Economic Distress,Labor Market Reforms,and Dualism in Japan and Korea

This article seeks to examine the rapid rise of labor market dualism and inequality in Japan and Korea. It argues that the path‐dependent trajectories of labor market and social protection reforms biased in favor of labor market insiders explain recent institutional developments in the two countries. In Japan, political coalitions between conservative policymakers, large firms, and core regular workers in reform politics consolidated labor market dualism and inequality during its protracted recession. Meanwhile, the organizational capacity of large chaebol unions deepened the inequality and the segmentation of the dualistic labor market in Korea. By examining three key institutional domains of the labor market—labor market reform, wage bargaining, and social protection—this article analyzes the ways in which Japan and Korea have reinforced dualism and inequality over the past two decades.     

Workplace education for hourly workers

Concerns about U.S. competitiveness have increasingly focused the attention of policymakers on the workforce and mechanisms that could be used to enhance both the quality and quantity of human capital in the workplace. This article focuses on basic skills education of hourly workers, precisely the type of human capital which is likely to be most underprovided by the private market. Five questions are addressed: First, what is the nature of workplace education programs? Second, why do some firms provide workplace education programs while others do not? Third, what, if any, characteristics distinguish those firms that provide workplace education programs from seemingly comparable firms that do not? Fourth, what, if any, evidence can be found identifying the effects of these programs on the firms that sponsor them? Fifth, what policies appear most likely to stimulate additional workplace education?     

Immigrant and Refugee Workers in the Midwestern Meatpacking Industry: Industrial Restructuring and the Transformation of Rural Labor Markets

This paper examines the process of incorporation of immigrant and refugee workers into the meatpacking industry of the Midwest during a period of rapid restructuring. Immigrant and refugee workers have provided low-cost labor to meatpacking firms under pressure from both increased competition and a declining market for red meat. The search for new supplies of labor reflects fundamental changes within the industry. The dynamics of labor force recomposition in the meatpacking industry are the result of the interplay of such factors as the nature of industrial restructuring, the locally available labor supply, and programs designed to move immigrants, refugees, and the unemployed into full-time employment. This process has had differential effects on the industry, workers, the unions, and rural communities.     

The Political Foundations of Trust and Distrust: Reforms and Protests in France

This article argues that the high level of protest activity in France is, at least partly, the result of distrust between the government and the trade unions, and that such distrust is inevitable in a society where unions are sometimes strong enough to mobilise against the government but not confident in their own future strength. This trust problem can be overcome if governments are willing to make institutional changes that commit them to future policies, but such political engineering is costly and unstable, which explains why governments sometimes prefer open confrontation. The empirical part of the paper analyses four French social and labour market reform initiatives in the 1990s and 2000s, demonstrating that the ideas developed in this article help to explain important features of contemporary French policy-making.     

Enterprise Reorganization and Social Insurance Reform: The Development of Early Retirement in France and Germany

What explains the decline in the labor force participation rates of elderly workers at the end of their working lives? Why have governments been unable to revert towards early exit from the labor market? This paper provides an actor‐centered analysis of the development of early retirement, highlighting the political negotiation among unions, employers, and governments over the distribution of the costs of these measures and the division of control over the initiation of these policies. By analyzing developments in France and Germany, the paper points to the failure of these negotiations to arrive at policy outcomes that close off the labor shedding of large firms.     

The German Gemeinwirtschaftslehre: Implications for modern nonprofit economics

This article examines the way modern nonprofit economics can be informed by the Gemeinwirtschaftslehre, a strand of public and nonprofit economics that was popular in German‐speaking countries until the 1980s. Despite its present decline, the Gemeinwirtschaftslehre yields a valuable implication that nonprofit firms address market failure by supplanting the pecuniary entrepreneurial motivation with a nonpecuniary one. In this article, this implication is used to reconsider two central and controversial issues in modern nonprofit economics: the rationale behind the nondistribution constraint in nonprofit firms, and the integration between the market failure and supply‐side theories of the nonprofit sector. The article concludes by discussing the emerging prospects for empirical research.     

Determinants of Business Response to Government Tax Incentives for Privately Financed Termination Benefit Programs

This study examines the industry and organizational factors that determine the likelihood of business response to government tax incentives for privately financed termination benefit programs and the substitution problems confronting government programs that use tax incentives to encourage businesses to provide these benefits to their employees. It concludes that government tax incentives will likely have marginal effects on the private provision of termination benefits, especially in large firms in industries with a strong market presence from government. These programs most likely will get high participation from large firms which already provide these benefits to salaried and hourly workers resulting in high substitution effects. They also are likely to extend benefits to hourly employees in firms that already provide similar benefits to salaried workers. However, these tax incentives are likely to have very limited inducement effects on small and medium-sized firms resulting in low overall target efficiency for these programs.     

The effects of convergence: internationalization and the changing distribution of net value added in large German firms

The paper examines whether and how the increasing internationalization of firms impacts on the operation of a co-ordinated market economy. Following the tenets of agency theory, it assumes that an emerging market for corporate control changes the monitoring mechanisms that oversee management. Since Anglo-American forms of monitoring are usually associated with a higher return for investors compared with Continental European firms, a change in the distribution of the net value added of firms is expected. Using financial data on fifty-nine large German companies, the paper shows that the emerging convergence of German corporate governance practices to Anglo-American standards has had a weak, but significant, impact on the distribution of net value added. This is in contrast to the impact of the internationalization of firms on product markets, which does not have an effect. Since the market for corporate control is, however, still underdeveloped in Germany, the main effects remain to be seen.     

Labour Market Organisations' Participation in Swedish Public Policy–Making

Unions and employers are political actors. Besides defending their interests on the labour market they act in the political arena. In order to weaken the trade unions, neoliberal parties and employers’ organisations have tried to change existing systems in Sweden and elsewhere. Hence, the general questions being asked in this article are: Do Swedish labour market organisations still participate in (i.e. try to influence) public policy–making on a large scale? Are there any substantial differences in the degree to which unions and employers’ organisations participate or in their access and strategies of participation? In this article it is argued that while participation of labour market organisations in the old institutionalised framework has decreased, it has not vanished. Labour market organisations are also very much involved in public policy–making by informally contacting politicians and public servants. The unions have extensive contacts with politicians on all levels, but especially with the Social Democratic Party, while employers’ organisations have more intense contacts with the public administration and public servants. The overall picture being presented in this article is that labour market organisations in Sweden have not at all been left out in the cold. It is clear that Sweden is far from the British situation and still remains similar to its Scandinavian neighbours.     

Small States,Large Unitary States and Federations

Employing a political-economics approach, this paper comparessmall states and unions when the former fail to internalizecross-border externalities of publicly provided goods. Itdiscusses two types of unions: federations with more than onelevel of government and unitary states. While unitary statesare unable to differentiate public spending according todiffering preferences, rents of governments in a federationare higher due to a common-pool problem. The comparison leadsto the following results. (1) Citizens prefer small states tolarge states if spillover effects are weak. (2) They benefitfrom a multi-level government only if their preferencesheavily differ from the median-voter's preferences and ifspillovers are strong. Based on this comparison the paper alsodiscusses the creation of unions. Making specific assumptionon the distribution of preferences, it analyzes strong Nashequilibria at the union formation stage.     

Trade unions,nonneutrality and stagflation

The claim that in policy games nonneutrality and a stagflation bias emerge in equilibrium if the unions care about inflation, per se, is discussed. This assumption is shown to be not necessary to obtain a stagflation bias; the same applies to nonneutrality if a government acts in the economy. The question of whether unions should be envisaged as “institutions” (i.e., interested in variables unrelated to wages and employment) is also addressed. Two model-based alternatives providing “microeconomic” foundations versus “macroeconomic” foundations to unions' behaviour are presented. The conclusion is that the modelling of unions remains an unsettled problem.     

Defending the organisation,not the members: Unions and the reform of job security legislation in Western Europe

European labour markets are often described as rigid with comparatively high levels of job protection that do not allow for the flexible adjustment of employment to economic fluctuations. This interpretation overlooks important sources of flexibility, however. Research has shown that recent labour market policy reforms have allowed for the creation of two‐tier labour markets consisting of insiders in standard employment relationships and outsiders in non‐standard employment. This outcome has typically been explained by pointing to the representational interests of unions or social‐democratic parties. It has been argued that rather than protecting all labour market participants, unions and social‐democratic parties focus on the interests of their members and their core constituency, respectively, most of whom are in standard employment relationships. In contrast, it is argued here that unions' institutional power resources are the crucial variable explaining this outcome. In difficult economic times, when unions are asked to make concessions, they will assent to labour market reforms, but only to those that do not fundamentally threaten to undermine their organisational interests. In the context of job security legislation, this means that unions defend the protection of permanent contracts while they compromise on the regulation of temporary employment. This ‘second best solution’ allows them to protect their organisational interests, both by retaining their institutional role in the administration of dismissals and by living up to their institutional role as one of the organisations responsible for the direction of labour market policy reform. Using fsQCA this article shows that unions' institutional power resources are more apt to explain the observed two‐tier reform pattern than the unions' or the social‐democratic parties' representational interests.     

Fishing from the same schools: Parliamentary recruitment and consociationalism in the first and second Italian republics

This article addresses several issues surrounding the politics of flexibility in Spain. First, it argues that the strategic role of trade unions develop and condition public policies on labour market reform by couching their strategies in terms of the post‐war labour market strategies and structures of the state, especially as governments attempt to move away from established forms of fordist regulation. Hence, second, a broader political and historical perspective is required that understands the complex political dynamics of state‐labour relationships and their structuring over time. The state's role and its labour market presence becomes itself the object of distinct political interventions and calculations by unions, governments and employers. Any discussion of a ‘post‐fordist’ state, determined to increase the flexibility of the labour market, must look at the complex and difficult ‘transitional’ process.     

Technological innovations and firms’ productivity in new patent regime: Evidences from Indian pharmaceutical industry

Innovative firms enjoy more market benefits by conducting both technological (product and process) and nontechnological (organizational and marketing) innovations. This study aims to examine the relationship between technological innovations and firms’ productivity in Indian pharmaceutical industry in new patent regime. In particular, we analyze the direct impact of product and process innovation on the productivity of 168 Indian pharmaceutical firms over 2000–2013. Findings of this study reveal that technological innovations are positive source of firms’ productivity. However, this relationship varies with types of technological innovations and also ownership structure of firms. Moreover, this study also finds that the impact of technological innovation is stronger for multinational enterprises.     

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, THE LAW AND GOVERNMENT STRATEGY

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Structural stress or deliberate decision? Government partisanship and the disempowerment of unions in Denmark

The role of government partisanship in the era of retrenchment is debated. It is argued in this article that partisanship matters for only some aspects of policy. Irrespective of ideological bending, governments accommodate structural pressure as well as short‐term electoral interests to keep the economy on track and implement austerity measures in labour market policy that, in effect, reduce union resources and capacity to mobilise. But only governments of the right exploit structural stress to pursue long‐term interest in curbing the institutional privileges of unions. Aligning short‐ and long‐term interests is easier for social democratic governments during economic expansion, whereas governments of the right have an easier time aligning interests in periods of structural pressure. By analysing a sample of Danish labour market reforms, this article shows that today social democratic governments still defend the institutional privileges of unions and discusses the comparative significance of the Danish case.     

Is South Korea as Leftist as It Gets? Labour Market Policy Reforms under the Moon Presidency

Considering its conservative past, South Korea is undergoing an unprecedented turn to the left. Since priority was given to economic growth from the 1960s until the beginning of the 1990s, a close alliance between big business and government has characterised the country's labour market. Since the 1997 financial crisis, however, two decades of liberal and conservative governments have pushed a neoliberal agenda of labour market flexibilisation, which has resulted in growing inequality in a dualised labour market and left the trade unions in a marginal role. Following a rapid turn of events that led to the impeachment of conservative president Park Geun‐hye, left‐leaning President Moon Jae‐in seems determined to roll back this legacy of labour oppression with the strong support of trade unions and young voters. His administration is pushing for policy change with a series of expansionary active labour market policies aimed at promoting stability and full‐time employment. This article highlights the social‐democratic character of these reforms and the constraints in implementing them.     

Judicious Incentives: International Public Policy Responses to the Globalization of Environmental Management

Public policymakers and regulators worldwide are grappling with the desire to improve environmental quality through appropriate regulation of business, while also streamlining government. Concurrently, environmentally conscience consumers are calling for improved environmental performance by industry. As a result of these pressures, regulators and lawmakers worldwide are attempting to craft effective policies that create adequate incentives for environmental protection on the part of firms, in the face of decreasing budgets and an increased demand for the use of market‐based incentives. To aid decision makers as they struggle with these concerns, this study provides a detailed case examination of the dilemmas and responses of national‐level regulators as they try to develop appropriate responses to the rise of international and “voluntary” management regimes. To accomplish these goals, this article compares the public policy responses of governments around the world to one such voluntary international environmental regime: ISO 14001. ISO 14001 is a form of industry self‐regulation in response to market forces calling for harmonization in environmental management and as a result of consumer and trade‐partner demands. This study examines the relationships between regulators and the regulated in order to understand if ISO 14001 certified firms are receiving regulatory relief or other forms of public policy/regulatory benefits as a result of their certification. It will also examine the impact that government incentives (or their absence) are having on the certification decisions of firms around the world. This information helps us to begin to understand how the trends toward smaller government and voluntary environmental regimes are affecting one another.     

Will there be a Nordic model in the platform economy? Evasive and integrative platform strategies in Denmark and Sweden

The entry of gig-platforms to labor markets world-wide has caused significant frictions with national institutions and regulators, including trade unions. In this article, we compare the interactions between taxi and food delivery platforms with the industrial relations (IR) systems of Denmark and Sweden, where we observe isolated instances of unions striking collective agreements with platforms. We assess and compare platform strategies and interactions with IR system agents, using an RIT-framework (rulemaker-intermediary-ruletaker) which considers how rulemaking capacity is allocated within the Nordic IR systems. We detect both IR system evasion and integration in Denmark and Sweden, with significant variation in causes and mechanisms. We find that IR system integration can be explained by public backlash, pressure from IR system insiders, and gaining first-mover advantages. Our findings shed light on integrative mechanisms of the Nordic IR systems allowing us to identify and discuss future challenges posed by the platform economy.     

Equal Employment Policy in France: Symbolic Support and a Mixed Record

This article analyzes the policy framework for and the implementation of equal employment policy in France. After presenting the equal employment policy framework and the role of state feminist women's policy offices in its development, the author discusses the limited support for positive action strategies among French firms and unions. The implementation of equal employment policy has had a mixed record, often limited to symbolic gestures rather than concrete change. Contributing to this symbolic dynamic are the effects of reconciliation policy and the impact of the development of part‐time work on women employment. The analysis argues that reconciliation policy has not for its part always privileged an egalitarian set of measures that facilitates the sharing of family and domestic work between men and women. The article asserts that the development of part‐time work has contradicted equal employment policy efforts and has effectively contributed to maintaining women's positions in low‐paying and marginal jobs. The article concludes that despite an apparently comprehensive policy framework for equal employment policy in France, the situation of women workers appears to be followin two tracks: a top‐tier track of qualified, relatively well‐paid women who are able to have a career and to reconcile family and work, and a lower‐tier track of less‐skilled, lower‐paid women workers who continue to be marginalized on the labor market.