Regulating the Risk of Unemployment: National Adaptations to Post-Industrial Labour Markets in Europe

Regulating the Risk of Unemployment offers a systematic comparative analysis of the recent adaptation of European unemployment protection systems to increasingly post-industrial labour markets. These systems were mainly designed and institutionalized in predominantly industrial economies, characterized by relatively standardized employment relationships and stable career patterns, as well as plentiful employment opportunities even for those with low skills. Over the past two to three decades they have faced the challenge of an accelerating shift to a primarily service-based economy, accompanied by demands for greater flexibility in wages and terms and conditions in low-skill segments of the labour market as well as pressures to maximise labour force participation given the more limited potential for productivity-led growth. The book develops an original framework for analysing adaptive reform in unemployment protection along three discrete dimensions of institutional change, which are termed benefit homogenization, risk re-categorization, and activation. This framework is then used to structure analysis of twenty years of unemployment protection reform in twelve European countries. In addition to mapping reforms along these dimensions, the country studies analyse the political and institutional factors that have shaped national patterns of adaptation. Complementary comparative analyses explore the effects of benefit reforms on the operation of the labour market, assess evolving patterns of working-age benefit dependency, and examine the changing role of active labour market policies in the regulation of the risk of unemployment. Available in OSO: Contributors to this volume - Jorgen Goul Andersen is Professor of Political Science, Aarhus University, Denmark. Giuliano Bonoli is Professor of Social Policy at the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Cyrielle Champion is a PhD candidate and research assistant at the Swiss Graduate School for Public Administration (IDHEAP), Lausanne, Switzerland. Jochen Clasen is Professor of Comparative Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh. Daniel Clegg is Lecturer in Social Policy in the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh, and a member of the executive committee of the network of excellence 'Reconciling Work and Welfare in Europe' (FP6, 2006-2011). Johan J. De Deken is a Lecturer at the Department of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam. Irene Dingeldey leads the research unit 'Changes in the Working Society' at the Institute of Work and Labour at Bremen University. Anil Duman is an Assistant Professor currently at Central European University, Budapest. Werner Eichhorst is Deputy Director of Labor Policy at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, Germany. Marcel Hoogenboom is Assistant Professor of sociology at the Department of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Ondej Hora is Assistant Professor at School of Social Studies Masaryk University in Brno and research fellow at Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs. Matteo Jessoula is Assistant Professor at the Department of Social and Political Studies of the University of Milan. Regina Konle-Seidl is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Employment (IAB) in Nuremberg, Germany. Alison Koslowski is a Lecturer in Social Policy at the School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh. Paul Marx joined the IZA in Bonn in October 2008 as a Resident Research Affiliate. F. Javier Mato is Associate Professor, Department of Applied Economics of the University of Oviedo. Agota Scharle is an economist and senior research partner at the Budapest Institute for Policy Analysis. Ola Sjoberg is Professor of Sociology at the Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University. Tomas Sirovatka is Professor of Social Policy at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University in Brno. Patrik Vesan is Assistant Professor at Faculty of Political Sciences and International Relations of the University of Valle d'Aosta.