Structural reforms and labor markets in Argentina

Argentina is considered to be one of the most successful cases of structural reforms in Latin America, because of the extent and rapid pace of the reforms after the hyperinflationary process of 1989–1990. At the beginning of 1991, the convertible plan was launched and inflation fell sharply. However, even when the economy is growing fast, the problems in the labor market seem to worsen. Unemployment and underemployment have risen, and an increasing number of people have fallen out of normal work. The article analyzes how changes in labor markets are closely related to the transformation process in the economic system. After a summary of the situation before the crisis of the 1980s, the article analyzes the stabilization plans applied and then discusses the current dynamics of labor markets and the policies implemented to change labor regulations. Finally, some hypotheses about future scenarios are presented.     

The policies of unemployment protection in Europe

The abundant literature on welfare state policies, regimes or ‘worlds’ has been only limitedly interested in unemployment protection, and even less in youth unemployment protection. What is clearly lacking in the literature is an updated analysis of the most recent policies developed in European countries targeting youth. This mini‐symposium aims to fill in this gap by presenting findings from an EU‐funded research project entitled ‘Youth, Unemployment and Exclusion in Europe: A Multidimensional Approach to Understanding the Conditions and Prospects for Social and Political Integration of Young Unemployed’ (YOUNEX). The main aim of the research endeavour was to develop theory and contribute to empirical knowledge concerning the social and political exclusion of unemployed youth in Europe.     

Unemployment and mental health: evidence from research in the Nordic countries

In this article we examine research on effects of unemployment on mental health in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. We describe studies that use cross-sectional, longitudinal and time-series data, and we discuss studies that investigated the duration-dependence issue in exit rates out of unemployment. Not surprisingly, cross-sectional studies reveal that unemployed persons have worse mental health than do others. Most longitudinal studies suggest that unemployment is associated with deteriorating mental health, even though it is somewhat unclear how long such an effect persists. Most duration-dependence studies were done using Swedish data. It turns out that unemployment benefits and labour-market policies affect the pattern of exit rates out of unemployment.     

失业与就业:一个世界性的难题

在世界经济日益一体化的今天，综观全球，人们会惊奇地发现，失业———这一伴随资本主义生产方式和市场经济的产生而出现的社会现象，已经成为一个困扰许多国家经济和社会发展的严重问题。从西欧到东欧，从北美到南美，从发达国家到发展中国家，失业与就业成为人们关注的焦点，“创造就业机会”、“制定反失业对策”成为各国经济政策的首要目标。可以毫不夸张地说，当今世界几乎所有的国家，都不得不面对失业与就业这一世界性的难题。本文试图从宏观的角度，对世界各国不同类型的失业，以及主要资本主义国家治理失业与贫困问题的社会政策，进行分析与考察，从中总结出一些带有普遍性规律性的问题，为我国实施再就业工程提供决策思路和有益借鉴     

浅析我国的知识失业问题

党的十七大报告把扩大就业作为我国的一项长期战略。知识失业是我们面临的又一新的就业问题，如何认识我国的知识失业的现状、影响和原因，寻找其解决的对策是当前劳动经济学术界研究的一个重点。运用新理论、新资料，从新的视角对知识失业进行梳理，分析其中的问题，提出解决我国知识失业问题的对策具有重要现实意义。     

Unemployment and mental health among white‐collar workers – a question of work involvement and financial situation?

We examine whether it is a psychosocial or an economic need for employment that affects mental health among the unemployed. The relevance of both aspects are examined, concentrating on two measures of each dimension. Two perspectives of work involvement – the degree of connection to working life and the perceived employment commitment – and two perspectives on financial situation – economic security and perceived economic concern – have been analysed, using empirical data collected by means of a cross-sectional survey of 1297 unemployed white-collar workers from the public sector in Sweden. The degree of connection to working life was not significantly linked to the mental health of the unemployed, although there was a strong link between the perceived employment commitment and mental health among this group. The stronger the perceived employment commitment, the poorer the state of the person's mental health. Perceived economic concern was also tightly linked to mental health: the greater the economic concern, the poorer the mental health. Economic security also played – at least, partly – a moderate but significant role. The results provide strong support for the existence of both a psychosocial need and an economic need for employment. The analysis demonstrates that it is the perceived assessed measures of work involvement and financial situation that are linked to mental health.     

构建失业预警系统的探索

建立失业预警系统,为政府有效控制失业率、进行劳动力市场宏观调控提供可靠的参考依据。失业预警系统主要包括预警方法、预警指标、制度安排和管理信息系统等几个方面。为了控制失业率,政府应加强对失业的预测;政府应把控制失业率作为宏观调控的主要目标;建立专职失业风险监测机构;改进失业和就业的统计口径,加强就业统计。     

西方发达国家实施工作分享制对我国的启示

研究西方工作分享的理论及其对就业产生的积极影响,并进一步研究我国目前劳动力绝对过剩造成的失业问题。通过研究认为,实施工作分享有助于缓解目前我国严峻的就业形势,并探索我国实行工作分享制的形式。     

关于完善我国失业保险制度促进就业功能的思考

在当前社会转型期,失业保险是我国面临的非常重要的问题之一。我国目前的失业保险制度在促进就业方面存在着不足。应该借鉴国外的成功经验并结合我国的具体实际,在调整失业保险制度理念、适时提高统筹层次、完善就业服务机制等方面进行改进,不断完善我国失业保险制度,发挥它在促进就业中的作用。     

Minimum wages and poverty with income-sharing

Textbook analysis tells us that in a competitive labor market, the introduction of a minimum wage above the competitive equilibrium wage will cause unemployment. This paper makes three contributions to the basic theory of the minimum wage. First, we analyze the effects of a higher minimum wage in terms of poverty rather than in terms of unemployment. Second, we extend the standard textbook model to allow for income-sharing between employed and unemployed persons in society. Third, we extend the basic model to deal with income sharing within families. We find that there are situations in which a higher minimum wage raises poverty, others where it reduces poverty, and yet others in which poverty is unchanged. We characterize precisely how the poverty effect depends on four parameters: the degree of poverty aversion, the elasticity of labor demand, the ratio of the minimum wage to the poverty line, and the extent of income-sharing. Thus, shifting the perspective from unemployment to poverty leads to a considerable enrichment of the theory of the minimum wage.