Documents Brunner, Johannes 3 results

"This report discusses the question of a long-term institutional convergence of national unemployment benefit schemes in Europe using the examples of Germany and France. The comparison shows many similarities between the two countries. Traditionally, the areas of funding, the organisation of benefits and governance structures have been the most similar, as well as the scope of benefits. Since the 2000s, both benefit schemes have diverged in slightly different directions due to the Hartz reforms in Germany. However, recent reforms in France have brought its system closer to German developments, e.g. the stronger use of activation measures and sanctions. In both countries, these developments were driven by problematic labour market situations. The findings show that, overall, the benefit schemes of both France and Germany show a significant degree of compatibility, despite important differences in questions of detail. One difference which remains is the stronger role of the social partners in France. The study also refers to challenges in social policy which are leading to similar reform needs in both countries, e.g. in the areas of short-term employment, precarious self-employment and a stronger, more forward-looking labour market policy through investments in human capital. In this respect, both countries can learn and benefit from each other's experiences. "

"After an initial policy emphasis on stabilizing jobs and income through job retention and various types of income support measures, more subsequent country responses to the economic shock generated by the COVID-19 pandemic also include policies to support labour market (re-)entry. This policy brief tracks the sequential logic of labour market policies across a sample of countries from all world regions. It shows the temporal overlap of many measures and highlights potential lessons for a future-oriented and more resilient institutional set-up. Although the implementation of policy measures across countries did not follow a clear sequencing as in previous recessions, it is encouraging to see that the latest experiences from policy responses to the COVID-19 crisis already show developments that could be part of a post-pandemic set-up of labour market policies. Some policy responses to COVID-19 also reflect learning from the difficulties and deficits encountered during and after the Great Recession."

"This policy brief provides an update on job retention policies in a sample of 20 countries representing the main world regions as well as the diverse types of job retention schemes, in particular short-time work, furlough and wage subsidy schemes as they have been implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We show the diversity of these policies as well as the available information about their (re-)design as the pandemic evolved up to the most recent period. The policy brief raises main issues regarding the implementation and adaptation of job retention policies and illustrated this with four case studies."