Flexicurity and Workers Well-Being in Europe: Is Temporary Employment Always Bad?

In this paper we study the effect of a micro-level measure of flexicurity on workers job satisfaction. To this aim, using micro data from the Eurobarometer survey, we split workers in different groups according not only to their employment contract (i.e. permanent or temporary), but also to their perceived job security, and we evaluate differences in job satisfaction between these groups. After controlling for the potential endogeneity of job type, results show that what matters for job satisfaction is not just the type of contract, but mainly the perceived job security, which may be independent of the type of contract. The combination “temporary but secure job” seems preferable with respect to the combination “permanent but insecure job”, pointing out that the length of the contract may be less relevant if the worker perceives that he/she is not at risk of becoming unemployed. Our main conclusions are robust to the use of alternative definitions of workers’ types and they generally hold within different welfare regimes and also for different aspects of job satisfaction, mainly for those more related to job security.Flexicurity, Job Satisfaction, POLS

The Effect of Comprehensive Smoking Bans in European Workplaces

In recent years many countries of the European Union (EU) have implemented comprehensive smoking bans to reduce exposure to tobacco smoke in public places and all indoor workplaces. Despite the intense public debate, research on the impact of smoking regulation on health, particularly within the workplace, is still very limited. In this paper, we use a Diff-in-Diff approach and comparable micro-data – for a large number of European countries – to evaluate the impact of national comprehensive smoking bans on both perceived workers' health and presence of respiratory problems within workplaces. Results show that the introduction of comprehensive smoking bans has a significant effect on workers' perceived health, particularly on the probability of exposure to smoke and fumes, also controlling for risk exposure. We also highlight some unintended effects of smoking bans in terms of mental distress, which counteract the positive impact on risk exposure and physical health. The impact across countries is shown to vary with the degree of strictness of the bans.smoking bans, workers health, difference-in-differences

Is Work Flexibility a Stairway to Heaven? The Story Told by Job Satisfaction in Europ

In this paper we investigate the relationship between di¤erent aspects of flexibility and job satisfaction using data taken from the 2001 Special Eurobarometer 56.1 "Social Exclusion and Modernization of Pension Systems". More speci?cally, we verify whether functional, numerical and time flexibility produce different impact on job satisfaction, also distinguishing between satisfaction for quantitative aspects (such as pay, hours of work and career prospects) and qualitative ones (such as motivation, job variety and on the job relations). Then, we test the impact of flexibility on job satisfaction for different types of workers (e.g. high or low skilled, young or old, male or female and country clusters). Taking into account of potential endogeneity, on the whole results from econometric analysis seem to point to a positive link between functional flexibility and job satisfaction and either no effect or a negative impact of numerical and time flexibility. With regard to estimation by groups, differences in the impact of flexibility on job satisfaction are particularly relevant among those groups that are characterized by significant gaps in the incidence of flexibility, such as the young and the old workers, the low and the high educated, Southern and Nordic countries' workers.Job satisfaction; flexibility

Still searching for the wage curve: evidence from Germany and Italy

This paper investigates the functioning of regional labour markets in Italy and Germany for different employee groups. In the light of high and persistent differences in unemployment and wage rates between the North and South of Italy and the West and East of Germany, we first derive theoretical hypotheses on group specific correlations between regional unemployment and individual wages. Using micro data on hourly wages properly matched to local unemployment rates, we specify and empirically test different wage equations. On the basis of our results, we find no evidence for the existence of a ?wage curve? in Italy. In the case of Germany, results are quite sensitive to the model specification and the employee group considered. In both countries, the reaction of wages to local unemployment varies significantly along the wage distribution, being more sensitive around the median quantiles. We conclude that there is no uniform wage curve and call for a differentiated analysis for various groups, taking into account the respective institutional setting. --wage curve,local labour markets,quantile regressions

Quotas have led to more women on corporate boards in Europe

But the effect on firm performance has been mixed across the different countries, write Simona Comi, Mara Grasseni, Federica Origo and Laura Pagan

High kinetic inductance NbTiN films for quantum limited travelling wave parametric amplifiers

A wide-bandwidth and low-noise amplification chain in the microwave regime is crucial for the efficient read-out of quantum systems based on superconducting detectors, such as Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs), Transition Edge Sensors (TESs), Magnetic Microcalorimeters (MMCs), and RF cavities, as well as qubits. Kinetic Inductance Travelling Wave Parametric Amplifiers (KI-TWPAs) operated in a three-wave mixing fashion have demonstrated exceptional dynamic range and low-noise performance, approaching the quantum limit. These amplifiers can be fabricated using a single layer of a high kinetic inductance film as weakly dispersive artificial transmission lines, with the ability to control the phase-matched bandwidth through dispersion engineering. In this study, we present the optimisation of the rf sputter-deposition process of NbTiN films using a Nb80%T20 target, with the goal of achieving precise control over film characteristics, resulting in high kinetic inductance while maintaining a high transition temperature. The parameter landscape related to the different sputtering conditions, such as pressure, power, and nitrogen flow, has been explored and the film thickness has been used as a fine-tuning parameter to adjust the properties of the final NbTiN films used for the fabrication of KI-TWPAs. As a final result, we have obtained a NbTiN film with a kinetic inductance of 8.5 pH/sq which we have exploited to fabricate KI-TWPA prototype devices, showing promising amplification performance

Workplace Flexibility and Institutions in Europe. A Tale of Two Countries.

This paper studies the determinants of the joint adoption of employment, wage and working time flexibility in workplaces, paying attention to the existence of complementarities. To better understand the role of country-specific institutional features, we compare the adoption of flexibility in Italy and Great Britain, two EU countries characterized by quite different product and labour market regulation. Empirical analysis based on establishment-level data shows that the probability of adopting any forms of flexibility is highly influenced by both firm characteristics and institutional variables, mainly by employment protection, union power and firm-level bargaining. Country-specific patterns also emerge: in Italy employment and wage flexibility are complement and they are both substitute for time flexibility; in Great Britain the flexibility mix is less clear cut. These results suggest that both policy makers and social partners should be aware that incentives or restrictions to specific forms of flexibility are likely to produce effects also on the use of other flexible work arrangements.flexibility, complementarities, institutions, multivariate probit

Flexible pay, firm performance and the role of unions. New evidence from Italy

This paper focuses on the effects of a shift in the firm pay strategy from a fixed wage to a flexible pay scheme on the performance of the "treated" firms. Theory predicts that the introduction of performance-related pay (PRP) may produce both incentive and sorting effects, making the incumbent workers more productive and attracting the most able workers from outside. Furthermore, productivity gains may be shared with the workers through higher wages and heterogeneous effects may be expected by union density. Matching estimates based on panel data for a representative sample of Italian metalworking firms in the 1990s show positive effects on labour productivity (around 7-11%) and to some extent on wages (around 2-3%), while worker sorting is negligible. Estimates by union density suggest that incentive effects are more present in low unionized firms, while wage effects are more significant in highly unionized ones. Extended sensitivity analysis shows that these results are overall robust with respect to the existence of unobserved confounding factors.Performance-related-pay Firm performance Unions Matching estimators ATT