Still Attached? Are Social Safety Nets Working? Labor Force Participation in European Regions

27 Pages Posted: 22 Aug 2018

See all articles by Benjamin Hilgenstock

Benjamin Hilgenstock

KSE Institute

Zsoka Koczan

International Monetary Fund (IMF); European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)

Date Written: July 2018

Abstract

The paper examines the evolution and drivers of labor force participation in European regions, focusing on the effects of trade and technology. As in the United States, rural regions within European countries saw more pronounced declines (or smaller increases) in participation than urban regions. Unlike in the United States, however, trade and technology, captured here using novel measures of initial exposures to routinization and offshoring, did not result in detachment from the workforce in European regions. Instead, regions with high initial exposures to routinization and offshoring experienced so-far larger increases in participation, likely driven by an added second worker effect.

Keywords: Labor force participation, exposure to routinization, exposure to offshoring, technology, automation, Trade and Labor Market Interactions, Globalization: Labor, Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure

JEL Classification: F16, F66, J21, J23, R12

Suggested Citation

Hilgenstock, Benjamin and Koczan, Zsoka, Still Attached? Are Social Safety Nets Working? Labor Force Participation in European Regions (July 2018). IMF Working Paper No. 18/165, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3236781

Benjamin Hilgenstock (Contact Author)

KSE Institute ( email )

Mykoly Shpaka St, 3
Kyiv, 02000
Ukraine

Zsoka Koczan

International Monetary Fund (IMF) ( email )

700 19th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20431
United States

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) ( email )

One Exchange Square
London, EC2A 2EH
United Kingdom

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