The political economy of active labour market policy

Active labour market policies have developed significantly over the last two decades across OECD countries, with substantial cross-national differences in terms of both extent and overall orientation. The objective of this paper is to account for cross-national variation in this policy field. It starts by reviewing existing scholarship concerning political, institutional and ideational determinants of ALMPs. It then argues that ALMPs is too broad a category to be used analytically, and develops a typology of four different types of ALMPs: incentive reinforcement, employment assistance, occupation, and human capital investment. These are discussed and examined through ALMP expenditure profiles in selected countries. The paper uses this typology to analyse active labour market policy trajectories in six western European countries, and shows that the role of this instrument changes dramatically over time. It concludes that there is little regularity in the political determinants of ALMPs. In contrast, it finds important institutional and ideational effects, the latter in the most recent phase in particular

Integration through vocational training. Promoting refugees' access to apprenticeships in a collective skill formation system

With this paper we want to contribute to the debate on the usage of vocational training as a tool to promote the integra-tion of disadvantaged groups. We focus in particular on programmes that target refugees and highlight the organisational and coordination challenges that must be addressed in order to develop such programmes. Relying on knowledge devel-oped by scholars of collective skill formation and by those who have studied policy coordination, we develop a number of hypotheses that can account for the successful implementa-tion of this type of programmes. We then test our hypotheses against an example taken from Switzerland, consisting of a one-year pre-apprenticeship dual training programme adopted in 2018. We argue that its win-win quality, the flex-ibility with which it was managed and possibly also the poli-tical salience of the issue of refugee integration at the time, were the key factors explaining its successful adoption

Az aktív munkaerő-piaci politika politikai gazdaságtana

E tanulmány célja, hogy az OECD országokban végbemenő mai politikai fejlemények vizsgálatával választ adjon arra a kérdésre, hogy milyen politikai determinánsok állnak az aktív munkaerő-piaci politikák (AMP-k) mögött. A szerző véleménye szerint a kérdéssel kapcsolatos konszenzus hiánya három problémából ered. Először, mint azt a vonatkozó szakirodalomban sokan hangsúlyozzák, az AMP fogalma egymástól nagyon különböző intervenciókat tartalmaz, és semmi sem indokolja, hogy valamennyit ugyanazokkal a politikai determináns-együttesekkel kapcsoljuk össze. Másodszor, az idők folyamán változott az AMP-k gazdaságban játszott szerepe. Az 1950-es évek úttörő svéd rendszerének nem ugyanazok a céljai voltak, mint a jelenlegi brit, német, vagy akár a jelenlegi svéd politikának. Harmadszor, az AMP-k vélt politikai determinánsai kölcsönhatásban vannak más fontos, jórészt intézményi és gondolkodásbeli tényezőkkel, amiket szintén figyelembe kell vennünk. E kiindulópontokra alapozva a tanulmány összetettebb és talán pontosabb választ kínál arra a kérdésre, hogy mik az AMP-k politikai determinánsai

Rethinking retirement : the politics of pension reform in Britain, Switzerland and France

This study is concerned with the impact that political institutions can have on welfare reforms. It compares recent pension reforms adopted in three countries - the UK, France and Switzerland - characterised by very different constitutional arrangements. In each country, governments shared similar concerns for the medium and long term financing of state pensions, and were equally committed to achieve savings through a partial rethinking of pension policy. However, the three governments were operating in substantially different institutional environments, and developed different strategies in order to achieve a common goal. In the UK, thanks to a constitutional structure which concentrates power in the hands of the government, the latter was able to impose changes in face of widespread public opposition. In contrast, in Switzerland, the high level of power fragmentation generated by its political institutions forced the majority to combine saving measures with elements of expansion. Finally France, which as far as constitutional arrangements comes somewhere between the two, managed to adopt a (negotiated) reform when, because of contingent political factors, power concentration was low, but failed when it was higher. The study concludes by arguing that political institutions are an important factor which affects the selection of a given strategy in pension reform. However, their impact is mediated by a series of other contingencies that can influence the level of power concentration. Of particular relevance are electoral results, which can strengthen or weaken the bargaining power of a government, and the position in the electoral cycle at the time of reform