Labour Markets at a Crossroads: Causes of Change, Challenges and Need to Reform

Henrik Lindberg

Dec 2011 · Cambridge Scholars Publishing

About this ebook

The European labour market models are at a crossroads. Almost all Western European countries have experienced a lack of job creation, productivity and growth for an extended period of time. There is a problem of unemployment overall, but most urgently for the young, for immigrants and for the disabled. There is a clear need for reform.

This volume, Labour Markets at a Crossroads: Causes of Change, Challenges and Need to Reform, investigates a number of vital aspects of the European labour markets and the challenges they face. The chapters give new perspectives on how the different labour market models in Europe work, and what consequences they have. The contributing authors are academic scholars in economics, political science, sociology and economic history from a variety of European countries.

The book is structured around three main themes:

Flexicurity and Labour Market Dynamics

Trade Unions and Industrial Action

Wages and Bargaining

A central conclusion made by the editors is that one of the main causes of the shortcomings of the European labour markets is the existence of what they call “corporative cartels.” Moreover, there are clear options for policy choice, both for legislators and the social partners themselves.

About the author

Henrik Lindberg, PhD in Economic History, specialized on industrial relations and industrial restructuring. His publications focus on how changes in the economy interact with policy change and how to understand major economic and political processes with an institutional and historical approach.

Nils Karlson is an Associate Professor of Political Science and President of the Ratio Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. He has published extensively about the interaction between politics and markets within the context of the modern welfare state, in particular about labour market models, their effects and the prospects for institutional change.