such as education and unemployment are also significantly correlated with COPD risk. People living in rural parts of the country are generally associated with less risk than people in urban settings, and in particular people living in communities with high levels of farm and fisheries employment.

ADANA DEMİRSPOR VE ADANASPOR FUTBOL TARAFTARLARININ ŞİDDET EĞİLİMLERİ

Although fans called as fanatics and hooligans have a large share concerning aggressive behaviors in football; the tendency to violence of general fan mass and their contribution to the cases have a significant role for the increase of violence to alarming levels. Gradual increase in the amount of violence and aggression in sports areas and the conflict between fans and police or the conflict between the opponent teams’ fans bring forth damage to the social structure. Arrangements in the light of scientific studies will present a more effective way in preventing violence. In this study; the purpose is to expose the demographic characteristics and tendency to violence of the fans of two arch-rivals and the primal teams Adanaspor and Adana Demirspor in Adana Province. With the results of this study, it was determined that Adana Demirspor supporters have higher education level and have a higher employment level whereas Adanaspor supporters are young, mostly students and have more tendency to violence than Adana Demirspor fans.

BEYOND THE FORMAL ECONOMY: EVALUATING THE LEVEL OF EMPLOYMENT IN INFORMAL SECTOR ENTERPRISES IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the varying level of employment in informal sector enterprises across the globe and to undertake an exploratory analysis of the wider economic and social conditions associated with greater levels of informalization. Examining International Labor Organization surveys conducted in 43 countries, the finding is that the main job of just under one in three (31.5 percent) non-agricultural workers is in an informal sector enterprise. Conducting an exploratory analysis of the correlation between countries with higher levels of employment in informal sector enterprises and economic under-development ('modernization' thesis), higher taxes, corruption and state interference ('neo-liberal' thesis) and inadequate state intervention to protect workers from poverty ('structuralist' thesis), the finding is that there is a need to synthesize various tenets from all three perspectives. The outcome is a tentative call for a 'neo-modernization' perspective, which posits that higher levels of employment in informal sector enterprises are associated with economic under-development, public sector corruption and inadequate state intervention to protect workers from poverty.