Social protection and the formation of skills: a reinterpretation of the welfare state

helpful comments. Torben Iversen gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Hoover Institution while working in this paper. Abstract: This paper outlines a new approach to the study of the welfare state. Contrary to the emphasis on “decommmodification ” in the current literature, we argue that important dimensions of the welfare state – employment protection, unemployment protection, and wage protection – are designed to make workers more willing to invest in firm- and industry-specific skills that increase their dependence on particular employers and their vulnerability to market fluctuations. Workers will only make such risky investments when they have some insurance that their job or income is secure. Otherwise, they will invest in general, and therefore portable, skills. In turn, because the skill composition of the work force constrains the set of product market strategies that firms can pursue successfully, employers will support social protection that facilitates the set of skills they need to be competitive in particular international product markets. We show that our argument is consistent with observed clusters of social protection and skill profiles among OECD countries, and that these clusters are associated with very different distributional outcomes and patterns of gender-specific labor market segmentation

O capitalismo coordenado alemão: do boom do pós-guerra à Agenda 2010 The German coordinated capitalism: from the post war boom to Agenda 2010

No pós-guerra constituiu-se na Alemanha um modelo de capitalismo coordenado, em que os sindicatos e as associações empresariais assumiram papel central. Constituíram-se várias formas de regulação via networks, presentes nas relações internas às firmas, nas formas de colaboração entre as empresas e na interação mais próxima entre bancos e empresas. Os bons resultados em termos de competitividade foram combinados com excelentes indicadores sociais. Entretanto, as transformações recentes, relacionadas à maior internacionalização produtiva e financeira, têm colocado em xeque o capitalismo socialmente coordenado. Em face aos desafios econômicos, a Alemanha vem reagindo, procurando reformas que tornem o modelo mais flexível. Mas aspectos centrais do modelo têm se conservado, com destaque para as relações de trabalho e os mecanismos de cidadania social.<br>The reconstruction of German political economy after the Second World War was marked by the consolidation of many forms of regulation via networks. Those networks, present in many areas of the economy, stimulated the cooperation among the actors, having critical implications for the performance of the model. The outstanding results in terms of competitivity combined with outstanding social indicators. In recent years, international transformations, including financial liberalisation and internationalisation of production, have putting the social coordinated capitalism in check. In face of the economic challenges, Germany has been adopting a range of reforms in the attempt to make the model more flexible. Nevertheless, central aspects of the coordinated capitalism have been preserved, including the system of industrial relations and the mechanisms of social citizenship