IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cep/cepdps/dp0426.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Short Employment Spells in Italy, Germany and the UK: Testing the Port of Entry Hypothesis

Author

Listed:
  • B Contini
  • l Pacelli
  • C Villosio

Abstract

This paper looks at short employment spells in three European countries: Great Britain, whose labour market is considered the most flexible in the EU; Italy, regarded as the least flexible; and Germany, tightly regulated, but characterised by a deservedly famous apprenticeship system. In particular, it aims to assess whether young people in short-lived jobs stand a better chance of finding a 'good job' compared to their older colleagues. The increasingly held belief that - in modern economies - a 'bad job' at the beginning of one's career is the 'port-of-entry' to stable employment and to upward mobility, makes this assessment particularly relevant; ie it matters greatly if short-duration jobs are entry ports into better employment or become long term-traps. The lack of accepted benchmarks makes it difficult to reach strong conclusions in regard to the 'efficiency' of labour markets, however, this study should help to highlight the effect of different labour market institutions on mobility and on the soundness of the 'port-of-entry' hypothesis.

Suggested Citation

  • B Contini & l Pacelli & C Villosio, 1999. "Short Employment Spells in Italy, Germany and the UK: Testing the Port of Entry Hypothesis," CEP Discussion Papers dp0426, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
  • Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0426
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/DP0426.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arulampalam, Wiji & Booth, Alison L & Taylor, Mark P, 2000. "Unemployment Persistence," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 52(1), pages 24-50, January.
    2. Katharine G. Abraham & Susan Houseman, 1995. "Earnings Inequality in Germany," NBER Chapters, in: Differences and Changes in Wage Structures, pages 371-404, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Freeman, Richard B. & Katz, Lawrence F. (ed.), 1995. "Differences and Changes in Wage Structures," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226261607.
    4. Meghir, Costas & Whitehouse, Edward, 1997. "Labour market transitions and retirement of men in the UK," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 327-354, August.
    5. Simon Burgess, 1999. "The Reallocation of Labour: An International Comparison Using Job Tenure," CEP Discussion Papers dp0416, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    6. Richard B. Freeman & Lawrence F. Katz, 1995. "Differences and Changes in Wage Structures," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number free95-1.
    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. Ambra Poggi & Jacques Silber, 2010. "On Polarization And Mobility: A Look At Polarization In The Wage–Career Profile In Italy," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 56(1), pages 123-140, March.
    2. cipollone piero & Anita Guelfi, 2003. "tax credit policy and firms' behaviour: the case of subsidy to open-end labour contract in italy," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 471, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    3. Bruno Contini, 2000. "Job Changes and Wage Dynamics," LABORatorio R. Revelli Working Papers Series 5, LABORatorio R. Revelli, Centre for Employment Studies.
    4. Tattara, Giuseppe & Valentini, Marco, 2005. "La mobilità dei lavoratori dell’industria nel Veneto: dinamica di lungo periodo e aspetti differenziali [Long-run labour mobility in Veneto manufacturing]," MPRA Paper 11002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Fabio Berton & Francesco Devicienti & Lia Pacelli, 2007. "Temporary jobs: Port of entry, Trap, or just Unobserved Heterogeneity?," LABORatorio R. Revelli Working Papers Series 68, LABORatorio R. Revelli, Centre for Employment Studies.
    6. Bruno Contini & Claudia Villosio, 2003. "Worker Mobility, Job Displacement and Wage Dynamics: Italy 1985-91," LABORatorio R. Revelli Working Papers Series 24, LABORatorio R. Revelli, Centre for Employment Studies.

    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. Burkhauser, Richard V & Holtz-Eakin, Douglas & Rhody, Stephen E, 1997. "Labor Earnings Mobility and Inequality in the United States and Germany during the Growth Years of the 1980s," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 38(4), pages 775-794, November.
    2. Vivarelli, Marco, 2012. "Innovation, Employment and Skills in Advanced and Developing Countries: A Survey of the Literature," IZA Discussion Papers 6291, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Puhani, Patrick A., 2001. "Wage rigidities in Western Germany? Microeconometric evidence from the 1990s," ZEW Discussion Papers 01-36, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    4. Walde, Klaus, 2000. "Egalitarian and elitist education systems as the basis for international differences in wage inequality," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 445-468, September.
    5. Mariacristina Piva & Marco Vivarelli, 2004. "The determinants of the skill bias in Italy: R&D, organisation or globalisation?," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 329-347.
    6. Jeff Borland, 2000. "Economic Explanations of Earnings Distribution Trends in the International Literature and Application to New Zealand," Treasury Working Paper Series 00/16, New Zealand Treasury.
    7. Angel de la Fuente & Antonio Ciccone, 2003. "Human capital in a global and knowledge-based economy," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 562.03, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    8. Peter Kuhn (McMaster), "undated". "Labour Market Polarization: Canada in International Perspective," Canadian International Labour Network Working Papers 02, McMaster University.
    9. Carsten Ochsen & Heinz Welsch, 2005. "Technology, Trade, and Income Distribution in West Germany: A Factor-Share Analysis, 1976–1994," Journal of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 321-345, November.
    10. Mertens, Antje, 1999. "Job stability trends and labor market (re-)entry in West Germany 1984 - 1997," SFB 373 Discussion Papers 1999,60, Humboldt University of Berlin, Interdisciplinary Research Project 373: Quantification and Simulation of Economic Processes.
    11. Steiner, Viktor & Mohr, Robert, 1998. "Industrial change, stability of relative earnings, and substitution of unskilled labor in West-Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 98-22, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    12. Åsa Rosén & Etienne Wasmer, 2005. "Higher Education Levels, Firms’ Outside Options and the Wage Structure," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 19(4), pages 621-654, December.
    13. Schnabel, Reinhold & Schnabel, Isabel, 2002. "Family and gender still matter: the heterogeneity of returns to education in Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 02-67, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    14. Borghans, Lex & ter Weel, Bas, 2007. "The diffusion of computers and the distribution of wages," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 715-748, April.
    15. Susan N. Houseman, "undated". "Job Growth and the Quality of Jobs in the U.S. Economy," Upjohn Working Papers snh19951, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    16. Ira N. Gang & Robert C. Stuart & Myeong-Su Yun, 2006. "Wage Growth and Inequality Change During Rapid Economic Transition," Departmental Working Papers 200631, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.
    17. Mertens Antje, 2002. "Regional and Industrial Wage Dynamics in West Germany and the United States / Regionale und industrielle Lohndynamik in Westdeutschland und den USA," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 222(5), pages 584-608, October.
    18. Usamah Fayez Al-Farhan, 2010. "A Detailed Decomposition of Changes in Wage Inequality in Reunified Post-transition Germany 1999-2006: Accounting for Sample Selection," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 269, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    19. Edwin Leuven & Hessel Oosterbeek & Hans van Ophem, 1997. "International Comparisons of Male Wage Inequality: Are the Findings Robust?," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 97-059/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    20. Manuel Alejandro HIDALGO PEREZ, 2010. "Analysis of Education Wage Premium in Spain," Regional and Urban Modeling 284100020, EcoMod.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:cep:cepdps:dp0426. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/discussion-papers/ .

    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.