Labour market segmentation: Piloting new empirical and policy analyses

a report published by Eurofound (European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions)

Authors: Irene Cruz, Oscar Molina and Joan Miquel Verd ((Centre d’Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball – QUIT), Elma Palauskaite (Policy Impact Lab – PIL), Rimantas Dumčius and Milda Venckutė (PPMI) and Valentina Patrini and Carlos Vacas-Soriano (Eurofound)

Introduction

While labour market segmentation (LMS) has been researched from the perspectives of different branches of literature, it nevertheless remains vague as a concept. It emerged as an alternative to neoclassical economics and human capital theories, which assume that wages and working conditions generally depend on the worker’s human capital and productivity level.

Instead, LMS theory maintains that differences in working conditions between groups of workers may also be due to factors such as contractual arrangements or other institutional characteristics.

Executive summary (PDF 2pp)

Full report (PDF 96pp)

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