Labour Market Flexibility in Estonia: What More Can Be Done?

In mid-2008, high employment and low unemployment rates characterised the Estonian labour market in comparison with the average of the EU15 countries. While aggregate outcomes improved during 2000 07, large inequalities persisted across regions, ethnic groups, and workers with different skill levels. As Estonia entered recession in 2008, the unemployment rate almost doubled between the 2nd and the 4th quarter, and is expected to rise further in 2009 and 2010. More flexible labour markets will be a key adjustment mechanism during the recession as well as in the medium term if Estonia is to become a knowledge based economy. Given the currency board arrangement and low synchronisation with the euro area, flexibility is also needed to cushion asymmetric shocks. In December 2008, parliament adopted the new Employment Contract Act, deregulating employment protection while increasing income security of the unemployed. This paper discusses options for removing the remaining barriers that impede worker reallocation across jobs, sectors, and regions into more productive activities.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64375/1/wp964.pd

LABOUR MARKET FLEXIBILITY IN ESTONIA: WHAT MORE CAN BE DONE?

In mid-2008, high employment and low unemployment rates characterised the Estonian labour market in comparison with the average of the EU15 countries. While aggregate outcomes improved during 2000 07, large inequalities persisted across regions, ethnic groups, and workers with different skill levels. As Estonia entered recession in 2008, the unemployment rate almost doubled between the 2nd and the 4th quarter, and is expected to rise further in 2009 and 2010. More flexible labour markets will be a key adjustment mechanism during the recession as well as in the medium term if Estonia is to become a knowledge based economy. Given the currency board arrangement and low synchronisation with the euro area, flexibility is also needed to cushion asymmetric shocks. In December 2008, parliament adopted the new Employment Contract Act, deregulating employment protection while increasing income security of the unemployed. This paper discusses options for removing the remaining barriers that impede worker reallocation across jobs, sectors, and regions into more productive activities.Labour market policies; flexibility; Estonia.

The Effects of euro Adoption on the Slovak Economy

In this study we assess the effects of euro adoption from an economic perspective. The benefits and disadvantages of Slovak entry to the euro area were discussed already when the euro adoption strategy was adopted. This analysis utilizes the latest information, using the set euro adoption date and the chosen euro adoption scenario. We attempt to quantify the most important effects, so that the costs and benefits can be compared. The costs and risks related to the euro area entry will depend on economic conditions and policies. Therefore we analyze the economic policies, which should support euro adoption, the issues of optimal timing of euro area entry and the impacts of euro adoption on citizens, businesses and the state administration.

Labour Migration From EaP Countries to the EU - Assessment of Costs and Benefits and Proposals for Better Labour Market Matching

It is reasonable to expect steady migratory flows from Eastern Parntership nations in the future, and that migration would be a desirable phenomenon (based on the so-far advantageous migratory flows from EaP nations). They cause no negative wage effects on native workers

THE POLITICISATION OF SOCIAL EUROPE. CONFLICT DYNAMICS IN THE POST-CRISIS DEBATE OVER EU SOCIAL AND EMPLOYMENT POLICIES

The bulk of the literature on \u2018Social Europe\u2019 has described the latest development of the social dimensions of the E(M)U in negative terms by referring to the absorption, the displacement, the decline and the marginalization of the EU social policies. Notably, the ruling of the European Court of Justice and the new post-crisis governance of the Economic and Monetary Union have contributed to increase the centrality of social issues in the European public debate, exacerbate the conflicts between political actors on EU social and employment policy and mount the dissensus towards the European integration process. While academic literature has broadly focused on the mobilization of political parties in defense of national welfare states against the EU \u201cintrusiveness\u201d into domestic decision-making and on the heightened politicization of EU affairs at the domestic level, less attention has been paid to the \u2018politicization of Social Europe\u2019, and especially to the configuration of the political conflicts over social integration at the EU level. Indeed, traditional literature on dimensions of politics in the European Parliament and the Council has ignored the specific conflict dynamics that characterize the political debate in this specific policy area. Therefore, the objective of this thesis is to fill this gap, and especially so by focusing on the new conflict constellations that emerged in the aftermath of the EU crisis. Drawing on the \u201cclash syndrome\u201d theory elaborated by Ferrera, I argue that the political debate over EU social integration is characterized by the overlapping of four lines of conflict of a functional, normative and territorial nature. Contrary to traditional literature, which has described the conflict over EU integration as mainly one- or bi-dimensional, the main finding of this thesis is that the political confrontation over EU social and employment policy is characterised by the coexistence of multiple and criss-crossing divides, which differently combine according to the arena where the debate takes place, the actors involved, the rules of the decision-making process and the issue at stake. The way these political divides interact leads to the creation of different conflict constellations, which can hinder the adoption of specific social policy proposal, but that can also open possibility spaces for the emergence of new coalitions that facilitate the adoption of an ambitious Social policy agenda

Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe: the emergence of a new European Model of solidarity?

The successful completion of political, institutional and social transformation, which accompanies the new democracies of East Central Europe, urgently requires the establishment and consolidation of new forms of social security, called to ensure the sustainability and durability of reforms. By explaining the path of extrication from state socialism, this study aims to: a) compare different social policy theories and to elaborate new ones; b) identify the patterns of the welfare state's transformation in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Slovenia, at the national and EU level; c) investigate the attitudes towards social inequality in the European region; and d) explore the impact of social transfers in seven Central and Eastern European countries (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Slovenia). This research also aims to highlight the factors responsible for institutional change and democratic consolidation and to identify the prospects for the successful implementation of future welfare state reforms. This investigation identifies the emergence of a peculiar Eastern European model of solidarity coming from the fusion of pre-communist (Bismarck social insurance), communist (universalism, corporatism and egalitarianism) and post-communist features (market-based schemes), and maintained together by a strong support for redistributive policies. Finally, this book examines the challenges that modern welfare states are facing, such as the acceptance of a new welfare consensus, globalization and the Europeanization of national social policies. It concludes by reflecting on how Eastern welfare states will fit in the future EU welfare regime

The limitations of policy coordination in the euro area under the European Semester. Bruegel Policy Contribution 2015/19, November 2015

The European Semester is a yearly process of the European Union to improve economic policy coordination and ensure the implementation of the EU’s economic rules. Each Semester concludes with recommendations for the euro area as a whole and for each EU member state. We show that implementation of recommendations was poor at the beginning of the Semester in 2011, and has deteriorated since. The European Semester is not particularly effective at enforcing even the EU’s fiscal and macroeconomic imbalance rules. We find that euro-area recommendations with tangible economic goals are not well reflected in the recommendations issued to member states. Finally, we review various proposals to improve the efficiency of the European Semester and conclude that while certain steps could be helpful, policy coordination will likely continue to have major limitations