Europe Reforms Labour Markets

Focusing on the perspectives of policy-makers, the book's purpose is to closely examine the factors that make for successful/unsuccessful labor market related policy reforms. The aim is to reveal the political aspects, namely the chances, challenges and impediments to designing labor market reforms and to establish the conditions under which successful labor market reforms can be advocated, adopted and implemented (process). The work includes exclusive interviews with twelve former European prime ministers about the labour market reforms they initiated in their respective countries: Wolfgang Schüssel Anders Fogh Rasmussen Andrus Ansip François Fillon Gerhard Schröder Georgios Papandreou Mario Monti Jan Peter Balkenende Jerzy Buzek Iveta Radicová Luis Rodríguez Zapatero Tony Blair

This book analyzes in what way activation policies impact on given patterns of social citizenship that predominate in national contexts. It argues that the liberal paradigm of activation introduced into labour market policies in all Western European states challenges the specific patterns of social citizenship in each country.

Mario Baldassarri and Francesco Busato evaluate the impact produced by a new cycle of structural reforms over European Union economies. The structural reforms concern the size and the composition of government expenditure, the good and services markets, and the labour market. The book illustrates how the key challenge for European countries is not to discuss how policies could be implemented (e.g. fiscal policy competition Vs fiscal policy coordination), but to implement them.

Focusing on the perspectives of policy-makers, the book's purpose is to closely examine the factors that make for successful/unsuccessful labor market related policy reforms. The aim is to reveal the political aspects, namely the chances, challenges and impediments to designing labor market reforms and to establish the conditions under which successful labor market reforms can be advocated, adopted and implemented (process).

Reforms in labour and product markets play a central role in government policies. The Political Economy of Structural Reforms in Europe takes stock of current frontier work. It brings together leading contributions from academia, the central banks in Europe, and the OECD to argue that structural reforms can make a fundamental contribution to improve economic performance across Europe. The Political Economy of Structural Reforms in Europe brings together theoretical and empirical studies that address the potential role of structural reforms in restoring macroeconomic stability, resuming economic growth, addressing income inequality, and grappling secular stagnation. It throws new light on the determinants and effects of structural reforms and on how these shape the European integration experience.

Welfare states can be reformed successfully, and popular support for reforms can be maintained. But this requires an internally consistent package of labor market, fiscal, and product market reforms, including some kind of buy-in, through, for example, tax cuts. Empirical analysis combined with a select number of case studies-comprising Ireland, Denmark, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom-reveals that successful reformers focused on increasing labor supply through benefit reform, lowering tax wedges, and lowering government consumption. At the same time, greater labor supply translated into employment growth more effectively in the presence of liberal labor and product markets.

Annotation Elizabeth A. Kaye specializes in communications as part of her coaching and consulting practice. She has edited Requirements for Certification since the 2000-01 edition.

The selection of articles traces recent developments in the legal regulation of labour markets in Eastern and Western European countries. The increased international competition of national labour markets has led to major reforms in some European countries but the majority of national developments indicate a rather gradual evolution.

This book examines precarious employment in Europe through the economic crisis. It draws on two main sources: theories of how the financial and debt crisis coupled with labour market reforms to exacerbate precarity in the workforce; and data from the European Labour Force Survey from 2005-12, capturing various aspects of precarious employment.

The creation of jobs across Europe remains a key economic and social challenge for the EU. Given the negative impact of the financial crisis on European citizens, the EU’s ability to promote effective job creation policies will be viewed as a major success of the wider integration process. In this context, a new approach is required to provide a growth-based strategy for creating employment across Europe. What is required is an achievable strategy based on the realities of modern EU labour markets. This research, based on an analysis of six member states, provides a set of recommendations designed to reflect the current characteristics of the EU labour market. This research concludes that (1) EU employment policies should be simplified and better co-ordinated; (2) Clearly defined action s should be introduced to further improve labour mobility; (3) The focus of policymaking should be switched from combatting unemployment to creating jobs; and (4) It is possible to finance the recovery by bridging the gap between investment and reform.