Documents Drahokoupil, Jan 56 results

"This book investigates the role that foreign direct investment (FDI) in central-eastern and southern Europe has played in the post-crisis period, comparing patterns across countries and sectors.
An overarching objective of this publication is to assess the extent to which FDI can still be seen as a key driver of economic development, modernisation and convergence for Europe's low- and middle-income economies, taking into account also the risks and limiting factors associated with FDI."

"This working paper presents the results of the ETUI Internet and Platform Work Survey conducted in Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Poland and Slovakia in 2018-2019. The objective is to map the extent of digital labour in central and eastern Europe (CEE) based on the analysis of two types of online sources for generating income: internet work; and its subset, platform work. The researchers did not find evidence that internet and platform work is creating a qualitatively new labour market that encroaches on traditional age and gender segmentation. Neither is it a market of ‘student jobs'. Moreover, the labour market situation of internet and platform workers was somewhat more precarious than that for employed people generally, with a higher incidence of non-standard and fragmented employment."

"This book addresses the impact of new technologies, typically discussed under the heading of Industry 4.0. It focuses in particular on the automotive industry which has been at the forefront of introducing new technologies such as industrial robots. It analyses their impact on working conditions and employment as well as on the role of production sites in the value chain. The book also addresses the extent to which digital transformation represents an opportunity, or a challenge, for the countries that specialise in manufacturing production as far as their development prospects and competitiveness are concerned."

"This paper presents some of the key insights from the second wave of the ETUI Internet and Platform Work Survey (ETUI IPWS) conducted in 14 member states of the European Union (EU) in Spring 2021. The use of standard probability sampling allows us to estimate the proportion of internet and platform workers, and to identify their characteristics, in a way that is generalisable to the working age population. We found the prevalence of internet and platform work to be relatively similar in the analysed countries, suggesting a uniform evolution of this type of work across the EU. In particular, 17 per cent of the working age population did some internet work in the past year, 4.3 per cent did platform work and 1.1 per cent can be classified as ‘main platform workers'; that is, working 20 hours or more per week or earning more than 50 per cent of their income through platforms. Internet and platform workers differ from the offline workforce in several ways. They tend to be somewhat younger but are far from constituting a student workforce. They are better educated than those who have never done internet work and this is particularly the case for higher skill professional work. Internet work seems mainly to complement offline precarious work and serves as an extra source of income for those on less stable contracts."

"This article uses the European Structure of Earnings Survey to describe the evolution of collective bargaining coverage in European countries during 2002–2018 and how this affected the pay premium associated with being covered. Pay premia are an outcome of negotiations, reflecting the bargaining power on behalf of employees as well as the system of coverage, separately for the public and private sector. Descriptively, we show a decline in collective bargaining coverage linked to a general reduction in the pay differences. This hides much variation though. In a multivariate analysis of changes over time, we show that centrally bargained agreements are associated with larger pay premia if more people are covered and in countries and sectors with stronger trade unions. As this power declines over time, so do wage premia. At higher rates of coverage, there can be a spillover effect where wages for all workers increase, thereby reducing the premia."

"This working paper gives an overview of minimum wage policies in Central and Eastern Europe. It shows that minimum wages are an effective tool for reducing inequality by raising the lowest incomes. Minimum wages can have some, albeit limited, role in increasing aggregate productivity and promoting economic upgrading. However, to be truly effective in raising wages and productivity, minimum wages would need to be accompanied by a stronger role for collective bargaining in CEE countries."

"This policy brief considers the impact of online platforms on labour markets and on the employment relationship in particular. It discusses the importance of outsourcing platforms, arguing that the ‘collaborative economy' used by the European Commission (EC) is a misleading concept, as the trend is in fact just an extension of the market mechanism. The authors also propose concrete policies that would address the risks related to platform-mediated work."