Archives par mot-clé : economic crisis

Labour Market Policy in Europe: What Reactions Facing the Economic Crisis ?

Before the crisis, labour market policies have undergone several years of reforms, focused on activation, work incentives, and flexicurity. Most European countries share the same trends, partly supported by the European Employment Strategy since 1997, even though important differences between national models remain. The economic downturn in 2007 has led to a very spectacular rise in unemployment in some countries, especially concentrated among low educated and young men. Facing this new context, the reactions of labour market policies seem ambiguous. On the one hand, institutional reforms and in work incentives still follow previous reform trends, especially the activation framework. On the other hand, a large number of countries also develop internal flexibility devices (including partial unemployment), and reinforce unemployment insurance or minimum income policies. These types of policies may have contributed to temper the direct impact of the crisis on labour market trends (especially in continental countries). They also lead to the reintroduction of some old debates (on working time sharing, on the minimum wage), especially in the new member states. Nevertheless, it seems that the turn towards restrictive budgetary policy in the first half of 2010 is compromising these trends, and even endangering last decade’s virtuous models, especially the Danish model.

Christine Erhel, Socio-Économie du Travail n°33 (Économies et Sociétés, tome XLV), août 2011, p.1354-p. 1359.

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Poverty Policies in the Economic Crisis: Changes and Continuity

This paper proposes an analysis of poverty development in Europe during the recent economic crisis considering policies that have been implemented to fight it. We focus on five countries namely France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the UK, each of them standing for a social protection model. The rising unemployment that comes along with the economic downturn increases the risk of poverty and challenges European models’ capacity to contain that risk. The joint analysis of pre-crisis situation and of measures implemented in immediate response to the crisis shows that social protection systems that were already at work before the crisis and their relative levels of generosity remain essential in the fight against poverty. Besides, the recent implementation of employment policies centred on “activation” – in spite of that they do not rely on the same principles in all countries – may have had perverse effects on poverty in the context of economic crisis because of their cost-containment goal.

Baptiste Françon, Mathilde Guergoat-Larivière, Socio-Économie du Travail n°33 (Économies et Sociétés, tome XLV), août 2011, p. 1329-1354.

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Responses of the Systems of Industrial Relations to the Economic Crisis : The Example of Six Western European Economics

The economic crisis offers an experience to compare responses of systems of industrial relations in Western Europe according to national specificities of the modes of production of the rules of the employment relationship. Three typical situations are distinguished. They enable to invalidate the hypothesis of a strict path dependency and prove the absence of a one best way response to the crisis. The persistence of the crisis creates an opportunity to implement changes in the rules of the employment relationship which were included for a long time in the social agenda.

Jacques Freyssinet, Socio-Économie du Travail n°33 (Économies et Sociétés, tome XLV), août 2011, p. 1227-1264.

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