Heejung Chung

Institutions versus market forces: Explaining the employment insecurity of European individuals during (the beginning of) the financial crisis:

In reaction to the recent financial crisis, the European Commission re-stated its view that the balance between flexibility and security is the key to success for the future of the European social economy, as well as its belief in the power of institutional arrangements it deems necessary for this balance. However, do powerful institutions actually counter market forces where flexicurity is concerned? In this paper we address this question by analysing the impact of institutional configurations and market factors on perceived employment insecurity among workers in Europe. We use the 4th wave of the European Social Survey for 2008/2009, which covers 22 countries, and implement a multi-level approach where contextual effects are taken into account and individuals are considered to be embedded within a country. We find that policies that secure one’s income and employability skills, such as passive and active labour market policies, are more important for providing employment security for individuals than institutions that secure one’s current job, such as employment protection. Of the economic and labour market factors, general market conditions (measured as employment rate average) and the strength of the financial crisis (measured as gross domestic product growth rate from 2008 to 2009) are both similarly influential in explaining cross-national variance in the employment insecurity perception of individuals. More generally, and most interestingly, we find that institutional factors lose their significance when market factors are taken into account. Thus, it seems that differences in economic and labour market conditions between countries better explain why workers feel insecure about their employment, than the differences in employment and income policies. Although this result could be influenced by the time period under investigation, which is characterized by a financial crisis, results from previous studies using data from different periods suggest that it is not period-specific.

Employment insecurity and life satisfaction: The moderating influence of labour market policies across Europe

This article tests whether the link between employment insecurity and life satisfaction is moderated by the generosity of labour market policies across Europe. Employment insecurity provokes anxieties about (a) the difficulties of finding a new job and (b) alternative sources of non-work income. These components can be related to active and passive labour market policies, respectively. Generous policy support is thus expected to buffer the negative consequences of employment insecurity by lowering the perceived difficulty of finding a similar job or providing income maintenance during unemployment. Based on data for 22 countries from the 2010 European Social Survey, initial support for this hypothesis is found. Perceived employment insecurity is negatively associated with life satisfaction but the strength of the relationship is inversely related to the generosity of labour market policies. Employment insecurity, in other words, is more harmful in countries where labour market policies are less generous.

Working time flexibility components and working time regimes in Europe: using company-level data across 21 countries

Working time flexibility comprises a wide variety of arrangements, from part-time, overtime, to long-term leaves. Theoretical approaches to grouping these arrangements have been developed, but empirical underpinnings are rare. This article investigates the bundles that can be found for various flexible working time arrangements, using the Establishment Survey on Working Time and Work–Life Balance, 2004/2005, covering 21 EU member states and 13 industries. The results from the factor analyses confirmed that working time arrangements can be grouped into two bundles, one for the employee-centred arrangements and second for the employer-centred arrangements, and that these two bundles are separate dimensions. We also tested the stability of the factor analysis outcome, showing that although we find some deviations from the pan-Europe and pan-industry outcome, the naming of the components as flexibility for employees and flexibility for employers can be considered rather stable. Lastly, we find three country clusters for the 21 European countries using the bundle approach. The first group includes the Northern European countries along side Poland and Czech Republic, the second group the continental European countries with UK and Ireland, and lastly, the southern European countries with Hungary and Slovenia.

Young People and the Post-Recession Labour Market in the Context of Europe 2020

This article examines how the recent global recession, together with the general flexibilization of labour markets, is affecting young people. We examine different forms of social exclusion, including unemployment, temporary employment contracts and periods of inactivity, as well as the subjective insecurity arising from such labour market exclusion. We also examine what Member States have done to address this issue, especially as part of their response to the crisis. At both EU (through the Europe 2020 strategy) and national levels specific policy measures exist that target young people in the labour market, but these are mostly supply-driven. Thus, they do not take into account the true problems young people are facing, including problems finding first-time employment and bad-quality jobs with little prospect of moving up the employment ladder. In conclusion, a new generation with higher exposure to systematic labour market risks than previous generations is being left to fend for itself with little appropriate state support.

Working time flexibility across Europe: a typology using firm‐level data

Using the European Establishment Survey of Working Times, we derive a typology of firms based on the mix of flexible working time practices they employ. Six flexibility profiles are distinguished, each representing a considerable proportion of establishments. The typology not only differentiates between more and less flexible firms, but also between the focus of the practices firms adopt, stressing that flexibility is not a one-dimensional concept. We also investigate what firm characteristics are good predictors of the adoption of a certain flexibility profile and how the profiles are related to performance and perceived HRM bottlenecks.

Subjective insecurity and the role of institutions

The issue of social insecurity is high on the public and scientific agenda. Most research, however, looks at objective forms of insecurity like growing labour market volatilities or atypical employment. Less has been done with regard to the way people perceive these changes and the role of institutions therein. While recent studies have highlighted the relatively weak role of institutions in explaining different levels of subjective insecurity, they were limited in their understanding in the institutions–security interplay. This special issue aims to understand how institutions generate and moderate the outcomes of subjective insecurity, as well as to overcome some of the methodological limitations of previous studies. The introduction provides a state-of-the-art literature review and unfolds the research question addressed in the special issue. It concludes with some thoughts for future research in the field of social insecurity and institutions.

Work-Family Conflict across 28 European Countries: A Multi-level Approach

As work and family structures change, one of the key problems individuals face today is how to balance work with other life and family responsibilities. For previous generations, care for family and gainful employment were divided and carried out by different individuals within a family. However, this division is no longer clear, and many individuals are faced with the challenging double burdens of family and household responsibilities while engaging in gainful employment at the same time. Individuals thus face work-f amily conflict, where they have to deal with the demands of household tasks and family care responsibilities, and job demands simultaneously. It is crucial to examine what causes these conflicts, since the failure to do so can cause problems for individuals, leading them to leave the labour force or impairing their health.

European parents’ attitudes towards public childcare provision: the role of current provisions, interests and ideologies

ABSTRACT Despite the large volume of literature on childcare provision across countries, individuals’ attitudes and preferences concerning the role of government in the provision of childcare remain largely unexplored. This study examines how current policy provision structures, measured through objective and subjective indicators, both at the individual and national levels, influence the degree to which parents in European countries support public provision of childcare. The relative importance of current provision structures is then compared with other welfare attitude determinants; that is, self-interest and political attitudes. This is done using data from 22 European countries in 2008/2009 and a multilevel modelling technique. Results show that in general parents across Europe are largely supportive of public childcare provision. Furthermore, current provision structures, and people’s assessment of it, are consistently related to parents’ support for public childcare. Current provisions are salient factor explaining variance in childcare support (both at the individual and national levels) over and beyond the most commonly used frameworks, namely self-interest and ideologies. The results of this study provide evidence for a vicious and virtuous cycle in the relationship between policy provision and support, where investment in policies may drive up support while rolling back of policies may further decrease support.

Measuring Flexicurity: Precautionary Notes, a New Framework, and an Empirical Example

Recently, there has been an increase and abundance of literature measuring flexicurity across countries. However, there is yet to be any agreement on the definition of the key concepts of flexicurity as well as the framework in which to base one’s research. Due to this, the outcomes found in the existing studies are rather diverse, far from reaching a consensus, and can be misleading. This paper addresses the issues by first introducing a framework, namely, the various levels and stages of flexicurity, as well as introducing some key issues that should be addressed when doing flexicurity indicators research. In addition, an empirical example is given to show how the framework derived can be used to carry out flexicurity research, and to show how by not regarding these frameworks one can come to misleading outcomes.

Flexibility for Whom?: A New Approach in Examining Labour Market Flexibility Focusing on European Companies

This paper argues that labour market flexibility is commonly examined lop-sidely, and that it should be examined more broadly including flexibility for the needs of employees as well as those for employers. It uses the data from the European Survey of Working-Time and Work-life Balance, a survey based on the establishment level covering 21 EU member states for the year 2004/2005. The outcomes show that based on the practices of companies, flexibility can indeed be distinguished depending on whose flexibility it accommodates. Also it shows that it is the countries that score high on the levels of flexibility for employers are those who also score high on the levels of flexibility for employees however there are differences across country clusters in which flexibility is more emphasized than the other. Lastly, this paper makes cautionary note on the various levels in which flexibility can be examined.