Labour Market Regulation Research Articles

The institutional environment and gig platform transaction cost solutions

Abstract A growing number of labour market participants transact through gig platforms. This choice should reflect a reduction in transaction costs for platform users, compared to costs they meet when using alternative modes of governance. We exploit a unique cross-platform, cross-country data set of gig platform users to test the impact of the institutional environment in one of its dimensions – the strictness of labour market regulation (LMR) – on the ability of gig platforms to reduce users' transaction costs. According to our findings, the regulation indicator of both the user and platform countries influences transaction costs for platform users, even controlling for platform and user characteristics. The platform appears to reduce transaction costs most when users face stricter or weaker LMR, in a U-shaped effect. In the former case, the platform may provide an escape from labour regulations when hiring for tasks, while in the latter case, the platform can economize on the usual transaction costs of private contracting by administrating some types of users' activities.

A Study on Youth Unemployment in India: Causes, Consequences and Policy Responses

Unemployment among young people in India is a significant socio-economic problem with wide-ranging implications. This study investigates the various factors, such as educational mismatches, economic transformations, and demographic pressures, that contribute to the high levels of unemployment among young people in India. Youth unemployment has significant ramifications, affecting the overall welfare of individuals, the stability of the economy, and the cohesion of society. The severe consequences include heightened dependency ratios, mental health disorders, and the possibility of social upheaval. The paper also examines other policy measures taken to alleviate teenage unemployment, including skill enhancement programmes, incentives for entrepreneurship, and active labour market regulations. The study seeks to analyse these interventions in order to uncover efficacious tactics and optimal approaches to tackle youth unemployment in India. It attempts to provide recommendations to policymakers for promoting a labour market that is more inclusive and dynamic.

Аналітичні методи дослідження якості ринку праці України

In the context of diversification of characteristics and conditions of employment, qualitative parameters of labor market development are recognized by international organizations as a priority, which is reflected in numerous conceptions (for example, decent work) and methodological approaches – both scientific and institutional (research on the quality of work, quality of employment). Quality assessment is based on analytical approaches, the implementation of which in Ukraine faces a number of difficulties: lack of information support, no uniform approaches to assessment, insufficient methodical elaboration of a complex category of quality within the framework of qualiology and qualimetry. To overcome these gaps in the study, it is proposed to apply factor analysis (main components, with the rotation of solutions of factors), while using the information obtained as a result of processing microdata files of surveys on the labor force of the regions of Ukraine. The inclusion of qualitative features of the labor market development (gender parity, opportunities to combine work and family responsibilities, guarantees of formal employment, decent wages and acceptable working hours, in particular for persons with a high level of education, and others) in the factor analysis allows to identify problem processes that have the greatest impact on the formation of the quality of the labor market. The results of the calculations indicate the decisive influence of the existing deprivations on the formation of the quality of the labor market in Ukraine. The deprivations refer to compliance with decent wages and the existence of informal employment, including among people with higher education, opportunities for economic activity, as well as gender restrictions in the labor market. The problem of acceptable working hours, in particular for married women, is also significant. Such results should be taken into account when developing a policy of labor market regulation in the context of Ukraine’s post-war recovery, aimed at forming a qualitative maturity of the labor market.

Empirical analysis on the impact of labour market regulations on uninsured employment in Greece.

Empirical analysis on the impact of labour market regulations on uninsured employment in Greece.

ОСОБЕННОСТИ НОВЫХ ФОРМ ЗАНЯТОСТИ НАСЕЛЕНИЯ В УСЛОВИЯХ ЦИФРОВИЗАЦИИ ЭКОНОМИКИ

This paper analyzes the new forms of employment in Russia in the context of the digitaliza-tion of the economy and considering macroeconomic indicators to determine the sustainable employment of the population. The study analyzes the features of employment in the context of the digital transformation, including by groups of workers in the information and communication technology (ICT) industries. The hypothesis is that the digital transformation has both a positive and a negative impact on employment; structuring the indicators of employment will allow us to assess the scale of employment and the impact of new forms of employment that require the use of digital technologies. The article uses system analysis and statistical methods of data analysis. The authors show that changes in employment are caused by the transi-tion to more complex types of activity using digital technologies, which changes the forms of employment. It is recommended to assess the situation in the labor market in conjunction with an analysis of the ICT sec-tor to reveal new forms of employment that have developed due to the digitalization of the economy. The authors supplemented the classification of employment indicators, data reflecting the number and parame-ters of employees using digital platforms, and organizations using remote workers. The level of staff train-ing in the digital economy, and employment and wage indicators were analyzed by: the ICT sector as a whole; telecommunications; the production of ICT systems; wholesale trade in goods related to ICT; other services in the field of ICT. It was concluded that digital tools can create opportunities for supporting and developing sustainable employment in remote and virtual forms of work allowing the development of key areas of labor market regulation. A set of measures for digital transformation indicators was proposed.

Increasing employment of the elderly population for sustainable demographic development of the region

Russia, like a number of other countries, is experiencing a process of population aging, which is leading to an increased role in the employment of the older generation, while at the same time, employers have a negative perception of their labor potential. The article is devoted to substantiating the hypothesis that employment of older people is an important factor in demographic development. The object of the study is North Ossetia as a typical region of Russia with a worsening demographic situation and tension in the labor market. The work used methods of statistical and graphical analysis, the "resume test" method. The problem of discrimination in hiring workers of pre-retirement age. It has been shown that limited opportunities in the labor market for the older generation lead to a decrease in the level and quality of life, and degradation of human potential. Conclusions are drawn about a decrease in the efficiency of the regional labor market in terms of employment of the elderly. Recommendations are offered to regional bodies of state regulation of the economy on the institutional prevention of the practice of age discrimination among employees; development of flexible part-time employment models; organization of continuous professional training and advanced training.

Essence and peculiarities of the implementation of the concept of flexicurity in Ukraine

The challenges of the modern world led to changes in business organization, including forms of labor organization. The use of flexible forms has become a modern tool for human resource management in a changing environment. The concept of flexicurity has been used in European countries for a long time. This study employed the methods of bibliographic analysis VosViewer and Google Trends to investigate issues related to flexible employment policies from three primary perspectives: a) institutional (where the state plays a central role in labor market regulation); b) anti-crisis (implies implementing flexible employment policies in response to economic crises and the efforts of employers to reduce personnel costs); and c) corporate (which focuses on employee needs and corporate social responsibility). Furthermore, modern approaches used in developed countries for implementing flexible employment policies under the concept of flexicurity were analyzed and summarized in a matrix. This analysis provides valuable insights for future research in Ukraine, including regulatory and legal provision of non-standard forms of employment such as freelancing, crowdsourcing, and self-employment; the development of strategies to attract non-standard forms of employment those categories of the population that cannot compete on the labor market (people with limited opportunities, young people who are looking for work for the first time, women with children, people of retirement age); the use of flexible forms of employment for a large number of internally displaced persons who have left their homes and refugees, which will reduce the unemployment rate in the country.

The place of the higher education system in the innovation sphere in solving the problem of staffing the innovative economy. Part II

This article continues the study of the Innovation sphere role in the higher education system for innovative economy personnel training. It is devoted to the problem of the network project-based learning development within the framework of the entrepreneurial university model implementation. The core of the problem is development of entrepreneurial competencies in technical universities to promote technological startups through usage of expertise acquired by the Innovation students. The following article, as well as the previous one, is based on Basadur simplex method to find a range of factors which contribute to the solution of non-standard management problems. Identification of barriers to interaction is the most important factor in the development of a successful collaboration. Barriers of insufficient acquaintance with a partner, or low innovation susceptibility to the collaboration, are considered serious. The purpose of the study is to determine the external factors of innovative susceptibility to network interaction by universities that provide innovations. Low demand in the labour market is said to be the main barrier to the innovative susceptibility towards an innovation manager. There is no standardisation of his activity under the conditions of a high role of the Russian labour market regulation aspect. As a result, the author’s vision of key requirements set for the development of professional innovation standards is proposed to promote the innovation manager and increase innovative susceptibility of the market to his qualification level.

Labor Supply in the Labor Market of the Northern Region of Resource Type: the Case of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)

Studying the labor market of Yakutia is impossible without its two components: demand and supply for labor. The study of the dynamics of labor supply is based on a generalization of materials from the population census 2010 Russian Census and 2020 Russian Census, as well as official statistics. The analysis is based primarily on the quantification of labor supply. The results of the study showed insufficient attention to the study of the labor market of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) at the municipal level. Calculations of the level of labor force participation as an indicator characterizing labor supply revealed a significant decrease during the period between the last two censuses in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) at the municipal level. The factors that have the greatest impact on this situation were selected, which also require a more detailed study. Among the factors we can note decreased production volumes, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, an aging population, and the increasing influence of intraregional migration. Indirectly, the decrease in the labor force participation rate confirms the fall in median per capita income and modal average per capita income for 2015-2021 in comparable prices by 2010, which more accurately demonstrate the low standard of living of the majority of the region’s population, in contrast to average per capita cash income. At the same time, the reduction in the labor force imbalance was undoubtedly influenced by the decrease in the unemployment rate. In the future, it is necessary to focus on a more detailed description of the labor reserve, as well as on the formation of high-quality labor costs at the municipal level. In addition, the study of imbalances in the labor market is impossible without the demand for the labor force, its other component.

Regional Labor Markets in Russia under New Conditions: Problems and Possibilities of Path Dependence Overcoming

The subject of the study is the regional labor markets in the Russian Federation. The topic is an analysis of the prospects for the regional labor markets to overcome the Path Dependence problem. Special attention is paid to targeted migration policy as one of the tools to improve the balance and adaptability of regional labor markets. The purpose of the work is to search for evidence of the extremely important role of an effective migration policy in solving the problems of socio-economic development of regions in the conditions of demographic crisis and shortage of labor resources. The research sources are official statistics data, regulatory legal acts of federal and regional authorities, and media materials. Theoretical approaches of institutionalism are used, in particular, the concepts of dependence on previous development, various general scientific and comparative research methods. It is shown that strong shocks of 2020–2022 (the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, external economic sanctions, accelerated digital transformation of the economy and society) could not “push” regional labor markets out of the “institutional trap” (a historically stable state of imbalance, inflexibility, low responsiveness to regulatory measures) on either a positive or negative trajectory. However, such a state hinders the transition of regional economies to innovative development and their adaptation to external challenges. Targeted migration policy could increase the adaptability of regional markets in the conditions of demographic crisis and shortage of labor resources, but its contradictory nature and imperfect legal regulation reduce the effectiveness of this tool. The revealed contradictions require to improve the mechanisms for regulating labor migration, to increase the coordination of actions at the federal and regional levels of government, to strengthen the targeting of state migration policy, and to develop special measures aimed at improving the skills of foreign workers. The results of the study can be used to adjust regulatory measures in the field of labor migration management.

The Impact of International Labor Migration on the Balance in Regional Labor Markets

In recent years, the demand in the Russian labor market continues to grow, while the labor force, which determines the supply, on the contrary, is declining. In the current situation, business points to the desirability of expanding the involvement of migrant workers, but government officials express concerns that this might create a threat to the employment of Russian citizens. The purpose of this study is to determine the contribution of external labor migration to the formation of the labor force in Russian regions, considering the specifics of the reproduction of local labor resources. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the analysis of the latest statistical data on external labor migration and labor markets detailing by regions of Russia. The authors pay special attention not only to the quantitative characteristics of the flow of foreign workers, but also to the quality indicators of these labor resources. The relevance of the study is due to changes in the labor markets balance and migration trends and under the influence of powerful stress factors in recent years, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the start of a special military operation, and a new wave of sanctions. The empirical basis of the study is an array of official statistics, for the analysis of which standard statistical methods are applied. Based on the results obtained, the authors discuss the effectiveness of modern federal and regional migration policies. In conclusion, the results of the study are summed up and possible directions for improving instruments for managing the movement of foreign labor are identified. The authors conclude that today the system for regulating the mobility of labor resources does not ensure that their supply meets the changing needs of the labor market, and justify the need to develop a selective system for attracting labor migrants.

The Structure of Regional Labor Market in the Field of Media (On the Example of the Russian Far East Media System)

This article is devoted to the study of the Russian Far East regions media space. The goal is to identify the features and current trends in the development of regional media markets in the Far Eastern Federal District. Based on information from published vacancies in the field of mass media, the authors identified types of employers and determined the influence of demographic and socio-economic factors on the formation of demand for media specialists in various regions of the Far East. The research materials were obtained by monitoring vacancies on specialized job search sites. In the course of the work, 142 vacancies were analyzed, the necessary indicators were identified for the typology of employers, which include traditional media, news agencies, new media, brand media (corporate media), press services, and non-media enterprises. In general, the media market of the Far East in Russia is dominated by traditional media, however, in its various regions, the media market has its own characteristics depending on demographic and socio-economic indicators. There is a general dependence between population size, gross regional product per capita, the number of media enterprises, the number of employees employed by them, and the number of published vacancies in the field of information and communication.

Devolved fiscal powers, increased competitiveness and ‘levelling up’: a simulation approach

ABSTRACT The UK levelling up agenda includes a commitment to devolution, but there has been little attempt to model the operation of possible accompanying regional tax powers. We use computable general equilibrium simulations to analyse the local impacts of regional tax cuts. These reduce production costs, thereby stimulating regional economic activity. But the financing of any subsequent deficit and the operation of the regional labour market determines the size, nature and dynamics of resulting economic outcomes. Further, the decision to target labour or capital costs has implications for a range of regional economic impacts.

JUSTIFICATION OF APPROACHES TO DEFINITION OF STRATEGIC OPERATIONAL GOALS AND TASKS, IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF RIVNE SOCIAL SPHERE

The article presents the materials of the indicators analysis, strategic and operational goals of social sphere given in the Strategy of Rivne Development for the period until 2040, developed by results of SWOT-analysis, which are only partly consistent with the National ecological goals. It is recommended to present the Strategy of Rivne development for the period until 2040 in social sphere as the strategic goal in the new edition of “Improvement of social sphere of the city life activity by means of development of engineering and social infrastructure and labour market regulation” and by three operational goals: - formation of principles of sustainable consumption and production in the city; residents; - ensuring the integration of ecological policy into the process of making a decision as for the city social development; - ecological and other risks reduction, their influence on the city social development and population health. Simultaneously their reconciliation has been carried out with National ecological goals keeping to the following requirements: - agreement with strategic vision contents; - attainability; - specificity; - compliance with available practical resources; - ability to be evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively. It is recommended to realize the achievements of strategic and operational goals in the city social sphere by means of planning and performing the tasks and projects containing the information “what must be done to carry out the tasks” and “the list of success indicators”. The goals and tasks suggested in the city social sphere are appointed to output critical indicators in this sphere of Rivne to the competitive level of Ivanofrankivsk and Lutsk.

Regional decomposition in age-group unemployment dynamics in Germany

This article analyzes age-group-related differences in the risk of losing a job and the chance to find new employment using regional administrative data for Germany. I also consider flows between inactivity (out of the labor force) and unemployment to examine the relative contributions of labor market flows to different age-group unemployment dynamics. Inactivity and activity flows account for about 23% (and 83% for the youth) of unemployment dynamics, and contributions of separation (11%-50%) and job finding (5%-30%) vary with age-groups. Counties with a larger share of the labor force youth have high dynamics and very low unemployment rates. In contrast, regions with a smaller percentage of youth experience twice as large unemployment rates. Overall, the results provide strong evidence for decreasing regional labor market dynamics when the share of older workers increases.

The Determining Factors of the Delocalization of Italian Companies to East European Countries

Reflections on the factors that influence the delocalization of Italian companies to other countries, arising from a rapidly changing world economy, offer invaluable insight into companies facing similar tough choices. Usually, this decision is attributed to economic, fiscal, and institutional factors. This article examines the process of delocalization of Italian enterprises and empirically verifies the main factors which influence the delocalization of Italian enterprises to East European Countries. The results suggest that “labor market regulation”, “business regulation”, and “size of government” or better said, the labor cost the host country, is the main incentive of Italian enterprises to delocalize their production. Empirical results also show that institutional factors such as “rule of law”, “control of corruption”, “political stability”, and “broadband infrastructure” have a positive and significant correlation with the delocalization of Italian enterprises to the East European Countries. The results in this case suggest that Italian companies are looking for an environment in which the state knows how to enforce their own rules, but also a state that is somewhat “corruptible”.

Stabilising or Dynamising Approach—Changes in the Employment System for Foreigners

Since Poland started the transformation from a country of emigration to a country of immigration, the legal environment related to the employment of foreigners has been constantly changing. These changes seem to be of a bumpy nature, although they implement in a relatively consistent manner certain assumptions that can be called systemic. This article will analyse main directions of legal changes related to the employment of foreigners in Poland, specifying at the same time the objectives that the legislator intended to achieve when introducing them. This will make it possible to show the organisational priorities of labour market regulation and the values that the national legislator aims to protect. Such an analysis, in turn, will make it possible to assess legislative actions and (in the case of their approval) to indicate further necessary improvements made in the spirit of the existing ones or (in the case of their criticism) to set new directions of actions.

Labour market rigidity and firm innovation

AbstractThis paper examines the impact of pro‐worker interference on wage contracts and innovation incentives in the labour market. Using a general equilibrium model, we find that excessive interference affects contingent wage contracts in innovator start‐ups and tech‐intensive firms, especially for complex innovation. When worker dismissal is restricted, high wages may not effectively drive innovation. Moreover, without an efficient intellectual property market, excessive labour market interference can lead to innovation stagnation. Our findings highlight the importance of balancing labour market regulations to foster innovation and ensure its continued growth.

Gender Segregation in Regional Labour Market: Evidence from South Sumatra Province, Indonesia

This study aims to examine gender segregation and type of work to measure the overall of segregation and the segregation of several population subgroups, namely education, age, wages, working hours, and area of residence. The approach that used is the measurement of segregation Multi-group that refers to (Alonso-Villar & del Río, 2010). Research finds that working women have relatively high contribution against the segregation of gender as a whole, in the case of the level of education shows female and male segregated by level of education. While it is for the subgroup (type of work) workers young and advanced age, workers with a group of wages high and workers part-time has contributed that high against segregation type of work as a whole

Regional labour market: A method for research

Turbulent socioeconomic environment significantly affects the state and dynamics of the regional labour market. The paper develops and tests a methodological toolkit for assessing the state of a regional labour market allowing for the main socioeconomic trends – digitalisation and innovative development of the economy. Labour economics constitutes the methodological basis of the research. Methods of economic statistical and content analysis were used. The evidence is the 2021 data of the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation concerning the labour markets of the Central Black Earth economic region of Russia, which comprises Belgorod, Voronezh, Kursk, Lipetsk and Tambov oblasts. The suggested method for investigating the state of the regional labour market takes into account the impact of digitalisation and innovative development processes on the latter. Testing the method at the case of the Central Black Earth economic region revealed that the regions’ labour markets appreciably lag behind other subjects of the Russian Federation in terms of wages and encounter labour shortages against rather low rates of digital transformation and innovative development in their economies. The paper formulates recommendations for all parties of the social partnership, which suggest boosting the investment attractiveness of regions; creating high-productive jobs; spurring the activities of trade unions and associations; retaining the youth in the regions; increasing the efficiency of career guidance; attracting labour migrants, first and foremost, from other Russian regions due to improvements in economic, social and household infrastructure; promoting competencies of citizens of pre-retirement age and retired citizens; creating conditions for acceleration of digital transformation as well as expanding regions’ innovation activities.