The concept of ‘flexicurity’ is the main focus of this study. It denotes the ideal-typical situation of the more flexible and adaptable worker whose consequent exposure to greater risk is cushioned by social protection and enabling measures.

The project seeks to ascertain the extent to which part-time and fixed-term employees are exposed to a greater risk of unemployment and what level of insurance they enjoy in the event of unemployment compared with so-called standard employees. The study is based on the hypothesis that the institutions of some welfare states are better able than others to absorb the changes in employment patterns and can be more readily adjusted to the new circumstances. This hypothesis is to be tested in a four-country comparison (Germany, Denmark, Great Britain and Spain). In addition to the analysis of institutions, the focus is on empirical longitudinal analyses of individual data. Transitions into unemployment, the duration of unemployment spells and the nature and distribution of social security benefits will be investigated, together with the probabilities of various groups effecting the transition back into work. The methods used include event analyses and other multivariate analytical procedures.

Funding: BMBF as part of the FREQUENZ programme

> additional information

The aim of this project is to analyse functions and processes associated with qualification and information in transitional labour markets. The starting point is the question of how typical disequilibria in the vocational training system (herd-like behaviour, ‘pig cycles’, inadequate, intransparent or asymmetric information, concurrence of high unemployment and shortages of skilled labour) can be overcome by labour market and training policy. Taking as a starting point international comparative analyses of qualification needs at the interface between the training and employment systems, innovative processes, models of implementation and actor structures at regional and structural level are to be investigated. In addition to case studies on actor behaviour, the data sources include modelled time series on the evolution of industries and occupations at macro level, enterprise surveys on the demand for labour and continuing vocational training (CVTS2) and large-scale representative individual and household surveys (European Labour Force Survey). The aim is to identify responsive, transparent and effective initial and continuing training systems and to develop efficient and effective instruments for determining and diffusing information on the qualification needs among individuals and in the wider economy and society.
 

Related WZB Discussion Papers

Hildegard Theobald: Unternehmensberatung: Veränderter Qualifikationsbedarf und neue Ansätze in Ausbildung und Regulierung des Berufszugangs
SP I 2004 – 106 > Abstract   >PDF

Hildegard Theobald: Entwicklung des Qualifikationsbedarfs im Gesundheitssektor: Professionalisierungsprozesse in der Physiotherapie und Dentalhygiene im europäischen Vergleich
SP I 2004 – 104 > Abstract   >PDF

Katrin Vitols: Entwicklungen des Qualifikationsbedarfs in der Bankenbranche
SP I 2003 – 107 > Abstract   >PDF

Magnus Lindskog: Forecasting and responding to qualification needs in Sweden
SP I 2003 – 105 > Abstract   >PDF

Stefan Schröter: Berufliche Weiterbildung in Großbritannien für gering qualifizierte Arbeitskräfte
SP I 2003 – 104 > Abstract   >PDF

Carroll Haak: Weiterbildung in kleinen und mittleren Betrieben: Ein deutsch-dänischer Vergleich
SP I 2003 – 101 > Abstract   >PDF

Duration:
Funding: European Union,
international network, in cooperation with SISWO and others.

The aim of the network of sociologists, economists, political scientists, psychologists and lawyers is to contribute to the development of a European social model for the ‘knowledge society’. Approaches to the evaluation of labour market and social policy in EU member states are to be discussed at a series of workshops and the results will be summarised in joint publications. The main themes to be addressed include new combination of paid work and further training and of paid work and family life and conceptual approaches to risk management, in particular the further development of the notion of transitional labour markets.
¬ additional information
 

Related WZB Discussion Papers

Klaus Schömann, Liuben Siarov, Nick van den Heuvel: Managing social risks through transitional labour markets
SP I 2006 – 117 > Abstract   >PDF

Christian Brzinsky-Fay: Lost in Transition: Labour Market Entry Sequences of School Leavers in Europe
SP I 2006 – 111 > Abstract   >PDF

Günther Schmid: Sharing Risks  –  On Social Risk Management and the Governance of Labour Market Transitions
> Abstract  >PDF

Kamil Zawadzki: Transitional Labour Markets in a Transitional Economy. Could They Work? The Example of Poland.
SP I 2005 – 102 > Abstract   >PDF

Günther Schmid: Soziales Risikomanagement durch Übergangsarbeitsmärkte
SP I 2004 – 110 > Abstract   >PDF

Ruud Muffels, Ton Wilthagen, Nick van den Heuvel: Labour Market Transitions and Employment Regimes: Evidence on the Flexibility-Security Nexus in Transitional Labour Markets
FS I 02 – 204 > Abstract    > PDF

Duration: 2002-2005
Funding: ¬ Hans-Böckler-Stiftung

As employers’ and employees’ representative bodies and their established bargaining processes see their power to shape events decline, the actors are facing new normative demands emanating from the political sphere. In addition, new, frequently discursive bargaining processes, in which civil actors are heavily involved, are becoming increasingly important at both national and transnational level. This raises questions about the reactions of employers’ and employees’ representative bodies, the effects on industrial relations institutions and the demands that have to be met if a sustainable conceptual solution to the problem of interweaving ‘old’ and ‘new’ governance structures is to be developed.

Duration: 2003-2004
Funding: ¬ Hans-Böckler-Stiftung

Effective and efficient public employment services are necessary if the persistent European employment crisis is to be alleviated. There are considerable differences in efficiency and effectiveness between individual employment offices. The project is investigating the extent and causes of these differences in performance in core areas of labour market policy, particularly job placement services. The reforms currently being implemented in the Federal Labour Agency are included in the investigation. Performance analyses (regression analyses) and technical efficiency analyses based on the unit’s comprehensive regional database, which includes all 181 employment offices, together with case studies in selected regions on the implementation of labour policy measures and international comparisons of selected individual aspects constitute the project’s methodological building blocks.

The results of the project's studies have been compiled in a final report entitled “German Public Employ-ment Agencies: Comparative Performance and Conditions of Success.” The main findings were presented on 26 August 2005 during a concluding conference in Berlin. The research results are presented in detail in a book which was published by ¬edition sigma  in December 2005.

Publication:

Holger Schütz, Hugh Mosley (Hg.)
Arbeitsagenturen auf dem Prüfstand
Leistungsvergleich und Reformpraxis der Arbeitsvermittlung
Berlin: edition sigma, 2005
(351 pages)

Related WZB Discussion Papers

Holger Schütz, Peter Ochs: Das Neue im Alten und das Alte im Neuen - Das Kundenzentrum der Bundesagentur für Arbeit:.
Die öffentliche Arbeitsvermittlung zwischen inkrementellen und strukturellen Reformen
SP I 2005 – 106 > Abstract   >PDF

Holger Schütz. Controlling von Arbeitsverwaltungen im internationalen Vergleich
SP I 2003 – 103 > Abstract   >PDF

Duration: 2003-2004
Funding: Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes

The project was concerned with the question of how job placement services might best be delivered and managed. The analysis focused in particular on whether the involvement of private providers would create problems and, if so, what form those problems might take. In addition to laying down theoretical foundations within a framework derived from the new institutional economics, a comparison of international experiences (based on original field work) was carried out.

Book publication (in German only): Oliver Bruttel (2005), Die Privatisierung der öffentlichen Arbeitsvermittlung: Australien, Niederlanden und Großbritannien – ein Vergleich aus neo-institutionenökonomischer Perspektive (Schriftenreihe zur Governance-Forschung Bd. 3, hg. von Gunnar Folke Schuppert), Baden-Baden: Nomos.

The aggregate impact of active labour market policy on transitions from unemployment into employment was estimated on the basis of regional aggregate data for France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. In addition, regional implementation studies were carried out for Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. The sum conclusion of the integrated analysis of effects and implementation was that there was some empirical evidence for the belief that active labour market policy reduces (long-term) unemployment, but that some of the results were contradictory or indeterminate. Explicit evidence of active labour market policy reducing long-term unemployment was found only for Germany and Spain. In general, however, the effects described in the individual studies tended to be negligible. The active employment offices that were most successful in reaching the long-term unemployed were characterised especially by cooperation with a professionalised sponsorship structure and constructive involvement of employers.

The sub-project „Operational Objectives and Performance Indicators in European Public Employment Services" (sponsored by the European Commission) picks up on earlier analyses carried out by the department on the German employment service. The focus is on the increasing use in public employment services of operational standards and performance indicators as instruments for targeted performance management. The introduction of target management (management by objectives) is thought to improve the performance of employment services (in the sense of „new public management"). Following the identification of relevant management practices in the employment services of the EU and Norway, experiences with target management in four countries will be compared and analysed in detail.

Flows between unemployment and employment are placed in relation to all other transitions into employment, that is, from inactivity, education and self-employment. Only between one third and a maximum two thirds of all flows into dependent employment come from unemployment. Transitions between the education and employment systems and transitions into retirement are also examined. The TLMs from dependent employment or unemployment into self-employment have a positive dynamic. In addition to the number of transitions, individual transition probabilities between employment and unemployment and for a return from unemployment to dependent employment were also estimated. Pooled logistical regressions between 1988 and 1996 show the significant influence of age, level of qualification and sex in the Member States. Variations over time reflect cyclical factors.

Centre for European Labour Market Studies (CELMS); Gothenburg, Sweden. Headed by: Prof. Dominique Anxo.
Sociology Faculty of the University of Tilburg, Netherlands. Headed by: Prof. Jan van Wezel.
Research group "Mutation-Espace-Travail & Emploi-Industrie & Services" (METIS) of Paris University 1 (Sorbonne-Panthéon). Headed by: Prof. Bernard Gazier.
School of Management (UMIST); Manchester University, Great Britain. Headed by: Prof. Jill Rubery.
Institute for Employment Studies (IES); Sussex, Great Britain. Headed by: Nigel Meager.
Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI); Dublin, Ireland. Headed by: Dr. Philip O'Connell.
Universidad de Alcalá de Henares (UAH); Madrid, Spain. Headed by: Prof. Luis Toharia.
Hugo Sinzheimer Institute (HSI); Amsterdam, Netherlands. Headed by: Dr. Robert Knegt.
Netherlands Economic Institute (NEI); Rotterdam, Netherlands. Headed by: Dr. Jaap de Koning.

This research network, coordinated by the Department, wants to carry out further work on the theoretical basics of transitional labour markets and to verify these empirically. The intention is that four modules will deepen this approach: (1) Changing employment systems; (2) Working time regimes and households; (3) Education and further training transitions; (4) Active labour market policy.

The European Union (EU) is often dealt with as a homogenous block which manifests itself in terms such as "Eurosclerosis" or the "European Model". This manner of viewing things does not, however, do justice to the fundamental differences in employment systems that actually exist. Furthermore, it cannot explain why the EU member states have been able to achieve varying degrees of success in the fight against unemployment and in reversing the trend toward social exclusion. Obviously there are marked differences in the institutional provisions for regulating labour markets as well as varying ways in which employment systems have been adapted to the altered economic, social and political outline conditions.

It is for this reason that several questions have arisen: why have some countries been able to halve unemployment while in other countries it continues to rise? Are employment systems diverging or converging? What effects will monetary union have? How much room to manoeuvre in an employment policy context does the European Union have? Can characteristics or principles of a promising "European Model" be clearly discerned from the "North American" or "Japanese Model"?

It is hoped that these questions will be answered by the "Changing employment systems" module (Headed by: Günther Schmid; participating external teams: METIS, Tilburg, UMIST, HIS) through the use of a systematic analysis of the structure and dynamics of holistic employment systems. In 1996, three objectives were being dealt with: firstly, preliminary conceptual work for empirically and comparatively defining the indicators of social integration and of social exclusion by using the functional principles of the labour market within the framework of different employment regimes. Secondly, an analysis of the components of central performance indicators used for employment regimes such as, gross national product per capita, labour productivity, employment, labour participation, part-time employment. The analysis of the components should in particular make it possible to separate the exogenous determinants (e.g. demographic development) from the endogenous determinants (e.g. changes in labour behaviour) in performance measures. Thirdly, a further development of the theoretical frame of reference for transitional labour markets used for defining the functional principles of social integration or social exclusion and the basic procedures for cooperative labour market policy.

In 1997, the analytical frame of reference used to describe and explain changing employment systems was further developed, corresponding empirical work was continued and a comparison using German and Dutch employment systems as an example was concluded. The theory of transitional labour markets was added to in particular through the use of a legal-sociological and legal-political basis. Particular attention was also paid to the questions regarding new wage setting systems, since transitional labour markets are characterised by a combination of market wages and other sources of income. In particular the question regarding a new solidary wage policy has arisen; this policy, even under altered outline conditions, is capable of bringing equality and efficiency into balance. In the third year it is intended that a joint book will be published.

an effective redistribution of labour through labour policy,
an adaptation of production times to fluctuations caused by demand, and finally
the improvement in time allocation autonomy for workers which will allow paid work and other non-productive activities to be carried out without conflicting with one another.

Within the concept of transitional labour markets, the contractual form of part-timework is given a particularly important role to play, though other forms of working time flexibilisation (short-time work, parental leave, sabbaticals, etc.) too can carry out an important function here.

To implement and make acceptable new working time arrangements and employees' social security there are, however, apart from the current individual employment and income situation, two importance aspects that have hardly ever been taken into account in analyses up until now: on the one hand the distribution of individual working time over the entire working life and, on the other, the type of social security within the context of the household and/or individualised by the social security regulations. Connected to this fact is the question of whether an expansion of new working time arrangements will improve the living and working conditions of employees (social integration) or whether it will lead to a more precarious situation and thus to new social risks. Experiences with part-time employees have shown that not only do social and fiscal law regulations in most European countries have a socially disadvantageous effect for part-timers in the long-term, but that in addition, part-time employment leads to marginalisation within the labour market.

Positive effects for all actors equally are not attainable with the help of implemented labour market measures alone. On the contrary, these require coordination in the area of fiscal, social, family and equal opportunities policies, i.e. a "constitutional" intervention in the basic principle of labour division between private households and the economic system with its gender-specific allocation of tasks.

Therefore, one of the aims of the project is to identify the employment regimes and working time regimes,

that prevent a further segmentation of the labour market on the aggregate level (precariously employed versus "over-"employed) and that make mobility between various working time arrangements possible. Assessment criteria here are the level of qualifications achieved and the adaptability of the labour market to changing employment and production conditions;
in which, on the operational level, a "best-practice" model can be determined where the concerns regarding the organisation of working time in the company have been brought into harmony with the employment effects and/or requirements of the workers for working time autonomy;
that, on the individual level, prevent social exclusion, i.e. through improvement in the distribution of income and employment opportunities between the members of society and thus, in particular, to help overcome the stereotypical division of labour between men and women.

The complexity of the debate on working time justifies using a variety of methods. The basic principles of our investigations comprise, for all countries equally: the recording of (qualitative) data pertaining to the institutional regulation of the different types of working time, social security and the political debate between the participating actors as well as considering the development of important labour market indicators and rates of transition between part-time employment and unemployment, inactivity or education and further training during the last decade.

It is intended that the connections between working time arrangements and operational planning on the one hand, and individual life planning on the other, should then provide, in a second step, information on the inter-relationship between the outline conditions and the demand for special working time regulations. Accordingly, it is intended that interviews will take place in companies in a series of participating countries (F, UK, D, NL, S) as well as an evaluation of individual data (e.g. with event history analysis) that are available as Socio-economic Panels (SOEP) in most of the countries represented in the project (NL, D, UK, ES, IRL, S).

Successfully mastering the various transitions in the labour market and employment system relies, for the main part, on a successfully practised form of lifelong learning. What are, however, the respective country-specific conditions required for translating such a strategy into action? What form does the interaction take between educational establishments, industry's requirement for further training, individual training preferences and room to manoeuvre with regard to labour market policy? The focus of the module "Education and further training transitions" as regards content (Headed by: Klaus Schömann; participating external teams: METIS, NEI, UAH, ESRI) in particular concerns itself with the role of labour market policy in the process of life-long learning.

Building on the theory of transitional labour markets and the human capital and segmentation theories, the institutional opportunities and the quantitative significance of transitions between training paths in the education system are first of all being investigated. However, this merely serves as a country-specific starting point for the initial position of continued learning processes within each of the countries. Investments in education, training and further training are first of all observed from a life course perspective. This makes it possible to analyse non-self-selective and self-selective processes and their effects on subsequent employment behaviour and employment and production potential of the individual.

Here the hypothesis at the core of this research is being looked into, i.e. that social exclusion is often "produced" due to a lack of participation in education at the right time, the lack of specific training on offer and unfavourable institutional outline conditions (e.g. inflexible working time regulation). The different types of institutionally influenced "bridges" between initial education, employment, further training and further employment or the other possible transitions must be tested empirically for their composition and effect.

As a supplement to many empirical analyses in the area of further training, it is not only the curative role of further training, as a process that accompanies a person through life, that is investigated (i.e. further training for the already unemployed and long-term unemployed) but also the preventative fundamentals of life-long learning. This includes aspects of employment maintenance through further training on the individual as well as on the operational level. In some of the participating countries, interesting innovations – in the sense of flexible arrangements and transitional labour markets – have been created during the last few years, many of which have made possible a realisation of individual but also collective ambitions for further training. Using a previously worked out methodical instrument, it is intended that these approaches be evaluated from a comparative perspective.

The empirical implementation is predominantly supported by evaluations of comparable longitudinal data (in Germany the Socio-economic Panel, a life course study carried out at the Max Planck Institute for Educational Research) on the person level through the use and further development of hazard rate models with corrections for "selection bias".

In the "Active labour market policy" module (Headed by: Hugh Mosley, Günther Schmid; participating external teams: METIS, UAH, NEI, Tilburg, HIS, CELMS and in cooperation with Lennart Delander, Harald Niklasson and Lars Behrenz; Växjö University, Sweden), institutional arrangements and labour market policy programmes are being evaluated which aim to prevent social exclusion in the labour market by using preventative means and to accelerate the reintegration of the unemployed. The methodical approach used is an aggregate impact analysis, connected with regional case studies in which "best practice" cases are to be identified and analysed more deeply. The basic model is:

DiSIE = f (iaAMP, iIMPL, CONTRv).

iSIE are indicators of social integration or exclusion,

iaAMP are indicators for active labour market policy,

iIMPL are indicators for the implementation of policies,

CONTRv are control variables.

The thesis here is that the tendencies of the unregulated labour market lead to social exclusion or to socially unacceptable income disparities and that countermeasures can be taken against this development in the form of suitable policies. Indicators of exclusion are, for example, the duration and unequal distribution of unemployment, and indicators of integration are, say, the proportions of women and older persons taking up employment. Secondly, it is assumed here that classical active labour market policy is no longer suitable for the new socio-economic structural changes. Indicators of labour market policy are, for example, numbers of participants, participant structures and output data. Here, in particular, the question arises regarding the optimum policy mix.

Furthermore, processes, i.e. negotiation, implementation and cooperative structures (networks), are of decisive significance for the effectiveness of labour market policy on the regional level. Indicators of policy implementation will therefore play an important role when creating a model. Examples are: the number of personnel in relation to the pressures caused by the problem (increases in the number of unemployed persons or vacant positions); the extent and type of cooperation with regional key actors; and the costs for each person supported.

Effectiveness of labour market policy must comply with both efficiency and fairness criteria. A particular interest therefore exists in determining any possibly conflicting aims especially, though, in determining where efficiency and fairness strategies behave in a complementary manner. An approach developed at Växjö University (production frontier) makes it possible to measure the technical efficiency of employment offices (maximisation of one or more output values for given input values). This can then be used to analyse why certain employment offices deviate from the technical optimum, and whether high technical efficiency exists at the expense of efficiency in providing placements and, in particular, at the expense of social efficiency.

In Germany, the 181 employment office districts serve as the subject of observation. The databases used are the regional database at the WZB and additional data surveys at the Federal Employment Office and/or at the employment agencies. In the Netherlands, data sets for the 28 labour market regions are available, in France data sets for the Departements, and in Sweden for the 24 regional employment offices. The intention is to pool the internationally available regional data.

The first workshop took place in May 1996 at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin and concentrated on the questions of methodology and monitoring. The second workshop took place in November 1996 in Lisbon and concentrated on three problems to do with labour market policy: long-term unemployment; lack of a qualified workforce, imbalances between the qualifications on offer and those that are required; and inflexible working time arrangements. The participants at each workshop comprised two to three representatives from departments of employment or employment administrations from all participating countries of the European Union. The workshops and their documentation are subdivided into three parts: an introduction to the theme on the basis of selected chapters from the handbook, a presentation of "best practice" cases, and finally, a discussion and exchange of experiences. The documentation is concluded with a list of the participants and their addresses together with an index of the handbook.

The methodology for evaluating labour market policy that was worked out in the "International Handbook of Labour Market Policy and Evaluation" was also used in a transfer project that was carried out in cooperation with the Fachhochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft, Berlin-Karlshorst and SÖSTRA; the project was commissioned by the Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Arbeit, Berufsbildung und Frauen. Within this framework, Günther Schmid, Klaus Schömann and Holger Schütz developed an ideal-typical evaluation concept using the labour market policy framework programme in Berlin as an example. Five stages of a complete labour market policy evaluation process were differentiated between and detailed using examples: context analysis, problem analysis, monitoring, effect analysis and preparing a balance using a cost/benefit analysis.

Within this context, in 1997 the preparations were completed for the publication of the book, "Part-time Prospects" edited by Jacqueline O'Reilly and Colette Fagan (University of Liverpool). It links contributions in a debate on the development of part-time employment from a comparative empirical perspective. During the last 40 years, the growth of part-time employment in the industrialised economies has been an especially noticeable development. In the book, varying views explaining this development are contrasted against one another. Especially the motives for part-time employment and the conditions under which such employment is generated are the factors that are being dealt with here. At the centre of the analyses resides the question of whether part-time employment in the future will take on an increasingly normal part of the working life of most people or whether this type of employment will remain a ghetto for women in which low wages, low pension claims and low-qualified labour predominate.

The analysis concentrates on the characteristics and changes in the regulating systems of labour and of social policy in Europe. Two developments can clearly be recognised here. On the one hand are the trends towards decentralising collective bargaining and towards intensifying the relationship between job security and work flexibilisation. On the other hand are the trends towards dissolving state monopolies, towards privatisation and towards developing new forms of care. The opportunities for regulating the "work of the future" inherent in these trends were also analysed in relation to the development of a new social and gender contract.

Most politically-induced approaches to deregulation – but also re-regulation – neglected the inter-relationship (different for each country) between the general protection against dismissal and the regulations on fixed-term employment. It proved indispensable to investigate the effects of changes in the regulations of fixed-term employment together with the regulatory framework of general legal protection against dismissal, since both develop together "reflexively", i.e. they are inter-related. The economic perspectives of the project likewise used a comprehensive systematic approach in which fixed-term employment is no longer only investigated with regard to aspects of operational flexibility, but also with regard to aspects of efficiency in the economy as a whole and the distribution of income.

The empirical work was based on theory-led, multi-variate analyses of the probability of receiving a fixed-term or unlimited contract of employment. The European Labour Force Survey served as a basic data source for twelve EU countries; it was used to compare age, gender and industry-specific distribution patterns. A further main point pertaining to this subject was the question of whether fixed-term employment could possibly make easier the return of previously unemployed persons back into the labour market.

The results show that deregulation of fixed-term employment itself hardly generates a lasting growth in employment. Multi-variate estimates of extended income functions showed that employees on fixed-term contracts received up to 10 percent less income, other characteristics remaining equal. Possibly occurring employment effects on the economy as a whole are therefore more likely to be traced back to a greater spread of wages in the respective countries since fixed-term employment was introduced than to the deregulation of fixed-term employment. It has been determined that the EU member states are becoming ever more alike, however slowly, in their regulation of fixed-term employment.

The labour market policy potential of transitional labour markets in Germany has already been investigated by Günther Schmid in 1993. In this project, initial approaches for an estimate of potential are being conceived for the EU member states. At the same time, a test is being carried out to see to what extent the hypotheses of the theory on transitional labour markets – with regard to the significance of the five more-precisely specified transitional labour markets – can be applied as a core element of a future-orientated labour market policy in the neighbouring countries.

Within the empirical work being carried out, a first step is one which is attempting – with the use of the European Labour Force Survey and the European Household Panel – to measure over several years the employment dynamics at the five interfaces: starting employment, household activities, unemployment, dependent versus independent activities and retirement. This basic information on the employment dynamics of EU member states will, in a second step, be combined with the number of active labour market policy participants in order to be able to better assess the extent and quality of EU member states' efforts regarding labour market policy. Using multi-variate analyses, an attempt is being made to isolate the significant factors that influence the respective transitions and transitional labour markets and so improve the empirical basis for labour market policy recommendations within the European Union.

An interim result clearly indicates that an exhaustion of the redistribution potential – a potential created by the shortening of working time – appears possible when working time transitions are bestowed a degree of security through "socially constructed buffer zones".

In 1997, an analysis pertaining to the issue of "Benchmarking Labour Market Policy in Europe" was carried out. This is to do with the question of which indicators and which methods can be employed to identify labour markets that function well and effective labour market policy; these can then be used by policymakers as "benchmarks", i.e. possible target values. Here, the Department has taken on the tasks of working out the methodological and theoretical basics of "benchmarking", critically reconstructing the ranking approach of the Bertelsmann Foundation, and working out approaches for new benchmarking methods, e.g. the radar chart approach.

These questions were investigated by Hugh Mosley and Stefan Speckesser in the research project, "Activation of employment placement". On the basis of internationally comparable data from Eurostat, the role of the employment office as an information provider was investigated. By way of an in-depth analysis using the data from the Socio-economic Panel, the number of new job vacancies filled directly as a result of the service provided by employment offices was measured, as well as the degree of importance this labour market institution has for the target groups.

To start with, the results show that private and public-sector employment placement are less in competition with one another than was expected. In the EU states, the job seekers usually use several methods in their search for new employment, therefore, private-sector agencies provide an important supplementary service. In addition to this, customers using private-sector agencies are hardly any different to those using public-sector ones: the common assumption that private agencies cover only the top segment has proven inaccurate especially in light of the fact that private-sector agencies are often temping agencies which also offer low-qualified individuals opportunities on the labour market.

The question of whether public-sector employment placement targets finding jobs for problem groups and is therefore used by the particularly difficult-to-place workers was investigated using data from the Socio-economic Panel for the years 1984-93, using Germany as an example. Statistical analyses (logit estimates) show that, for a relatively low agency share of all newly started jobs (approx. 12 percent), hardly any problem group orientation can be recognised, even though the labour market effects would be at their greatest here. Only in the area of agency work that provides training placements do the public-sector agencies take on an important role; their market share is nearly 25 percent.

Using this example, Birgitta Rabe, in her doctoral thesis, is inquiring into how the institutional structure of the negotiation situation influences the negotiated result. The analysis categories are, a) the efficiency, and b) the subdivision of the cooperative benefits gained. The institutional structure includes: the negotiation procedures, the different time preferences and the negotiation costs. As parameters they become a part of the theoretical modelling of the negotiations. With the help of interviews with experts and secondary analyses of different data, the negotiation situation can be reconstructed and the negotiation results portrayed. The objective of this work is to analytically derive the actual process of arriving at the negotiation results and to then evaluate these results with democracy theory in mind.