Does deregulation decrease unemployment? An empirical analysis of the Spanish labour market

Spain underwent two major labour reforms in 2010 and 2012 under the assumption that deregulating the labour market and decentralizing collective bargaining would automatically reduce unemployment (deregulation hypothesis). This article highlights the impact of demand and the sectoral structure of the economy to explain the behaviour of this variable (structural hypothesis). Analysing subnational panel data, the authors assess the capacity of these two hypotheses to explain unemployment trends. Their results cast doubt on the deregulation hypothesis and indicate the importance of cyclical and structural factors.     

Do values explain the low employment levels of Muslim women around the world? A within‐ and between‐country analysis

Using worldwide data from the World Values Survey (WVS) gathered in 2010–2014, we examine two distinct ways in which Islam may be associated with women's employment. We show that, within their countries, Muslim women are less likely to be employed than women of other religions. We also examine between‐country differences and find that, net of education and family statuses, the employment levels of women living in countries that are 90–100 per cent Muslim are not significantly different than those living in countries that are only 0–20 per cent Muslim. Then we test a prevailing view: that Islam discourages gender egalitarian values, and that these values – held by women themselves or people around them – explain why Muslim women are less likely to be employed than women of other religions within their own countries. Despite the rich measures of values in the WVS and a large sample, we find no evidence that values explain any of the lower employment of Muslim women, mainly because values have little or no effect on women's employment. Thus, we conclude that most of the world's gap in employment between Muslim women and other women is within‐country and is not explained by gender ideology. Future research should examine alternative hypotheses, including ethno‐religious discrimination.     

How do labour laws affect unemployment and the labour share of national income? The experience of six OECD countries, 1970–2010

Using longitudinal data on labour law in France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States over the period 1970–2010, the authors estimate the impact of labour regulation on unemployment and the labour share of national income. Their dynamic panel data analysis distinguishes between the short‐run and long‐run effects of regulatory change. They find that worker‐protective labour laws in general have no consistent relationship to unemployment but are positively correlated with labour's share of national income. Laws specifically relating to working time and employee representation are found to have beneficial effects on both efficiency and distribution thus proxied.     

Trapped in migrants’ sectors? Polish women in the Icelandic labour market

The employment‐driven migrations from Poland to Iceland have largely been pioneered by Polish women. They outnumbered men among Polish residents in this country until the economic boom since 2005 triggered large‐scale male immigration. This trend slowed down with the outbreak of the financial crisis, as the recession severely affected the male‐dominated construction industry. The analysis of Polish female migrants’ working experiences shows that recent inflows are mainly shaped by the nature of labour demand as well as the social policies and care services in Iceland. Although economically integrated, compared with native women Polish women tend to occupy rather disadvantaged positions. They seem concentrated in a few low‐skilled occupations that bring little prestige and low income. On the other hand, they were less affected by the financial crisis, in the sense that many of them maintained work, though some experienced lowering of salaries or reduction of working hours.     

Can gender differences in distributional preferences explain gender gaps in competition?

We design a lab experiment to specifically examine whether a preference for favorable inequality and behindness aversion, as well as egalitarian preferences, affect competitive choices differently among males and females. Using data on approximately 2,000 subjects, we find that selection into competitive environments is negatively related to egalitarian preferences, with smaller negative impacts of being egalitarian on females’ choice to compete. Further, behindness aversion and preference for favorable inequality affect willingness to compete in opposite ways. The willingness to compete is negatively affected by behindness aversion, while a preference for favorable inequality positively influences willingness to compete. Interestingly, when we disaggregate behavior along gender lines, we find that compared to behindness averse males, behindness averse females are more likely to enter the competitive environment. In contrast, there is no significant gender difference in the impact of preference for favorable inequality on competition. Our results suggest that the observed gender difference in competitiveness can stem from male-female differences in distributional preferences and selected personality traits developed during one’s lifetime.     

An emerging transnational industrial relations? Exploring the prospects for cross‐border labour bargaining

Global union federations (GUFs) and multinational enterprises (MNEs) have been concluding “international framework agreements” (IFAs) to protect their interests amidst the globalizing economic landscape. By modelling the underlying bargaining processes, the authors show that IFAs can be expected when both sides exhibit risk aversion, although the agreement will favour the less risk‐averse side. Since globalization has created fewer vulnerabilities for MNEs than for GUFs, IFAs have so far typically delivered only minimal benefits for labour. But this should change in the future if strengthened transnational union capacities and abilities to threaten MNEs with reputational costs bring greater equalization of attitudes towards risk.     

From wage rigidity to labour market institution rigidity: A turning-point in explaining unemployment?

In this paper we offer a critical discussion about the concept of labour market rigidity in the light of recent theoretical approaches that have aimed to provide sound micro-foundations to the presence of unemployment in market economies. We point out that the concept of labour market rigidity usually referred to in such theories has changed over time, involving in succession the rigidity of wages, contracts and labour market institutions. We also appraise the factors that lead labour market institutions rigidity, stressed by the search literature, to challenge the more widespread explanation of unemployment grounded on wage rigidity. Moreover, we analyse some theoretical and empirical issues that cast doubt on the ability to deal with unemployment, disentangling the role of institutional rigidities from that of wage stickiness.     

Double emigration: geographical and cultural? The participation of Italian women in the German labour market

Already at the beginning of the fifties on the initiative of Italy, negotiations began between the Italian and German governments for the recruitment of migrant-workers, which ended in 1955 with a bilateral agreement between the two countries. Through this recruitment policy and because of the labour-market (Industry and Building) the Italian migration was composed prevalently of men. Female immigration happened in the setting of family reunification and less as an independent movement project. After years of stagnation of italian emigration in the eighties it may also be noted that, since the early nineties, there has been a revival of immigration to Germany. This and modernisation processes in Italy changed the gender composition of the Italian immigration flow to Germany: the distance between male and female immigration is decreasing. A peculiarity of the Italians in Germany is the low occupational participation of women in comparison with other women from EU countries. However, we could observe regional differences, which depend on the migration typologies and the dominating economic structure in the areas. The paper will analyse this different aspects (immigration-processes, migrant-typologies and labour-market participation) by female Italian migrants.     

Can children and young people be empowered in participatory initiatives?: Perspectives from young people's participation in policy formulation and implementation in Ghana

Empowering children and young people is often cited as the goal of participation. However projects that seek to empower children and young people show little attempt to define what empowerment means. There is an implied but inadequately explored conceptual link between participation and empowerment. This paper explores the link between participation and empowerment by discussing a research with 15–17 year young people involved in two participatory initiatives in Ghana. The paper discusses the various typologies of children's participation and the concept of power, and concludes that participation does not lead to empowerment. Therefore the increasing theorisation of children and young people's participation as empowerment is flawed. The paper argues that children and young people's participation should instead be conceptualised as recognition and dialogue.     

How does a board of directors influence within‐ and cross‐sector nonprofit collaboration?

Board members play a significant, yet largely unexamined, role in nonprofit collaboration. Processes, such as finding prospective partners, creating common ground with a partner, and establishing appropriate collaborative governance implicate nonprofit board members. In contrast to the scholarship of the role of interlocking directorates as potential networks for nonprofit collaboration, this paper examines the role of board members' social and human capital on nonprofit collaboration with other nonprofits, businesses, and government agencies. Drawing on online survey data from 636 nonprofit organizations, this paper finds that board social capital—but not board human capital—is positively related to the presence and number of within‐sector and cross‐sector nonprofit collaboration. However, board human capital enhances nonprofit‐government collaboration, when board social capital is also high. The results provide a novel perspective in nonprofit collaboration and board management research.     

How far merit selection? Social stratification and the labour market1

The question of how societies allocate occupational positions and subsequent rewards has long been of interest to sociologists. According to one influential theory, the needs of modern industrial societies and economies demand that high-level and functionally important occupational positions are allocated according to meritocratic principles. I argue that, ultimately, employers get the final say about which characteristics are rewarded in the labour market. In order to examine which skills and attributes are required by employers for particular occupations I analyse data drawn from a content analysis of c.5000 British newspaper job advertisements. The results show that both merit and non-merit characteristics are requested by employers in job advertisements, even for occupations falling within the higher classes. I also find evidence that employers have similar requirements for similar occupations, cross-cutting class boundaries.     

Ratings of health and quality of life by young working people: are there occupational or education-based differences?

The study examines differences in self-rated health and perceived quality of life (QoL) among young working people according to occupation and education level. Subjects were extracted from a cross-sectional data set, covering questionnaire responses of people aged 20-74 years from the Swedish region of Osterg?tland, and addressing individual environmental and health conditions. The emphasis was on males and females in paid employment aged 20-34 (n = 863). Differences in self-rated health items and in perceived QoL were subjected to a series of t-tests. Two measures of individual socioeconomic position were considered - occupation and education. No education-based differences were found, and there were few differences based on occupation. Among males, manual workers reported significantly higher scores with regard to pain and physical function than did non-manual workers. Male and female manual workers scored significantly lower on current perceived QoL than non-manual workers. In the case of females, the differences between manual and non-manual workers also applied to former perceived QoL. Yet, after applying the Bonferroni correction, none of the differences observed remained significant. In line with some earlier studies, it appears that -- among young working adults -- the manners in which health status and QoL are perceived are not strongly conditional on socioeconomic position.     

Inequality of opportunity and (unequal) opportunities in the youth labour market: How is the Arab world different?

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) labour market is emblematic of widespread youth unemployment and high discouragement rates, experiencing disproportionately high levels of unemployment among educated young people. Using ILO School-to-Work Transition Surveys for Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia, the authors explore whether this is related to inequality of opportunity or to deeper structural characteristics that create a mismatch between skill demand and supply on the labour market. The low availability of high-skilled jobs and the low value placed on skills gained through the system of vocational training are found to have high explanatory power.     

Equalities in freefall? Ontological insecurity and the long‐term impact of COVID‐19 in the academy

This intervention focuses on the impact of the global crisis resulting from the COVID‐19 pandemic on existing racialized and gendered inequalities within the academy and in particular our discipline of Politics and International Relations. We argue that responses to recent crises within the academy have exacerbated ontological insecurity among minoritized groups, including women. When coupled with increased caring responsibilities, the current crises call into question who can be creative and innovative, necessary conditions for knowledge production. While university managers seek to reassure university staff of the temporary nature of COVID‐19 interventions, we argue that the possibilities for progressive leaps at a later state of institutional regeneration is unlikely when efforts to address structural inequalities are sidelined and crisis responses are undertaken which run counter to such work.     

Prisons,workhouses, and the control of slave labour in low country Georgia, 1763–1815

Engendering History. Caribbean Women in Historical Perspective. Edited by VERENE SHEPHERD, BRIDGET BRERETON, BARBARA BAILEY. London: James Currey, Kingston: Ian Randle. 1995. xxii, 406pp. £35.00 and £12.50.

Haiti, History and the Gods. JOAN DAYAN. Los Angeles; University of California Press. 1995. xxiii, 339pp. $35.00. ISBN 0–520–08900–6.

From Chattel Slaves to Wage Slaves: The Dynamics of Labour Bargaining in the Americas. Edited by MARY TURNER. Kingston, Bloomington and Indianapolis, and London: Ian Randle Publishers, Indiana University Press, and James Currey. 1995. x, 309pp. £35.00 (cloth); £12.95 (paper). ISBN 0–253–32972–8; 0–253–21001–1.

The Black Loyalist Directory. African Americans in Exile After the American Revolution. Edited and with an Introduction by GRAHAM RUSSELL HODGES. New York and London: Garland Publishing Inc., 1996. li. 318pp. $37.00. ISBN 0–8153–2172–4.

The Abolitionists and the South, 1831–1861. STANLEY HARROLD. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press ofKentucky, 1995. x, 245 pp. $29.95. ISBN 0–8131–1906–5.

The Salmon P. Chase Papers. Volume 2: Correspondence, 1823–1857. Edited by JOHN NIVEN. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1994. xxv, 489 pp. $35.00. ISBN 0–87338–508‐X.

The Louisiana Native Guards: The Black Military Experience During the Civil War. JAMES G. HOLLANDSWORTH, Jr. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press. 1995. xiv, 140pp. £23.95. ISBN 0–8071–1939–3.

The March to the Sea and Beyond: Sherman's Troops in the Savannah and Carolinas Campaigns. JOSEPH T. GLATTHAAR. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1995 (orig. pub. 1985). xvi, 318pp. £13.95. ISBN 0–80712028–6.

Caste &; Class: The Black Experience in Arkansas, 1880–1920. FON LOUISE GORDON. Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 1995. xvi, 179pp. £31.50. ISBN 0–8203–1711‐X.

African Americans at Mars Bluff, South Carolina. AMELIA WALLACE VERNON. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. 1995. xiii, 309pp. $16.95.

Agentes de su propia libertad: Los esclavos de Lima y la desintegración de la esclavitud, 1821–1854. CARLOS AGU1RRE. Lima: Pontificia Universidad Cató1ica del Perú, Fondo Editorial. 1993. 335pp. ISBN 84–89309–63–9.

Paying the Price of Freedom: Family and Labor among Lima's Slaves, 1800–1854. CHRISTINE HÜNEFELDT. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1994. xi, 269pp. ISBN 0–520–08235–4 (cloth); 0–520–08292–3 (paper).

Desert Frontier: Ecological and Economic Change along the Western Sahel. 1600–1850. JAMES L.A. WEBB, Jr. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. xxvi, 227pp. £40.95 (cloth); £17.95 (paper). ISBN 0–299–14330–9.

From Slave Trade to ‘legitimate’ Commerce: The Commercial Transition in Nineteenth‐Century West Africa. Edited by ROBIN LAW. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, African Studies Series 86. xi, 278pp. £35.00.

Slavery and Slaving in World History. A Bibliography. 1900–1991. JOSEPH C. MILLER. Millwood, NY. 1993. xvii, 556pp. $90.00. ISBN 0–527–63660–6.     

Are young first and second generation immigrants at a disadvantage in the Australian labor market?

"This paper examines the assimilation hypothesis for young adult first- and second-generation immigrants in Australia. Models of the total weeks of unemployment and the number of spells of unemployment are examined as indicators of relative labor market conditions. The study differs from earlier work by focusing on young first- and second-generation immigrants and by utilizing information over four consecutive years of the Australian Longitudinal Survey (ALS) data, a comprehensive data set compiled for 1985-1988. The results consistently indicate that even when controlling for qualifications, both first- and second-generation immigrants are at a disadvantage."     

Generating productive citizens or supporting the weak? Ambivalences and contradictions in working with young welfare recipients

Since 1990, the social investment paradigm has been gaining importance within the social policy of Western industrialised countries. Investments are made in human capital to shape productive citizens capable of satisfying the demands of flexible labour markets. This article adopts an ethnographic perspective to analyse the current transformations of everyday practice within the context of the investment paradigm. Investigating such a practice in selected welfare institutions, it focuses on the work done with young adults, a client segment of interest from a social investment perspective already owing to its age. The article explores the techniques and strategies of professional action and discusses their implications for social work, which is active in this field along with other professional groups. The findings presented here show that the action taken by social workers moves between different rationales and is shaped by various ambivalences and force fields.     

The curious under‐representation of women impact case leaders: Can we disengender inequality regimes?

Universities are increasingly expected to demonstrate the wider societal impacts of academic research. Yet women management scholars were disproportionately under‐represented in leading impact cases in the UK's REF (Research Excellence Framework) 2014. An analysis of 395 REF impact cases for business and management studies with an identifiable lead author revealed that only 25 per cent were led by women, of which 54 per cent were sole authored. Based on 12 in‐depth interviews with women impact case writers, we use Acker's inequality regimes framework to understand invisible and socially constructed gendering of the UK's policy that is designed to evaluate research impact. In a knowledge‐intensive workplace dominated by men, the shape and degree of gendered bases of inequality, systemic practices, processes and controls result in sub‐optimal talent management and gendered knowledge. We call for university leaders to be proactive in addressing barriers that fail to support or recognize women's leadership of research impact.     

Sleepless in school? The social dimensions of young people’s bedtime rest and routines

There are increasing concerns that social pressures, such as family changes and social media, are ‘invading’ the sanctuary of the bedroom with the result that students arrive at school tired and stressed. This paper seeks to examine whether these concerns are justified and contribute to the growing literature on the social dimensions of sleep through examining the rest and routines of two cohorts of young people aged 12–13 and 14–15 years old. Our research indicates that, in general, most young people have ‘reasonable’ amounts of sleep and routines. But, a significant proportion does go to school tired, with apparent negative consequences for their well-being. The paper examines some of the within-cohort variations, in particular, the significance of volume of sleep, routines and engagement with social media and how these may reflect the material and cultural circumstances of the young people. The paper concludes by arguing for more research on the complex social causes and consequences of sleep deprivation among today’s youth.