Apprenticeship for adults: Results of an explorative study

This report is the result of an explorative study, carried out at a time when interest in apprenticeship for adults was on the rise and research and evidence on the topic was scarce and fragmented.

It has explored the topic from a conceptual and theoretical point of view, reviewing relevant existing research. It has also considered a practical perspective, exploring policies EU countries and four non-EU countries have in place in relation to apprenticeship for adults. It is the first report that addresses the topic from an EU-wide perspective.

Largely based on data collected in 2017-18, the report includes findings from a literature review and field work. It confirms that adults increasingly participate in apprenticeship training, often due to policy interventions and measures that have removed barriers to such participation and provided incentives. The study also confirms that EU countries are fundamentally divided into two main apprenticeship function groups, with two different approaches in aiding participation of adults in apprenticeship.

Full text (PDF 100pp)

Note that this report is available only in electronic format.

---

How satisfied are people with their lives?

Quality of life in 2018 Eurostat news release 172/2019 (7 November)

Positive trend in subjective well-being

“Overall, how satisfied are you with your life these days?” people across the European Union (EU) were asked. Life satisfaction represents how a respondent evaluates his or her life taken as a whole.

On a scale from 0 (“not satisfied at all”) to 10 (“fully satisfied”), the mean (average) life satisfaction of EU residents aged 16 and over was 7.3 in 2018, an increase compared with 7.0 in 2013.

Since 2013, the mean level of satisfaction with the financial situation of their own household in the EU also increased, from 6.0 in 2013 to 6.5 in 2018, whilst the mean satisfaction with personal relations remained nearly stable, 7.8 in 2013 and 7.9 in 2018.

Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, publishes a selection of subjective indicators on well-being of people in Europe. A detailed article is available on the Eurostat website.

Or continue reading the press release (PDF 5pp)

---

Beyond fiscal rules: How domestic fiscal frameworks can contribute to sound fiscal policy

a column by Lucio R Pench, Stefan Ciobanu, Marcin Zogala and Cristiana Belu Manescu for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal

Much of the debate on fiscal discipline and policy has focused on fiscal rules and their appropriate design.

Using recent work by the European Commission on national fiscal frameworks in the EU member states, this column shows that other elements of the fiscal framework are just as important as national fiscal rules for fiscal discipline. Independent monitoring of compliance, more realistic macroeconomic and budgetary forecasts, comprehensive and timely fiscal statistics and medium-term fiscal planning are also key for fiscal discipline in the EU.

Continue reading

---

Global lessons from Euroscepticism

a column by Stephanie Bergbauer, Jean-Francois Jamet, Hanni Schölermann, Livio Stracca and Carina Stubenrauch for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal

Recent successes of populist movements in Europe might seem to reflect eroded trust in the EU’s institutions.

This column asks what global lessons can be drawn from recent research on Euroscepticism at the ECB and elsewhere. It argues that taking citizens’ concerns seriously and addressing salient issues, building on a sense of togetherness, and caring about public trust should inspire a course of action at the global level. Insufficient progress along these dimensions has played a key role not only in Brexit, but also in the backlash against the multilateral world order underpinning globalisation.

Continue reading

---

Explaining workers’ role in illegitimate wage underreporting practice: Evidence from the European Union

an article by Josip Franić (Institute of Public Finance, Croatia) published in The Economic and Labour Relations Review Volume 30 Issue 3 (September 2019)

Abstract

Despite substantial endeavours of international institutions and governments around the world to promote decent work, recent years have witnessed resurgence of non-standard and precarious labour practices.

This article scrutinises one of the most recently described types of non-standard work, which is known as quasi-formal or under-declared employment.

Companies relying on this illegitimate strategy, which is particularly prevalent in Europe, deliberately misreport the take-home pay of their formally employed workers. Alongside the officially declared wage, a quasi-formal worker thus receives an additional cash-in-hand payment which remains untaxed.

To explore why so many European Union workers accept quasi-formal jobs in spite of obvious limitations, we report the evidence from interviews with 616 workers who were surveyed within the Special Eurobarometer 284/Wave 67.3. A two-level cumulative logistic regression emphasises tax morale and the exact function of the cash-in-hand payment as the key factors in this respect.

On the other hand, neither perceived detection risk nor expected penalties are found to affect the readiness of quasi-formal workers to keep obeying an illegitimate arrangement with their employer.

These findings therefore endorse recent studies on the matter, which illuminate low trust in the state and fellow citizens as the main reason for many workers to voluntarily misreport their income.

JEL Classification: E26, H26, J46

---

For people under 75, two deaths out of three in the EU could have been avoided

eurostat news release 136/2019 - 5 September 2019

Heart and lung diseases main categories of avoidable death

In the European Union (EU), about 1.7 million persons aged less than 75 died in 2016. Among them, around 1.2 million deaths could be considered as premature according to the recently developed Eurostat-OECD list of avoidable mortality. Out of those, 741 000 preventable deaths could have been avoided through effective public health and primary prevention interventions, and 422 000 treatable deaths through timely and effective health care interventions.

Heart attacks (174 000 deaths), cancers of the trachea, bronchus and lung (168 000 deaths) and strokes (87 000) accounted together for over a third (37%) of total avoidable causes of death of people aged less than 75. Compared to 2011, avoidable deaths as a share of total deaths decreased by 1.7 percentage points, from 69.7% of total deaths in 2011 to 68.0% in 2016.

This information on avoidable deaths comes from a report issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. The concept of avoidable mortality is based on the idea that certain deaths (for specific age groups and from specific diseases) could be 'avoided' – meaning they would not have occurred at this stage – if there had been effective public health and primary prevention interventions and/or timely and effective health care in place.

Both the treatable mortality and the preventable mortality indicators are meant to be used in a global context of peer reviewed health system performance assessments. They provide a warning signal of potential shortcomings in health systems but are not intended to be a definitive measure for monitoring health care across Member States.

Continue reading

---

Transition Dynamics in European Labour Markets During Crisis and Recovery

an article by Vassilis Monastiriotis and Nikolitsa Lampropoulou (European Institute, London School of Economics, UK) and Corrado Macchiarelli1 (Brunel University London, UK; European Institute, London School of Economics, UK) published in Comparative Economic Studies Volume 61 Issue 2 (June 2019)

Abstract

The crisis has resulted in a substantial rise in unemployment in Europe and a notable divergence in unemployment rates and labour market outcomes post-crisis. In this paper, we offer a detailed examination of the transitional dynamics underpinning changes in employment, unemployment and inactivity across the EU member states during the long period from before the crisis until the recent recovery (2004–2016).

We document substantial differences in transitional dynamics across countries and disparate shifts in these over time.

We also find systematic cross-country differences in the medium- and long-run trajectories of employment and unemployment generated by these dynamics, which can broadly be associated with differences in labour market institutions and models of labour market regulation and industrial relations (varieties of capitalism or production regimes). Applying a counterfactual analysis, we further document how altering the dynamics of labour market transitions may contribute to reducing significantly the levels of unemployment, and cross-country disparities in these, across the EU.

JEL Classification: O52, J62, J88, P51, G01,

---

The economic geography of sovereignist Europe

a column by Gianmarco Ottaviano for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal

Economic geography strikes back. After a couple of decades of easy talk about the ‘death of distance’ in the age of globalisation, the promise of a world of rising living standards for all is increasingly challenged by the resilience of regional disparities within countries. As long as many people and firms are not geographically mobile – and those who are tend to be the most skilled and productive – easier distant interactions can actually strengthen rather than weaken agglomeration economies. Recent electoral trends in Europe can be understood to a surprisingly large extent from this angle.

Continue reading

---

EU competition policy should not be sacrificed but trade policy should be strengthened

a column by Sébastien Jean, Anne Perrot and Thomas Philippon for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal

Some policymakers believe that EU competition policy prevents the emergence of industrial champions.

The column argues that Europe’s competition policy has successfully contained the rise in concentration and excess profits, and the EU should not follow the US in weakening its approach. Instead, the EU needs to strengthen its trade policy to be more assertive on reciprocity in market access and control of industrial subsidies.

Continue reading

---

2018 European skills index

Cedefop's European skills index (ESI) is a composite indicator that measures the performance of a country’s skills system.

For the first time it is possible to gauge the relative performance of EU Member State skills systems and, in doing so, contribute to the policy discourse on skills, employment, and growth.

Countries need to equip their workforce with the appropriate skills for their labour markets; to do so, they need the right policies. The ESI helps understand which policies work, highlighting trends shaping skills systems across the EU.

It allows analysis of a skills system in three different areas: skills development, skills activation and skills matching. Skills development assesses the effectiveness of compulsory and post-compulsory education. Skills activation examines the transition from education to work. Skills matching shows to what extent skills are matched with an appropriate job.

The report presents findings from the 2018 ESI update and provides in-depth analysis including individual Member State performances.

Free download
PDF 140pp

No, I have not read it but there is a very useful Executive Summary.

---

Opening the floodgates: Immigration in the aftermath of the eastern enlargement

a column by Bernt Bratsberg, Andreas Moxnes, Oddbjørn Raaum and Karen-Helene Ulltveit-Moe for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal

In the aftermath of the eastern enlargement of the EU, Norway experienced one of the largest immigration shocks of the 21st century.

This column uses data from the episode to examine the general equilibrium response of wages, labour costs, and industry employment to such shocks. One finding is that although real wages in some occupations decline, the aggregate welfare effects on natives are close to zero as natives switch to higher-wage occupations.

The welfare effect on the existing population of immigrants, on the other hand, is negative as they have a comparative advantage in low-wage occupations.

Continue reading

---

Forty years of inequality in Europe: Evidence from distributional national accounts

a column by Thomas Blanchet, Lucas Chancel and Amory Gethin for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal

Despite the growing importance of inequalities in policy debates, it is still difficult to compare inequality levels across European countries and to tell how European growth has been shared across income groups.

This column draws on new evidence combining surveys, tax data, and national accounts to document a rise in income inequality in most European countries between 1980 and 2017. It finds that income disparities on the old continent have increased less than in the US and shows that this is essentially due to ‘predistribution’ policies.

Continue reading

---

After months of insisting that #Article13 doesn't require filters, top EU Commissioner says "Article 13 requires filters"

a post by Cory Doctorow for the Boing Boing blog



The months of debate over Article 13 of the new EU Copyright Directive (passed in a tragicomedy of errors when some MEPs got confused and pushed the wrong buttons), the most contentious issue was whether the rule would require online service providers to spend millions on copyright filters, which are known to be error-prone and the source of mountains of algorithmic censorship, as well as being easily abused by would-be censors who can make false copyright claims with impunity and use them to prevent images, videos, sounds and words from ever appearing on the internet.

Continue reading

---

The online job vacancy market in the EU: Driving forces and emerging trends

With the project Real-time labour market information on skill requirements: setting up the EU system for online vacancy analysis, Cedefop is using online job vacancies to develop real-time labour market and skills intelligence in the EU.

Drawing meaningful conclusions from these data and turning them into policy-relevant labour market intelligence requires sound understanding of online job markets and their importance in employers’ recruitment strategies. The mapping of the online job portal landscape in all EU Member States presented in this report helps identify the main features of online job markets and signal important trends impacting them.

The report analyses the drivers influencing the use of online job vacancy portals in recruitment and job search, the structure of the online job markets, the role of public and private players and the factors shaping the format and content of online job vacancies.

Full report (PDF 96pp)

---

Improving poverty reduction in Europe: What works best where?

an article by Chrysa Leventi, Holly Sutherland and Iva Valentinova Tasseva (University of Essex, UK) published in Journal of European Social Policy Volume 29 Issue 1 (February 2019)

Abstract

This article examines how income poverty is affected by changes to the scale of tax-benefit policies and which are the most cost-effective policies in reducing poverty or limiting its increase in seven diverse EU countries.

We do that by measuring the implications of increasing/reducing the scale of each policy instrument, using microsimulation methods while holding constant the policy design and national context.

We consider commonly applied policy instruments with a direct effect on household income: child benefits, social assistance, income tax lower thresholds and a benchmark case of rescaling the whole tax-benefit system.

We find that the assessment of the most cost-effective instrument may depend on the measure of poverty used and the direction and scale of the change. Nevertheless, our results indicate that the options that reduce poverty most cost-effectively in most countries are increasing child benefits and social assistance, while reducing the former is a particularly poverty-increasing way of making budgetary cuts.

Full text (PDF 15pp)

---

The gains from economic integration: The EU has still a long way to go

a column by David Comerford and Sevi Rodriguez Mora for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal

Populists in Europe are contesting the perceived benefits of economic integration between countries.

This column uses data on trade frictions to estimate the long-run impact of trade frictions on GDP if countries in Europe were to be more or less integrated. Negative between-country impacts, such as from Brexit or an EU collapse, imply a GDP reduction of between 1-3%. The potential trade benefits of a 'United States of Europe', on the other hand, may be an order of magnitude greater for its members.

Continue reading

---

Testing the resilience of Europe's inclusive growth model

a column by Jacques Bughin and Christopher Pissarides for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal

Europe’s social contracts to protect their citizens from socioeconomic risks are based on an inclusive growth model characterised by a more egalitarian view of revenue generation and distribution. But this model is under strain, with various global trends placing upward pressure on inequality that could intensify.

This column suggests that keeping the essence of Europe’s current inclusive growth model does not preclude it from adapting its current social contracts to protect its citizens, whatever the disruptions that lie ahead.

Continue reading

---

Uncertainty and legal institutions: The impact of the Brexit vote on EU law application in the UK

a column by Arthur Dyevre, Monika Glavina, Nicolas Lampach, Michal Ovádek and Wessel Wijtvliet for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal

Twenty-eight months after the Brexit referendum, EU laws, regulations, and doctrines continue to apply to UK residents and state officials.

This column shows that UK judges and litigants have already started to move away from EU law in anticipation of Brexit, with judges submitting 22–23% fewer questions to the European Court of Justice since the referendum. The broader lesson for the future of supranational legal systems is that effective disintegration may precede formal withdrawal, or may occur even if formal withdrawal is delayed or does not come about.

Continue reading

---

The fate of English in the EU after Brexit: Expected and unexpected twists

a column by Victor Ginsburgh, Juan Moreno-Ternero and Shlomo Weber for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal

After Brexit, English can no longer retain its status as one of the EU's official or working languages.

This column uses data on languages spoken in the EU to show that post-Brexit, German and French would become dominant. Efforts to preserve English as an official language of EU institutions, which would require a unanimous vote among members, are unlikely to succeed.

This may be problematic for certain European countries in which English is a more widely spoken second language than German or French.

Continue reading

---

Governing a fragmented world economy: Towards inclusive multilateralism

a column by Marco Buti and Mirco Tomasi for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal

International economic cooperation is in crisis. The global economy faces fragmentation across institutional, economic, and social dimensions.

This column argues that the task of the G20 is to revamp international economic cooperation and to promote a multilateral approach that addresses the key concerns of our citizens starting with greater inclusiveness and fairness. Europe can play a leading role in a world in search of a new anchor.

Continue reading

---