Suchergebnisse

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between unemployment and social participation and aim to identify the role of national policies and attitudes as possible mediators.Design/methodology/approach– The authors use the 2006 EU-SILC module on social participation – a data set that provides rich information on social participation for 22/23 EU countries. They adopt a two-step multi-level design, allowing them to directly examine the impact of national policies and norms on individual outcome.Findings– The paper reveals clear evidence that the unemployed have lower levels of social participation than the employed across a range of indicators. The paper also reveals that macro-level variables significantly affect the extent of these differentials in social participation. For instance, the authors found that societies that expose the unemployed to poverty risk have a larger social participation gap between the employed and the unemployed.Originality/value– While the negative association between unemployment and social participation has been established in prior work, the study is the first one to employ a "large N" comparison and to use a multi-level design to statistically test the degree to which macro-level variables mediate the negative relationship between unemployment and social participation. The analyses were able to show that societal context can significantly alleviate the negative implications of unemployment for social participation.

This article examines how institutional change affects age-based labour market inequalities in Europe. We focus on the impact of labour regulation and of wage-setting institutions on the male population aged 25–54. Age-graded labour market inequalities within this group of prime-age individuals are hitherto under-researched. We estimate country panel regressions using data from the European Union Labour Force Survey and time-series data on institutional change for the years 1992–2007. The results present evidence that employment protection and the regulation of temporary work affect age-based inequality dynamics, while union strength has positive employment effects on all age-groups.

Abstract
Continuous training participation over the career becomes ever more important. However, most existing research mainly analyzed training at single points in time. This article investigates training dynamics and hence asks the question of whether training begets training. We provide two contributions to the literature: First, we analyze if previous training participation has an effect on later participation, leading to strict cumulative advantages. Second, by comparing Germany and the United Kingdom, we aim to explore whether these processes differ between countries with divergent skill formation systems. Using dynamic random effects probit models, which control for time-constant unobserved factors, and panel data (NEPS and UKHLS), we find that the accumulation of training experiences is mainly determined by initial education as well as job and firm characteristics. Still, previous participation plays a secondary yet noteworthy role, signifying dynamic growth in both countries, with higher effects for the United Kingdom. Thus, we show that only considering worker, job, and firm characteristics when analyzing inequality in training participation neglects a significant further mechanism that is rooted in previous training participation. We come to three main conclusions: (i) There is a potential amplification of early inequalities over time. Individuals who are initially on career paths that promote regular training participation are likely to keep and even enhance their advantage over time. (ii) On the other hand, our results also suggest the potential for individuals to break free from non-participation patterns. (iii) The inequality-generating pathways can be influenced by institutions.

This paper explores earnings inequalities within dual-earner couples in East and West Germany drawing on household-level panel data from 1992 to 2016. It has three aims: (1) to analyze how the partner pay gap (the pay gap between partners within one household) has developed over time, given institutional change, and whether the extent of inequality and temporal development vary between East and West Germany; (2) to explore variation in the partner pay gap by male partners' absolute earnings; and (3) to investigate the micro-level determinants of earnings inequalities within couples and determine whether their relevance varies between East and West Germany as well as by male partners' absolute earnings. We find women earn substantially less than their partners, and our regression results find no indication of a declining partner pay gap. Besides substantial variation between East and West Germany, our results also reveal important group-specific variation in the extent of the partner pay gap as well as in its determinants.

This study examines how within-couple inequalities, that is power differences between men and women in a partnership, act as predictors of transitions from full-time to part-time employment applying Heckman corrected probit models in three different institutional and cultural contexts; Eastern Germany, Western Germany and the United Kingdom. The analyses show that when women are in a weaker position within their relationships they are more likely to drop-out of full-time work, but that this propensity varies by context. The authors also find an increased tendency over time for women to leave full-time for part-time employment in both Eastern and Western Germany, but observe no such trend in the UK. This is suggestive of ongoing incompatibilities in the institutional support for equality in dual-earning in Germany. The study uses longitudinal data covering the period 1992 until 2012 from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) for Germany and from the British Household Panel (BHPS) and the 'Understanding Society' data for the UK.

Kognitive Lernpotenziale, die sich nicht in den Schulleistungen widerspiegeln, bleiben auch beim Übergang von der Schule in die Ausbildung unentdeckt. Jugendliche mit Hauptschulabschluss müssen gute Schulnoten vorweisen, um auf dem Ausbildungsmarkt eine Chance zu haben. Jugendliche mit mittlerem Schulabschluss können hingegen mit soft skills wie Gewissenhaftigkeit punkten.

"Gender differences in access to continuing training are often argued to be a central cause of persisting gender inequalities in occupational attainment. Yet, existing empirical work has presented rather mixed evidence regarding a potential gender gap. With the aim to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying training participation, this paper carries out an empirical test of the central theoretical models commonly used to explain the (alleged) gender gap. Using data from the European Social Survey, we find that working men are more likely to train than working women, controlling for worker and job characteristics. Moreover, common theoretical approaches to understanding gendered training behaviour show some explanatory power for male workers, while they largely fail to predict women's training incidence." (author's abstract)