Unemployment durations after temporary work: Evidence for Great Britain and Germany

Unemployment durations are determined by a number of factors. According to mainstream economics theory, unemployment durations are shorter in a more flexible labour market. In this paper, we hypothesize that workers who had a temporary contract before the spell of unemployment will experience shorter spells of unemployment than workers who had a permanent contract before. We adopt a flexible hazard rate model with a nonparametric baseline to analyse data on unemployment spells in Germany and Great Britain for the period 1991-2001. The two datasets allow for an international comparison of the institutional differences between the two countries. We find no evidence of shorter unemployment spells for previous temporary workers neither in Great-Britain nor in Germany. Results suggest that a labour market policy of promoting temporary work will not necessarily lead to lower unemployment since these policies increase the probability of becoming unemployed without being able to fulfil the promise of shorter unemployment spells.unemployment duration, temporary employment, job search model, nonparametric hazard model, Great-Britain, Germany

Non-standard employment and mobility in the Netherlands

In the last 25 years the number of flexible jobs has been expanding in most European countries. For example, in the Netherlands in 1995, about 11 per cent of workers was working in a fixed-term temporary job and about 37 per cent of workers was working in a part-time job. Seven years later, in 2002 these percentages had increased to 14 per cent and 44 per cent. It should be noted however, that the increase in temporary jobs already reached 13 per cent in 1998 and is fairly stable since, whereas the percentage of part-time jobs is still increasing in 2002. For the purpose of this paper, the focus will be on several forms of contractual flexibilisation: temporary contracts , small part-time contracts , on-call and replacement contracts, casual and seasonal work and work with temporary work agencies. These jobs are all defined as non-standard employment.The labour market in the Netherlands is characterised by quite some mobility between the various labour market states. The high mobility rates between non-standard and standard jobs, except for the small jobs and on-call contracts as part of non-standard employment, provide arguments for defending the hypothesis that the Dutch labour market is not characterised by a clear-cut segmentation of non-standard and standard jobs. An important finding is that there is a high degree of path dependence in labour market transitions. Earlier experience in standard employment increases the transition probabilities into standard employment, both for the nonemployed and for non-standard workers. Earlier experience in either non-standard or non-standard employment also reduces the probability of ‘falling back’ into nonemployment. Previous unemployment does not reduce the chances of finding a job for the nonemployed but does reduce the chances of finding a standard job for non-standard workers.job mobility; non-standard employment; panel data; Netherlands

The EU Framework Programs: Are they worth doing?

Using CIS data from the Netherlands, Germany and France we test whether EU Framework programs do have effects on their participants' R&D input and innovative output. From our probit analyses, we conclude that the FPs attract the "elite" of European innovators. The question is whether, after correction for self-selection, the programs have positive effects on innovative behaviour. This is hard to test meaningfully among large firms as EU funding is likely to cover only a minor share of their innovative activities. Analysing changes in R&D input we find that smaller firms increase their R&D input quite substantially after entering an EU FP program. Estimating equations that explain sales of innovative products, we find that firms that collaborate on R&D with clients, suppliers, competitors or public research institutes do not have increased sales of innovative products. We try to provide explanations for this counter-intuitive finding. Moreover, participation in an EU FP neither increases sales of innovative products. This result holds after numerous robustness checks. We argue that our insignificant outcomes do not necessarily imply that the FP programs are worthless. There is independent evidence that innovative projects funded by the EU FPs do, on average, involve more technical and scientific risks, they are more complex, and involve longer time horizons. Obviously, they are farer from market introduction which is not surprising, given the regulatory demand that EU FPs should be "pre-competitive". Against this background, we cannot exclude the possibility that an insignificant coefficient of FP participation in our equation on innovative output may still have a positive meaning

Longitudinal Poverty and Income Inequality A Comparative Panel Study for The Netherlands, Germany and the UK

The increasing availability of longitudinal data on income in Europe greatly facilitates the analysis of income and poverty dynamics. In this paper, the results of longitudinal data analyses on income and poverty in three European welfare states are reported. Using panel data for Germany, the Netherlands and the UK a variety of longitudinal inequality and poverty measures have been applied to reveal these dynamics. The focus will be on so-called poverty profiles indicating whether people belong to the permanent poor, the transient poor, the recurrent poor or the never poor. Multinomial regression models are estimated that aim to explain the likelihood of belonging to each of the poverty profiles over time and on the events that trigger the belonging to the poverty profiles over time. Our results show that there is a great deal of economic mobility in and out of poverty over time. Most of the poor are only poor for a short period of time but, nevertheless, a substantial part of the population is found to be persistent poor. This is particularly the case in the UK. In matured welfare states, income mobility and persistency of poverty are co-occurring. Our analysis of poverty profiles shows that especially labour market events trigger the belonging to the persistent, the recurrent or the transient poor.income dynamics; poverty; comparative analysis; welfare states; panel data, multinomial logit models

Ultrafast all-optical switching by cross phase modulation induced wavelength conversion in silicon-on-insulator waveguides and ring resonators

We present new results on ultrafast alloptical wavelength conversion in Silicon-on-Insulator waveguides through cross phase modulation. We demonstrate sub-picosecond all-optical switching with 13dB on/off ratio by combining the nonlinear wavelength conversion in the port waveguide with passive filtering using an integrated SOI microring resonator.\u

Part-time work as a transitional phase? The role of preferences and institutions in Germany, Great Britain and The Netherlands.

This paper uses 11 years of data from household panel data sets for the Netherlands, Germany and Great-Britain to investigate part-time employment and the role of institutions and preferences on transitions from part-time into full-time employment or into other employment statuses. The behavioural choice model distinguishes four labour market states: short hours part-time employment, long hours part-time employment, full-time employment and nonparticipation. This dynamic model is estimated with a multinomial logit model. Results from the estimates are interpreted against the background of the institutional differences between the three countries. In particular we look at the role of stated preferences on the number of working hours on the transition patterns of individual workers. Results indicate that both the Netherlands and Great-Britain as welfare states are more capable of facilitating workers to end up in their preferred hours bracket than Germany is.part-time employment; labour supply; stated preferences

Non-standard employment and mobility in the Netherlands

In the last 25 years the number of flexible jobs has been expanding in most European countries. For example, in the Netherlands in 1995, about 11 per cent of workers was working in a fixed-term temporary job and about 37 per cent of workers was working in a part-time job. Seven years later, in 2002 these percentages had increased to 14 per cent and 44 per cent. It should be noted however, that the increase in temporary jobs already reached 13 per cent in 1998 and is fairly stable since, whereas the percentage of part-time jobs is still increasing in 2002. For the purpose of this paper, the focus will be on several forms of contractual flexibilisation: temporary contracts , small part-time contracts , on-call and replacement contracts, casual and seasonal work and work with temporary work agencies. These jobs are all defined as non-standard employment.The labour market in the Netherlands is characterised by quite some mobility between the various labour market states. The high mobility rates between non-standard and standard jobs, except for the small jobs and on-call contracts as part of non-standard employment, provide arguments for defending the hypothesis that the Dutch labour market is not characterised by a clear-cut segmentation of non-standard and standard jobs. An important finding is that there is a high degree of path dependence in labour market transitions. Earlier experience in standard employment increases the transition probabilities into standard employment, both for the nonemployed and for non-standard workers. Earlier experience in either non-standard or non-standard employment also reduces the probability of ‘falling back’ into nonemployment. Previous unemployment does not reduce the chances of finding a job for the nonemployed but does reduce the chances of finding a standard job for non-standard workers