Labour Market Flexibility And Sectoral Productivity

Looks at the relationship between employment flexibility and labour productivity across sectors. Finds positive correlations of part-time work, temporary work and self-employment, with employment flexibility.

This book is about two polemical issues in labour studies, namely, the notions and determinants of labour productivity and flexibility. This book attempts to develop the notion of labour input flexibility or the capacity of workers to adapt to changes in the environment and its relation with labour productivity. The role of institutions, employment practices, capital-labour relations and labour market policies in determining labour flexibility is emphasized. The chapters look at the experiences of industrialized countries (European countries, the USA, Canada and Japan) and three Latin American countries (Brazil, Chile and Mexico).

These essays, by researchers from seven European countries, compare changes in wage and labour relations, employment conditions and social welfare systems in Europe since 1973 as the economic environment has worsened.

Discusses five major topics: the meaning of the term "flexibility", the various forms which it takes in practice, its short-and long-term implications, the diverse forms it may assume in different national contexts, and finally its effectiveness as an instrument of economic and employment policy

This timely volume discusses the extent to which the labor market is becoming more flexible in response to competitive pressures and examines the pivotal roles of collective bargaining in introducing this flexibility.Providing detailed information from 22 country studies, the book covers industrialized and developing nations across Western Europe, North and South America, and Asia. It analyzes the extent of flexibility introduced in these labor markets, as well as the changing role of the state in industrial relations, and the positions of employers and trade unions on labor market flexibility. This comprehensive study reviews the move toward flexibility in four principal areas: contracts of employment, pay, working time, and work organization.While closely examining the means of achieving greater labor market flexibility, this highly topical book addresses the various ways in which flexibility has been introduced, including through legislative action, collective bargaining, individual contracts of employment, and unilateral employer decisions. The findings in this book reveal that collective bargaining is the most effective means of introducing flexibility, as it engages both employers and workers in the process of change.In addition, the volume examines the outcomes of negotiations on flexibility at the central, sectoral, and enterprise levels, paying special attention to the trade-offs that arise, particularly in the areas of job security, working time, and workers' lifestyles.

The challenge for labor market policy in the transition economies has been to redress the sharp drops in employment and rises in unemployment in a way that fosters the creation of productive jobs. The authors first document the magnitude and productivity of job and worker reallocation. Then they investigate the effects of privatization, product and labor market liberalization, and obstacles to growth in the new private sector on reallocation and its productivity in Hungary, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine. The authors find that market reform has resulted in a large increase in the pace of job reallocation, particularly that occurring between sectors and through firm turnover. Unlike under central planning, the job reallocation during the transition has contributed significantly to aggregate productivity growth. Privatization has not only stimulated intrasectoral job reallocation, but the reallocation is more productive than that among remaining state firms. The effect of privatization on firm productivity varies considerably across countries and is not always positive. The productivity gains from privatization have generally not come at the expense of workers but are rather associated with increased wages and employment.

Report on four issues raised by the current debate on labour market flexibility: labour costs, external and internal labour market mobility, and concealed employment. Examines the argument that high labour costs and wage inflexibility have priced workers out of the labour market, concluding that while wages are important in explaining unemployment, other factors are also significant. Discusses external labour market mobility (job mobility, geographic mobility and occupational change) as a means of adjusting to structural change, but finds that the link between mobility trends and labour market efficiency is difficult to ascertain. Looks at enterprise level flexibility, covering numerical and functional flexibility of the work force, and, finally, considers the phenomenon of concealed employment as a perverse form of labour market flexibility.