Improving DWP assessment of the relative costs and benefits of employment programmes

This report has been produced with the primary aim of informing cost benefit estimates within the Cost-Benefit Framework (CBF). The Department for Work and Pensions CBF is a guidance document for the production of cost-benefit information. The research consisted of two components: a literature review and new empirical estimates from DWP administrative data. The following areas were covered in the literature review: general equilibrium effects; subgroup impacts and distribution of impacts; impacts on duration of benefits and employment, and wages; multiple participation in programmes or other interventions. This report reviews what is known about these topics and discusses when they are likely to be important, with recommended actions in the context of the CBF net impact analyses and cost-benefit analyses. For general equilibrium effects, estimates from the literature are presented and recommendations are made for to account for these effects in cost-benefit analyses. These estimates can be used to guide sensitivity tests. For duration of benefits and employment, the analysis of the DWP administrative data provides empirical estimates of gross duration of benefits and employment, and annual nominal taxable HMRC earnings. These estimates have been produced for a range of New Deal programmes

A Regional account of flexibilization across the EU: The 'Flexible Contractual Arrangements' Composite Index and the impact of recession

The aim of the paper is to present a comparative analysis of the diffusion of ‘flexible contractual arrangements’ (FCA) across the EU. The homonymous FCA Composite Index (CI) is calculated for all 200 NUTS II-level regions of France, Germany, the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria and Romania. The CI is calculated for 2005, 2008 and 2011 to present a clear picture of causal effects leading up to, and arising from, the 2008 financial crisis and ensuing recession. The findings suggest that the crisis had more intense consequences in certain regions than in others, and thus its effects upon regional labour markets were spatially uneven. Such an unevenness runs along, and cuts across, a variety of scales, namely the global, the EU and the intra-EU ones. All regions that are at the top of the FCA CI ranking are either regions that lack advanced economic and social or welfare structures, while at the same time facing important pressures from international and EU competitors, or regions of highly tertiarized service economies. The paper discusses the relation between this regional hierarchy, and the official policies of EU and national authorities which seek to re-regulate employment protection and security norms according to new accumulation priorities. Furthermore, it outlines several flexibilizing mechanisms that had contributed to the de-stabilization of modes of social reproduction across different regions, and reinforced each other, even many years before the current crisis occurred. The paper ends with some comments on the validity and social relevance of CIs when not be considered as a goal per se

Sustainable Careers, Vulnerability, and Well-Being: Towards an Integrative Approach

Career landscapes have changed over the recent decades with a de-standardization of career paths. Globalization, more flexible labor markets, and new ways of working are just a few of the many factors that erode the boundaries of a well-defined career path. Today, many workers are thus confronted by the vulnerability paradox, where diverse career opportunities and an emphasis on personal agency carry a share of uncertainty, inequity, and pressure to keep fit at all times. This chapter discusses the idea of sustainable careers as an antipode to occupational vulnerabilities in the modern world of work. Indeed, promoting sustainability in flexible and deregulated labor markets can be very difficult. However, this sustainability is necessary to promote employees’ well-being. To elaborate these crucial challenges, we will develop an integrative theoretical approach encompassing both micro- and macro-level factors that may influence occupational trajectories and workplace experiences