The employment structure has changed since the 1970’s. For Daniel Oesch, this means we need new models to describe today’s labour markets and new class schemes to move beyond industrial-based categories. We also need to understand the political consequences of the collapse of the industrial working class in Europe.
The French economy’s lack of “competitiveness” is often attributed to high labor costs. Recent research, however, suggests that the export performance of advanced countries has less to do with labor costs than with product quality and the ways businesses invest.
What is the situation for women’s employment in the different European countries and what are the latest developments? This study aims to identify the policies that seem most favourable to women’s employment in the context of a “life cycle”, in other words taking into account the specific phase that is the potential birth and upbringing of very young children.
The economist Jean-Luc Outin reviews the history of welfare benefits in France, describes the issues surrounding the recent reform that combines the various benefits, and examines the potentially deregulatory effects of this reform on the labour market.
