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Cui bono – business or labour? Job retention policies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe

Author

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  • Bernhard Ebbinghaus

    (University of Oxford, UK)

  • Lukas Lehner

    (University of Oxford, UK)

Abstract

Europe has been faced with multiple challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the problem of how to secure jobs and earnings. In our comparative analysis, we explore to what degree European welfare states were capable of responding to this crisis by stabilising employment and workers’ incomes. While short-time work was a policy tool already partly used in the 2008/2009 Great Recession, job retention policies were further expanded or newly introduced across Europe in 2020 in the wake of the pandemic. However, cross-national variations persist in the way in which these schemes were designed and implemented across European welfare states, aiming more or less to hoard labour and thereby avoid mass dismissals throughout the employment crisis. We distinguish between business support and labour support logics in explaining the variation in job retention policies across Europe. Our finding is that Continental, Mediterranean and liberal welfare states did more to foster labour hoarding using short-time work than Nordic or Central and Eastern European countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Bernhard Ebbinghaus & Lukas Lehner, 2022. "Cui bono – business or labour? Job retention policies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 28(1), pages 47-64, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:treure:v:28:y:2022:i:1:p:47-64
    DOI: 10.1177/10242589221079151
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Agar Brugiavini & Raluca Elena Buia & Irene Simonetti, 2024. "The evolution of (post) pandemic labour market outcomes of older workers in Europe," Working Papers 2024: 10, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    2. Guglielmo Meardi & Arianna Tassinari, 2022. "Crisis corporatism 2.0? The role of social dialogue in the pandemic crisis in Europe," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 28(1), pages 83-100, February.
    3. Philippe Pochet, 2022. "From one crisis to another: changes in the governance of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 28(1), pages 119-133, February.

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