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Do you feel like an insider? Job security and preferences for Flexibilization across Europe
Author(s) -
Duman Anil,
Kemmerling Achim
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
social policy and administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1467-9515
pISSN - 0144-5596
DOI - 10.1111/spol.12573
Subject(s) - operationalization , employment protection legislation , flexicurity , insider , job security , context (archaeology) , politics , labour economics , temporary work , work (physics) , economics , legislation , business , political science , unemployment , economic growth , law , mechanical engineering , paleontology , philosophy , engineering , epistemology , biology
The paper analyses the determinants of public opinion on flexibilisation of work contracts. While the literature on new labour market divides has rapidly expanded, few contributions directly look at employees’ demands for labour market regulation. By using a multi‐level data set for 25 European countries, we find that the subjectively assessed job security is an important and valuable predictor of preferences for flexibilisation. In particular, those with very low and very high levels of perceived job security prefer flexibilisation compared to those with medium levels. We also show that the effect is stronger in countries with stricter employment protection legislation. The findings contribute to the literature on new divides of labour market politics in several ways. First, our empirical operationalization is related directly to the core of insider‐outsider theory, the protection of work contracts. Second, subjective assessment of employment security yields important complementary insights into a debate usually focusing on objective measures. Third, we find that the (subjective) divide is context dependent; it is much more visible in countries where employment protection regulation is strong.