We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014
Labor market policy is a third arena in which divergent trajectories of liberalization are evident and have a profound impact on equality and social solidarity. Governments influence the operation of labor markets in a wide variety of ways. The political economy literature puts heavy emphasis on employment protection legislation and unemployment benefits, and for good reason. Employment protection legislation affects the ease with which employers can lay off workers, and the level and duration of unemployment benefits influence the incentives that workers face in the market. These factors play a role in my analysis as well, but in this chapter I focus attention more on two other types of policies through which governments influence the operation of labor markets: active labor market policies (ALMPs) and short-time work (STW) policies.
Of the two, ALMPs have captured the lion's share of attention. Following Katz (1994), the term refers to “measures targeted at the unemployed and disadvantaged (low-wage) workers with the intent of improving the functioning of the labor market” in one of three ways: by investing in education and training to upgrade these workers’ skills, by stimulating employment either through direct job creation in the public sector or through subsidies to the private sector, and by facilitating reintegration into the labor market by assisting the unemployed in job searches and by matching them to openings (259). Although in fact their distributive effects vary significantly depending on which of these facets is emphasized, most observers see ALMPs as outsider-oriented in that the spending is targeted at those at the low end of the skill spectrum and the unemployed (Rueda 2007; Martin and Swank 2012).
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
