Greek Tragedy in European Theatre - the Economic Consequences of Depression Economics

Publisher PD

Socio-Economic Differences in the Perceived Quality of High and Low-paid Jobs in Greece

Bank of Greece and the European Commissio

Join the Union and be Safe : The Effects of Unionisation on Occupational Safety and Health in the European Union

Preprin

The Effect of Macroeconomic Conditions on Occupational Health and Safety : the European Experience

Preprin

An inquiry into the theory, causes and consequences of monitoring indicators of health and safety at work

This paper engages in an interdisciplinary survey of the current state of knowledge related to the theory, determinants and consequences of occupational safety and health (OSH). First, it synthesizes the available theoretical frameworks used by economists and psychologists to understand the issues related to the optimal provision of OSH in the labour market. Second, it reviews the academic literature investigating the correlates of a comprehensive set of OSH indicators, which portray the state of OSH infrastructure (social security expenditure, prevention, regulations), inputs (chemical and physical agents, ergonomics, working time, violence) and outcomes (injuries, illnesses, absenteeism, job satisfaction) within workplaces. Third, it explores the implications of the lack of OSH in terms of the economic and social costs that are entailed. Finally, the survey identifies areas of future research interests and suggests priorities for policy initiatives that can improve the health and safety of workers

Inequality and Participative Democracy A Self-Reinforcing Mechanism

Publisher PD

Confronting objections to performance pay: A study of the impact of individual and gain-sharing incentives on the job satisfaction of British employees

The increasing interest in incentive pay schemes in recent years has raised concerns regarding their potential damaging effect on intrinsic job satisfaction, or the security of employment. This study explores the impact of both individual and gain-sharing incentives on the overall job satisfaction of workers in the UK, as well as their satisfaction with various facets of jobs, namely total pay, job security, and the actual work itself. Using data from six waves (1998-2003) of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), and after correcting for the sorting problem that arises, no significant difference in overall job utility is found between those receiving performance-related pay (PRP) and those on other methods of compensation. In addition, non-economic arguments that PRP crowds-out the intrinsic satisfaction of jobs are also not supported, as are popular concerns regarding the adverse impact of PRP schemes on job security. An important asymmetry in the manner in which individual and gain-sharing incentives affect the utility of employees is nonetheless unearthed, as the latter are consistently found to have a positive effect on employee well-being

Measuring adaptation to non-permanent employment contracts using a conjoint analysis approach

This study attempts to uncover the ‘real’ impact of temporary contracts on workers’ perceived job quality, prior to the psychological phenomena of adaptation, coping and cognitive dissonance coming into play. This is done by using a novel conjoint analysis approach that examines the ex ante preferences over different contract statuses of a newly generated sample of low-skilled employees from seven European countries. Other things equal, it is shown that the anticipated psychological ‘costs’ of moving from a riskless permanent contract to the insecurity of a temporary job or no work at all appear to be quite significant. In contrast, temporary employees, who have presumably already adapted to the circumstances surrounding a non-permanent contract, are found to be statistically indifferent between permanent and temporary employment, and request much smaller wage premiums in order to switch from one status to the other. The well-documented distress associated with joblessness is also confirmed in our data. The methodology developed here can provide policymakers with an alternative and relatively inexpensive method of quantifying the immediate impact of any shift in their employment policies.European Commissio

Unionism and peer-referencing

This study assesses the “fair-wage-effort” hypothesis, by examining (a) the relationship between relative wage comparisons and job satisfaction and quitting intensions, and (b) the relative ranking of stated effort inducing-incentives, in a novel dataset of unionised and non-unionised European employees. By distinguishing between downward and upward-looking wage comparisons, it is shown that wage comparisons to similar workers exert an asymmetric impact on the job satisfaction of union workers, a pattern consistent with inequity-aversion and conformism to the reference point. Moreover, union workers evaluate peer observation and good industrial relations more highly than payment and other incentives. In contrast, non-union workers are found to be more status-seeking in their satisfaction responses and less dependent on their peers in their effort choices The results are robust to endogenous union membership, considerations of generic loss aversion and across different tenure profiles. They are supportive of the individual egalitarian bias of collective wage determination and self-enforcing effort norms.EPICURUS, a project supported by the European Commission through the 5th Framework Programme “Improving Human Potential” (contract number: HPSE-CT-2002-00143

Should I stay or Should I Go? The effect of Gender, Education and Unemployment on Labour Market Transitions

The literature on job mobility patterns and search behaviour has highlighted significant gender differences. Women on average appear to suffer a higher risk of redundancy or dismissal, they exhibit a lesser commitment to the labour market activity, and they are relatively less mobile than men (Theodossiou, 2002). They are also more likely to exit employment for employee-initiated reasons, namely a family or personal reason, in contrast to men who are more likely to exit employment for an employer-initiated reason such as layoff or dismissal (Keith and McWilliams, 1997). However, although women are more likely to exit employment for a voluntary reason compared to men, men are more likely to be engaged in on-the-job search aiming at voluntary job mobility compared to women (Parson, 1991; van Ophem, 1991; Keith and McWilliams, 1999). The primary reason for these gender differences in the labour market behaviour are the societal constraints associated with women’s dominant role in childcare. Hersch and Stratton (1997) show that women, especially married women, spend three times more time engaged in household activities and are substantially more prepared to quit their job for a family-related reason than men are (Keith and McWilliams, 1997; Theodossiou, 2002)