This comparative chapter summarizes findings on how changes in social models interacted with economic conditions and policies to influence employment and inequality. Contrary to the dominant supply-side perspective, there is no necessary trade-off between equality and jobs.. Job growth clearly depends on the interaction between the supply and demand sides of the labor market. Where demand was insufficient, “structural reforms” brought more inequality than jobs, whereas income inequality receded in cases with strong employment growth, especially when supported by policies to upgrade skills and increase female participation. Employment performance was generally stronger outside than inside EMU, where “internal devaluation” is the main adjustment tool left, and the flaws in EMU’s design drove divergence between core and periphery. Irrespective of social models, surging unemployment and inequality during the Euro-crisis, and the EU response to it by austerity and “structural reform,” portends deepening social cleavages within and across European countries.
European Social Models From Crisis to Crisis: Employment and Inequality in the Era of Monetary Integration Jon Erik Dølvik & Andrew Martin
Dølvik, J. E. & Margtin, A. (2014). From Crisis to Crisis: European Social Models and Labor Market Outcomes in the Era of Monetary Integration. In
European Social Models From Crisis to Crisis: Employment and Inequality in the Era of Monetary Integration, Oxford University Press eBooks (pp. 246–286). https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198717966.003.0011
