Jun 5, 2015
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Increasing evidence that employment protection legislation has no impact on unemployment rates.
The European Progressive Observatory has published a policy brief that summarises facts and figures related to income distribution and wages. The main transformations initiated at the end of the 1970s have involved changes in monetary and fiscal policies and rules, and profound institutional changes in labour market regulations and the role of trade unions. The combination of the high unemployment generated by the changes in macroeconomic policies, and the institutional changes weakening collective wage bargaining and deregulating labour markets have impaired wages growth. According to mainstream economics, such changes in distribution and labour markets institutions should have led to lower unemployment. However, this has not been the case in the Eurozone, neither before nor after the crisis. There is increasing evidence that employment protection legislation has no impact on unemployment rates across countries and periods.
English: http://www.queries-feps.eu/recent-and-long-term-trends-in-income-distribution-and-wages/
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.