Convergence Without Hard Criteria: Does EU Soft Law Affect Domestic Unemployment Protection Schemes?
University of Salzburg Working Paper No. 2012-09
36 Pages Posted: 24 Nov 2012
Date Written: November 2012
Abstract
The European Employment Strategy (EES) aims to promote convergence of domestic labour market policies by soft law instruments. Previous studies on the impact of the EES are mainly focused on active labour market policies. The present study aims at explaining cross national variation in national passive labour market policies and unemployment benefit levels. Building on the most recent measures and pooled time series data, the empirical findings reveal the presence of a convergence process among the most advanced economies regarding passive labour market policy efforts, with the EES fostering this trend even further. Furthermore, our findings support the argument that the EES creates pressure on governments to reform domestic labour market policies, but this pressure varies across countries and over time. The results suggest that the recommendations from the European Council have contributed to unemployment benefit reform processes.
Keywords: Passive labour market policies, convergence, European Employment Strategy, Europeanization, Open Method of Coordination, welfare state
JEL Classification: H53, J68
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
On the Convergence of Social Protection Systems in the European Union
-
Patterns of Welfare State Indicators in the EU: Is There Convergence?
By Koen Caminada, Kees Goudswaard, ...
-
Divergence within Convergence: Europeanization of Social and Labour Market Policies
-
Fiscal Policy and Growth in the Context of European Integration
-
Fiscal Policy and Growth in the Context of European Integration
-
The Computation of Convergence, or: How to Chase a Black Cat in a Dark Room
-
Convergence of Social Protection Reviewed
By Kees Goudswaard and Koen Caminada
-
Social Protection in Europe: Do We Need More Coordination?
By Kees Goudswaard and Bart Van Riel
-
Has European Integration Approximated the Composition of Government Expenditures?