John T. Addison

McKinley L. Blackburn

The impact of advance notice legislation on the receipt of advance notice

Has WARN warned?

Paul J.J. Welfens

John T. Addison and Paul J. J. Welfens Because inflation seems moribund in OECD countries, stubborn unemployment became the top policy priority of the 1990s. Unemployment has increased in many countries, reaching critical levels for unskilled and young workers in most continental EU countries. Europe's employment performance has continued to lag that in North America. The U. S. in particular achieved a remarkable combination of low inflation and full employment in the late 1990s, at a time when the EU suf fered from record unemployment rates, even if inflation was remarkably low. Since the 1980s, the consensus view among economists is that structural unem ployment plays a much more important role than cyc1ical unemployment in Europe, but that labour costs (wage costs plus nonwage costs) are also part of Europe's labour market problem. Most EU countries rely on a pay-as-you-go pub lic pension system. Contribution rates gradually increased in the 1980s and 1990s, when the share of young workers in overall employment was dec1ining and life expectancy increasing. Rising nonwage costs from the pension system are but one important feature of labour markets in Europe. Given the remarkable dynamics of labour markets, new entry into the labour force, labour turnover, and changes in employment characteristics, one has to also search for other factors behind sus tained unemployment. High unemployment is critical for EU countries, where one can point to rela tively few positive developments after 1975. The U. K.

Issues and Policy Options in the U.S. and Europe

Labor Markets and Social Security

Paulino Teixeira

Cross-country data are used to establish perceived shortfalls in employee involvement based on the responses of employee representatives in EU establishments with formal workplace employee representation. The desire for greater involvement is smaller where workplace representation is via works councils than union bodies, a finding that also obtains across country clusters. However, the favorable influence of the works council institution, if not information provision, does not carry over to situations in which management is adjudged uncooperative and untrustworthy. Whether the views of these respondents are representative of the workforce and hypothetically of a workforce currently without representation is also considered.

The Shortfall in Formal Employee Participation at the European Workplace

Claus Schnabel

This Handbook is an authoritative and invaluable reference tool, uniquely analysing the forces governing unionism, union behaviour and union impact from a variety of perspectives, both theoretical and empirical. The 14 chapters are written in an accessible style by acknowledged leading specialists from the fields of economics and industrial relations. They offer a truly international perspective on this important subject.This superbly comprehensive Handbook examines the determinants of union membership, models of union behaviour and the economics of strikes, as well as the effects of unions on wages, pay inequality and firm performance (to include innovation). It also analyses trade unions as political actors and their impact on macroeconomic performance. Institutional detail is added in specific chapters documenting recent developments in the US and the UK, and prospects for a Europeanization of collective bargaining. A review of union density in more than 100 nations, is also provided.The Handbook is suited to a range of courses and is aptly designed to meet the needs of students - from undergraduates upwards - and academics in the fields of economics, industrial relations, human resources management, as well as general labour scholars.

John T. Addison

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