Regulating the Risk of Unemployment
Book
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.
List of Figures ; List of Tables ; List of Appendices ; List of Abbreviations ; List of
Annexes ; List of contributors ; 1. Unemployment Protection and Labour Market Change in
Europe: Towards 'Triple Integration'? ;
PART I: NATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS ; 2. The United Kingdom - Towards a Single Working-Age
Benefit ; 3. France - Integration versus Dualisation ; 4. Germany - Moving Towards
Integration Whilst Maintaining Segmentation ; 5. The Netherlands - Two Tiers for All ; 6.
Belgium - A Precursor Muddling Through? ; 7. Switzerland - A Latecomer Catching Up? ; 8.
Italy - Partial Adaptation of an Atypical Benefit System ; 9. Spain - Fragmented
Unemployment Protection in a Segmented Labour Market ; 10. Denmark - Ambiguous
Modernisation of an Inclusive Unemployment Protection System ; 11. Sweden - Ambivalent
Adjustment ; 12. Hungary - Fiscal Pressures and a Rising Resentment Against the (idle)
Poor ; 13. The Czech Republic -Activation, Diversification and Marginalisation ;
PART II: CROSS-NATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ; 14. Quantity over Quality? A European Comparison
of the Changing Nature of Transitions Between Non-Employment and Employment ; 15. Tracking
Caseloads - The Changing Composition of Working-Age Benefit Receipt in Europe ; 16. Active
Labour Market Policies in a Changing Economic Context ; 17. The Transformation of
Unemployment Protection in Europe
432 pages, Paperback