IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/jes/journl/y2012v3p123-143.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Labour market adjustments in Estonia during the 2008/2011 crisis

Author

Listed:
  • Sandrine LEVASSEUR

    (OFCE, Center for Economic Research, Sciences, Paris, France)

Abstract

This article provides an assessment of labour market adjustments occurring in Estonia during the 2008/2011 crisis. The strategy of internal devaluation succeeded in shrinking the real (hourly) unit labour costs by 25 % per year in 2010 and 2011, thus helping Estonian enterprises gain international competitiveness. The whole gamut of tools available in terms of flexibility was used, at least in the worst time of the financial crisis: massive lay-offs, reduced working time and wage cuts. In 2011, Estonia stood as one of the most dynamic EU countries to recover with exports growth. On the social side, however, the track record is not positive: the purchasing power of workers has been reduced and unemployment still remains strong and persistent despite economic recovery.

Suggested Citation

  • Sandrine LEVASSEUR, 2012. "Labour market adjustments in Estonia during the 2008/2011 crisis," Eastern Journal of European Studies, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 3, pages 123-143, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:jes:journl:y:2012:v:3:p:123-143
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ejes.uaic.ro/articles/EJES2012_0301_LEV.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zuzana Brixiova & Laura Vartia & Andreas Wörgötter, 2009. "Capital Inflows, Household Debt and the Boom-bust Cycle in Estonia," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 700, OECD Publishing.
    2. Jean Pisani-Ferry & Pavle Petrovic & Michael A Landesmann & Vladimir Gligorov & Daniel Daianu & Torbjörn Becker & Zsolt Darvas & André Sapir & Beatrice Weder di Mauro, . "Whither growth in central and eastern Europe? Policy lessons for an integrated Europe," Blueprints, Bruegel, number 453, June.
    3. Alfonso Arpaia & Giuseppe Carone, 2004. "Do labour taxes (and their composition) affect wages in the short and in the long run?," Public Economics 0411004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Miss Catriona Purfield & Mr. Christoph B. Rosenberg, 2010. "Adjustment Under a Currency Peg: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania During the Global Financial Crisis 2008-09," IMF Working Papers 2010/213, International Monetary Fund.
    5. Alfonso Arpaia & Giuseppe Carone, 2004. "Do labour taxes (and their composition) affect wages in the short and the long run? - Alfonso Arpaia and Giuseppe Carone," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 216, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    6. Jan Babecký & Philip Du Caju & Theodora Kosma & Martina Lawless & Julián Messina & Tairi Rõõm, 2010. "Downward Nominal and Real Wage Rigidity: Survey Evidence from European Firms," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 112(4), pages 884-910, December.
    7. Robert Price & Andreas Wörgötter, 2011. "Estonia: Making the Most of Globalisation," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 876, OECD Publishing.
    8. Alexander Hijzen & Danielle Venn, 2011. "The Role of Short-Time Work Schemes during the 2008-09 Recession," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 115, OECD Publishing.
    9. Hazans, Mihails & Philips, Kaia, 2011. "The Post-Enlargement Migration Experience in the Baltic Labor Markets," IZA Discussion Papers 5878, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Ms. Valerie Herzberg, 2010. "Assessing the Risk of Private Sector Debt Overhang in the Baltic Countries," IMF Working Papers 2010/250, International Monetary Fund.
    11. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/5l6uh8ogmqildh09h6m2jd193 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kukk, Merike, 2016. "How did household indebtedness hamper consumption during the recession? Evidence from micro data," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 764-786.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sandrine Levasseur, 2011. "Labour market adjustments in Estonia during the global crisis," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-01069525, HAL.
    2. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/eu4vqp9ompqllr09iak4591pm is not listed on IDEAS
    3. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/eu4vqp9ompqllr09iak4591pm is not listed on IDEAS
    4. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/eu4vqp9ompqllr09iak4591pm is not listed on IDEAS
    5. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/eu4vqp9ompqllr09iak4591pm is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Aurelija Anciūtė & Viginta Ivaškaitė-Tamošiūnė & Anamaria Maftei & Janos Varga, 2020. "Labour Tax and Child Benefits Reform in Lithuania: For Better or Worse?," European Economy - Economic Briefs 059, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    7. Mario Holzner & Maruška Vizek & Goran Vukšić, 2022. "Wage Bargaining Coordination, Taxation and Labor Costs: The Effects of Fiscal Devaluation," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 64(2), pages 324-349, June.
    8. International Monetary Fund, 2008. "Greece: Selected Issues," IMF Staff Country Reports 2008/147, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Adam, Stuart & Phillips, David & Roantree, Barra, 2019. "35 years of reforms: A panel analysis of the incidence of, and employee and employer responses to, social security contributions in the UK," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 29-50.
    10. European Commission, 2010. "Taxation trends in the European Union: 2010 edition," Taxation trends 2010, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.
    11. Peter Egger & Doina Radulescu & Nora Strecker, 2013. "Effective labor taxation and the international location of headquarters," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 20(4), pages 631-652, August.
    12. European Commission, 2011. "Tax Reforms in EU Member States 2011: tax policy challenges for economic growth and fiscal sustainability," Taxation Papers 28, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.
    13. Jaan Masso & Kerly Krillo, 2011. "Mixed Adjustment Forms and Inequality Effects in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania," Chapters, in: Daniel Vaughan-Whitehead (ed.), Work Inequalities in the Crisis, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Ángel Melguizo & José González-Páramo, 2013. "Who bears labour taxes and social contributions? A meta-analysis approach," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 4(3), pages 247-271, August.
    15. Carone, Giuseppe & Nicodème, Gaëtan & Schmidt, Jan, 2007. "Tax revenues in the European Union: Recent trends and challenges ahead," MPRA Paper 3996, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Elisabetta Croci Angelini & Francesco Farina, 2007. "Wage Inequality in Europe: the Role of Labour Market and Redistributive Institutions," AIEL Series in Labour Economics, in: Nicola Acocella & Riccardo Leoni (ed.), Social Pacts, Employment and Growth, chapter 9, pages 195-217, Springer.
    17. Bas B. Bakker & Marta Korczak, 2017. "Phoenix from the Ashes: The Recovery of the Baltics from the 2008/2009 Crisis," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 59(4), pages 520-544, December.
    18. Giuseppe Croce, 2015. "Il "welfare bilaterale" e i suoi effetti sull?occupazione," QUADERNI DI ECONOMIA DEL LAVORO, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(103), pages 223-244.
    19. Giuseppe Croce, 2015. "Tax-benefits policies jointly run by the social partners:Labour market implications of the Bipartite Sectoral Funds," Working Papers in Public Economics 173, University of Rome La Sapienza, Department of Economics and Law.
    20. Lucie Kábelová & Ondřej Bayer, 2018. "Labour Taxation and its Effect on Employment Growth: Latest Estimations with Focus on the Czech Republic," European Financial and Accounting Journal, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2018(2), pages 45-57.
    21. Tehmina S. Khan & Mr. John Norregaard, 2007. "Tax Policy: Recent Trends and Coming Challenges," IMF Working Papers 2007/274, International Monetary Fund.
    22. Miss Catriona Purfield & Mr. Christoph B. Rosenberg, 2010. "Adjustment Under a Currency Peg: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania During the Global Financial Crisis 2008-09," IMF Working Papers 2010/213, International Monetary Fund.
    23. Jaan Masso & K. Espenberg & Anu Masso & I. Mierina & Kaia Philips, 2013. "GINI Country Report: Growing Inequalities and their Impacts in the Baltic States Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania," GINI Country Reports baltics, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    24. Willi Leibfritz & Paul O'Brien, 2005. "The French Tax System: Main Characteristics, Recent Developments and Some Considerations for Reform," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 439, OECD Publishing.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:jes:journl:y:2012:v:3:p:123-143. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Alupului Ciprian (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/csjesro.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.