Labour Market Protection Research Articles

Изследване на факторните въздействия върху пазара на труда и социалната защита в контекста на националните цели на стратегия „Европа 2020“

In September 2017, the new book by Prof. Dr. Vasil Tsanov, Prof. Dr. Georgi Shopov, Prof. Dr. Iskra Beleva and Prof. Dr. Yordan Christoskov - an established team of authors from the Institute of Economic Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, well known for their professional expertise - was published. The monograph is a logical continuation of the earlier publication "The Labour Market and Social Protection in the Economic Development of Bulgaria (1990-2011)", thus the two works cover nearly 30 years of the history of the development of the researched areas - the subject of constant public attention and interest. In the introduction, the authors provide a reasoned motivation for the chosen topic, which is related to the radical changes in the state of the labour market, labour income and the social security system that occurred during the last global financial and economic crisis and in the post-crisis period, as well as to the need in this unfavourable situation to meet Bulgaria's national objectives, developed and adopted in accordance with the EU's Europe 2020 Strategy.

Gender Equality: Which Policies Have the Biggest Bang for the Buck?

This paper analyzes the relationship between fiscal and structural policies and gender inequality in education and labor force participation for countries at different stages of development. Due to the substantial number of possible factors that link with gender inequality previously highlighted in the literature, we pay particular attention to addressing model uncertainty and using various statistical methods to find the variables with the strongest links to gender gaps. We find that higher public spending on education, better sanitation facilities, low adolescent fertility, and narrower marriage age gaps are significantly related to narrower gender gaps in education. We also find that better infrastructure, a stronger institutional environment, more equal legal rights, and low adolescent fertility rates are strongly associated with higher female labor force participation. When labor market protection is low, an increase in protection is associated with a narrowing of labor force participation gaps between men and women. But when labor market protection levels are high, an increase in protection is associated with a widening in labor force participation gaps.

Gender Equality: Which Policies Have the Biggest Bang for the Buck?

This paper analyzes the relationship between fiscal and structural policies and gender inequality in education and labor force participation for countries at different stages of development. Due to the substantial number of possible factors that link with gender inequality previously highlighted in the literature, we pay particular attention to addressing model uncertainty and using various statistical methods to find the variables with the strongest links to gender gaps. We find that higher public spending on education, better sanitation facilities, low adolescent fertility, and narrower marriage age gaps are significantly related to narrower gender gaps in education. We also find that better infrastructure, a stronger institutional environment, more equal legal rights, and low adolescent fertility rates are strongly associated with higher female labor force participation. When labor market protection is low, an increase in protection is associated with a narrowing of labor force participation gaps between men and women. But when labor market protection levels are high, an increase in protection is associated with a widening in labor force participation gaps.

Labour Migration Policy in Russia: Considerations on Governmentality

AbstractThe authors argue that Russian migration policy reflects the functioning of contemporary Russia's entire bureaucratic machine. The bureaucracy's Soviet‐era governance techniques on the one hand and the material interests of particular pressure groups on the other, shape the manipulation of immigration regulation that has occurred since the early 2000s. Therefore, attempts to liberalize migration regulation, i.e., to simplify the legalization of foreign workers, have always been incoherent, accompanied by reservations and limitations. Additionally, Russian actions are riddled with conflict between ‘geopolitical’ and domestic policy rationales. The authorities’ occasional attempts to use immigration regulation as a foreign policy tool acquire primarily symbolic value in the ‘domestic political market’ rather than serving any instrumental purpose. The effort to enhance Russian influence in the post‐Soviet space through the ‘reintegration project’ (Eurasian Economic Union) collides with the goal of national labour market protection, since integration entails the removal of barriers to labour movement.

(Social Policies for Impact on the Labor Market and Development of the National Concept of Social Economy)

Russian Abstract: Политические изменения в начале 90-х годов ХХ века в Болгарии заложили основы для создания реального рынка труда и проведения основных реформ существующих на данный момент систем социальной защиты и развития человеческого капитала. Переход от централизованной планируемой экономики к рыночной экономике в Болгарии осуществляется путем огромных преобразований форм собственности и структуры национальной экономики. Эти процессы привели к существенным сбоям в функционировании национальной экономики. В таких неблагоприятных экономических условиях формирование рынка труда и политики социальной защиты проходит через множество трудностей, из-за непоследовательности политики часто меняющихся правительств, и их различных отношений к политике что касается безработицы и занятости. English Abstract: Political changes in the early 90's Years of the XX century in Bulgaria laid the basis for the creation of a real labor market and the main reforms currently existing systems of social protection and development human capital. The transition from a centralized planned economy to a market economy in Bulgaria is carried out through huge transformations forms of ownership and the structure of the national economy. These processes led to significant disruptions in the functioning of the national economy. AT such unfavorable economic conditions, the formation of the labor market and social protection policy goes through a lot of difficulties, because of the inconsistent policies of frequently changing governments, and their various relations to politics with regard to unemployment and employment.

Soft Lands Breed Soft Men? The Climatic Roots of Risk Preferences

This study examines the historical origins of differences in attitudes towards risk and uncertainty across different cultures. It establishes a robust positive relationship between cross-country temperature volatility and Hofstede’s (2011) [Hofstede, 2011] measure of uncertainty avoidance. This link holds for intermonthly, interseasonal and interannual measures of temperature volatility, and is robust to the inclusion of a wide range of controls. These findings are strengthened by analyses using data from the World Value Survey that show that individuals and countries that have been exposed to volatile climates are generally more supportive of economic protection by the government and prefer secure and stable lifestyles. Moreover, this research obtains similar relationships studying attitudes of second generation migrants from the European Social Survey, thereby isolating the cultural transmission of risk preferences from unobserved country-level heterogeneity and direct geographical effects. Moreover, it establishes that these climatic characteristics seem to have had a culturally embodied impact on meaningful economic behavior and institutions, such as the degree of self-employment and labor market protection, as well as on the differences in income inequality across countries.I argue that these results are consistent with evolutionary theories that emphasize the differential advantage of risk aversion across more or less volatile climates. In particular, I propose two different explanations. Climate volatility may induce more risk averse nomadic foragers to shift into a sedentary lifestyle, leading to a population increase because of lower child-rearing costs. Moreover, the findings are in line with a model in which more risk averse subsistence farmers have an evolutionary advantage in volatile climates because they choose to insure against adverse population shocks. All in all this study suggests that cultural differences in attitudes towards risk and uncertainty have deep climatic roots: geographical differences seem to ultimately translate into rigid institutional and cultural configurations.

La potencialidad de la Regresión Logística Multinivel. Una propuesta de aplicación en el análisis del estado de salud percibido

The development of different software is facilitating the extension of multilevel models in different disciplines of social sciences in recent years. These quantitative techniques help us to observe characteristics of individuals and the contexts in which they interact in the same analytical model. It let to regard the effect of several explanatory variables on a phenomenon considering both the differences between individuals and the available information that they are grouped above in different hierarchical. Although initially it’s thrived in models of linear dependent variables, it could also be used in models with categorical outcomes. The Multilevel logistic regression (MLR) can facilitate estimation of complex models with a dichotomous categorical dependent variable type. The current article is a brief explanation of this technique. We seek to indicate that it can be used in different areas of sociological analysis, especially in inferential statistics. Despite its apparent complexity, thanks to the recommendations of some authors, we can utilize in a feasible and to facilitate the provision of information on the association of variables and the context of a phenomenon. In the second part of this text we offer an adjusting exercise of multilevel logistic models. The intention was to observe the incidence of individual variables such as working conditions, occupational conditions and the domestic-family demands that working people have, together with variables of the labour market and social protection of the 27 EU members on perceived health status. The main results indicated already that the worst working conditions and temporary employment were associated with poor health with significant gender inequalities between countries. These conclusions were noted by some occupational health studies. This study allowed going beyond the individual analysis and observing that a percentage of the differences between employees can be explained by different variables of welfare between countries.

Ochronna czy partycypacyjna funkcja związków zawodowych i ich wpływ na poziom nierówności dochodowych w wybranych krajach Unii Europejskiej

Taking into account that income inequality has negative impact on societies, this paper tries to discover factors that may influence reduction of the inequality. It seems reasonable to consider labor unions as social organizations that in their cations should fight for better equality. In 21 countries both OECD and EU6 members 3 factors were examined. Two describing labor union protective function (labor market protection and permanent contracts) and one describing participation function exercised in the countries by unions. Correlation has been checked between Gini Index and labor market protection level, percent permanent contract and EPI 2.0 index. The analyses has been performed for all 21 countries and separately for the 16 representing the “old union”7. Presented results suggest strong correlation between Gini and EPI 2.0 suggesting that the better, stronger employee participation the lower income inequality. At the same time no correlation has been found between Gini and indexes describing labor union protective function.

METHODS OF NATIONAL LABOR MARKET PROTECTION

Introduction: Growing migration flows require states to use effective methods to protect national labor market. Their use is based on the principle of employment priority for own citizens of the receiving country. Therefore, the states use different methods to coordinate the flows of labor migrants in a quantitative and qualitative way. In various countries the implementation of this approach differs. They may include a quota system, a scoring system, bans, testing and other ways of employee selection. A comparative study of regulating methods adopted in Russia, Britain and the United States has made it possible to identify their common features based on the unity of objec tives solved by receiving states, as well as their peculiarities that allow assessing the effectiveness of each method of national labor market protection. Materials and methods: The methodological basis of the research consisted of the following general scientific and special methods for legal phenomena and processes analysis in the sphere of international labor law: the method of system-structural analysis; method of synthesis of social and legal phenomena; comparative legal method; formal-logical method; method of comparative law. Results of the study: The results of the study showed that the methods of regulating labor migrants' flows in Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States have common features that describe this process: their role is to select specialists with higher professional and business qualities. The similarity of methods in use is determined by the unity of tasks that the states receiving migrants have to resolve. The key task among them is the protection of the national labor market. At the same time, the methods of protecting the labor market used by states have a different content. Thus, the implementation of protective mechanisms takes various forms (scoring system, setting quotas). The comparative analysis has shown that in this country the state regulation of external labor migration is not based on accurate forecasts of the state and needs of the labor market. It seems that the reason behind this situation is the absence of such criteria for the selection of immigrants as age, education, skill level, etc., although they are used in foreign countries. In this regard the Russian Federation should take into account the positive experience of the United Kingdom and the United States in using certain mechanisms of selective labor migration. Discussion and conclusions: Intensity of migration flows in Russia and around the world as well as a global migration crisis makes it necessary to address the foreign experience of legal regulation of external labor migration, since it may also be useful for Russia. It seems that the scoring system used by the UK for selection of foreign workers and the mechanism for attracting entrepreneurs and investors contributing to the economy of the country developed under the Program for the granting permanent resident status to investors operating in the United States may become effective methods of economically oriented migration policy in our country.

The Effect of Potential Activations on the Employment of Military Reservists: Evidence from a Field Experiment

U.S. military reservists are primarily employed in the civilian labor market. During periods of military conflict, such as the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, the government may call reservists to full-time military service, requiring reservists to leave their civilian jobs. Federal law requires employers to rehire reservists once their full-time military service ends and also prohibits employers from discriminating against reservists because of their military membership. This article uses a résumé study to examine how the labor market protections provided to reservists and the potential labor market absences affect the employment outcomes of reservists. The results suggest that current membership in the Reserves, as compared to previous membership, reduces the probability of receiving a request for a job interview by 10.7%.

Revisiting Okun’s Law in European Union countries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine Okun’s Law in European countries by distinguishing between the transitory and the permanent effects of output changes upon unemployment and by examining the effect of labor market protection policies upon Okun’s coefficients. Design/methodology/approach – Quarterly data for 13 European Union countries, from the second quarter of 1993 until the first quarter of 2014, are used. Panel data techniques and Mundlak decomposition models are estimated. Findings – Okun’s Law is robust to alternative specifications. The effect of output changes to unemployment rates is weaker for countries with increased labor market protection expenditures and it is more persistent for countries with low labor market protection. Originality/value – The paper provides evidence that the permanent effect of output changes upon unemployment rates is quantitatively larger than the transitory impact. In addition, it provides evidence that increased labor market protection mitigates the adverse effects of a decrease in output growth rate upon unemployment.

Cohort profile: the Spanish WORKing life Social Security (WORKss) cohort study

PurposeThe global economy is changing the labour market and social protection systems in Europe. The effect of both changes on health needs to be monitored in view of an ageing...

Social Protection for Developing Countries: Can Social Insurance Be More Relevant for Those Working in the Informal Economy?

The main reason for the exclusion of workers in the informal economy from statutory social security coverage has been described by Van Ginneken as the fact that these workers “are unable or unwilling to contribute a relatively high percentage of their incomes to financing social security benefits that do not meet their priority needs”. This naturally leads to the need for researchers to determine the priority needs of workers in the informal economy and explore ways of extending social protection to such workers. The needs and aspirations of those working in the informal economy may be said to pertain to two related issues: the first is to improve and maximise their employment potential and the second is to extend their coverage under social protection measures.The article is divided into four sections. The first presents an analysis of conceptual issues relevant to the present enquiry. The second describes the labour market and social protection challenges to be considered in endeavours to make social insurance relevant to informal economy workers in Southern Africa. The third section discusses possible recommendations to make social insurance more relevant to those toiling in the informal economy, on the one hand by considering ways to extend social protection to those workers and their families and, on the other hand, to investigate to what extent it is possible to strengthen the linkages between the two economies. The final part presents some remarks on the way forward.

Inclusive Human Growth

This article is about Kazakhstan’s path toward achieving high levels of human development and an institutional environment favorable to both productivity growth and protection for the most vulnerable. The growth of human capital is closely linked with economic growth. Human capital facilitates the transmission of knowledge and will accelerate the rate at which Kazakhstan can take advantage of technology transfers through foreign direct investment. It will also facilitate research and innovation, providing Kazakhstan the flexibility to adapt as its economy grows. The article comprises four sections that in turn deal with education, labor market, health, and social protection. Each section starts by examining recent trends and the conditions that Kazakhstan faces today, the vision for 2050, and a possible program of action for the next four decades that could make Vision 2050 reality. The concluding section presents crosscutting recommendations and identifies overarching challenges.

Do People with Specific Skills Want More Social Insurance? Not in the United States

Skill specificity is thought to increase preferences for social insurance (Iversen and Soskice, 2001, American Political Science Review 95,875), especially where employment protections are low, notably the United States (Gingrich and Ansell, 2012, Comparative Political Studies 45, 1624). The compensating differentials literature, by contrast, suggests that neither skill specificity, nor labor market protections affect preferences when wages adjust for differences in risks and investment costs. We examine these competing predictions using U.S. data on general and specific skills. Absolute and relative skill specificity have a robust positive correlation with income, but are negatively correlated with preferences for social protection. Our results strongly support the compensating differentials approach.

Labor market institutions and the effect of immigration on national employment

Integration processes in Europe resulted in intensification of migration flows. Immigrants account now for a large share of population in many European countries. A point of view that immigrants take jobs form natives is quite widespread. The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia published a special analysis of the attitudes towards minorities in EU countries Eurobarometer 2000. They found that one in two EU citizens worry about competing with immigrants for the same vacancies and afraid of losing their jobs because of presence of foreign workers. Different measures and institutions which protect native workers have nevertheless an ambiguous effect. On the one hand labor protective institutions such as minimal wage, replacement rate or firing restrictions will protect existing workers and reduce a firing rate. On the other hand, firms will take into consideration these additional costs of firing and will be less likely to employ new workers. At the same time, it is argued that immigrants are probably less likely to be covered by these institutions. These facts imply that protective institutions cover mostly natives and therefore make immigration labor force comparatively less costly. Labor market protection may therefore amplify a negative effect of immigrants on native employment if it exists.This paper attempts to evaluate the effect of immigration in flow on employment level of natives and reveal whether this effect changes in different institutional environments using EU-countries data. In addition to static specification it uses a dynamic specification to draw conclusions about long-term and short-term effects separately. The results show no long-run effect of immigration inflow. Short-term effect of is found to be positive. Protective labor market institutions fulfill their function of protecting existing workers.The results are also different for men and women.

The Working Class and Welfare:FrancisG.Castles on the Political Development of the Welfare State inAustralia andNewZealand Thirty Years On

In his celebrated work of comparative policy, Francis Castles argued that a radical wage-earning model of welfare had evolved in Australia and New Zealand over the course of the 20th century. The Castles' thesis is shown to have two parts: first, the ‘fourth world of welfare’ argument that rests upon protection of workers; and, second, an emphasis on the path-dependent nature of social policy. It is perfectly possible to accept the second premise of the argument without the first, and indeed many do so. It is also possible to accept the importance of wage level protection concerns in Australasian social policy without accepting the complete fourth world thesis. This article explores the path of social democracy in Australia and New Zealand and the continuing importance of labour market regulation, as well as considering the extent to which that emphasis still makes Australasian social policy distinctive in the modern age. The argument focuses on the data and policies relating to labour market protection and wages, as well the systems of welfare and social protection, and the comparative information on poverty and inequality.

The Impact of Institutional Context, Education and Labour Market Policies on Early School Leaving: a comparative analysis ofEUcountries

This article presents a comparative analysis of the determinants of early school leaving (ESL) at the country level. We decomposeESLrates into two components: a ‘primary’ rate reflecting unqualified school leaving from initial education, and a second component accounting for early school leavers who participate in training programmes. Both may be influenced by structural and policy determinants. We examine how the ESL rate is affected by macro‐economic and social context variables such asGDP/capita, growth, poverty, and youth unemployment, as well as system characteristics of the education system (such as legal school leaving age, grade retention, early tracking, and size of vocational education) and the labour market and social protection systems (minimum wages, unemployment insurance).

How to shift to a more equitable and job-friendly path

This Chapter shows how an approach that balances macroeconomic and employment goals, while at the same time taking social impacts into account, is necessary to achieve a sustainable and inclusive recovery. Moving towards such an approach requires attention to be paid to a number of policy areas, including macroeconomic, labour market and social protection policies. In addition, this Chapter highlights a wide range of recent initiatives that have made an effort to achieve this kind of rebalancing.

Disability Accommodation in Nonstandard and Precarious Employment Arrangements

This study, based on data from a large nationally representative sample of Canadian workers with disabilities, examines the relationship between employment arrangements and the accommodation of disability in the workplace. We address whether workers with disabilities in nonstandard arrangements are more likely to have unmet accommodation needs and if other key dimensions of precarious employment mediate the relationship between nonstandard work and accommodation. Results from multivariate models suggest that despite disability legislation, practices of workplace disability accommodation parallel the unequal distribution of other labor market protections, with workers in more precarious arrangements (i.e. those in nonpermanent, low-wage, and nonunion jobs) at greater risk of having unmet needs.