Active labour market policy in a changing economic context

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_391907E31D26
Type
A part of a book
Publication sub-type
Chapter: chapter ou part
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Active labour market policy in a changing economic context
Title of the book
Regulating the risk of unemployment : national adaptations to post-industrial labour markets in Europe
Author(s)
Bonoli G.
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Address of publication
Oxford
ISBN
978-0-19-959229-6 (Hardback)
978-0-19-967693-4 (Paperback)
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2011
Editor
Clasen J., Clegg D.
Chapter
16
Pages
318-332
Language
english
Abstract
The chapter provides an account of the changing role played by active labour market policies (ALMPs) in Europe since the post-war years. Focusing on six countries (Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom), it shows that the role of ALMPs is related to the broad economic situation. At times of rapid expansion and labour shortage, like the 1950s and 1960s, their key objective was to upskill the workforce. After the oil shocks of the 1970s, the raison d'être of ALMPs shifted from economic to social policy, and since the mid-1990s, we see the development of a new function, well captured by the notion of activation, which refers to the strengthening of work incentives and the removal of obstacles to employment, mostly for low-skilled people. The adequacy between economic context and policy is not always optimal, though. Like other ones, this policy domain suffers from inertia, with the result that the countries that have led the way in one period have more difficulty adapting to the economic conditions prevailing in the following one.
Keywords
active labour market policies, training, activation, unemployment, inertia
Create date
28/08/2014 11:45
Last modification date
20/08/2019 13:28
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