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Active labour market policy (ALMP) is widely used in European countries to reduce youth unemployment and help young people in their transition from school into apprenticeships and employment. Spending on ALMP for young people varies significantly and in surprising ways across countries. However, so far there has been no research into what influences the level of public expenditure on different types of ALMPs for young people. In this PhD thesis, I attempt to fill this gap. Based on novel data, this thesis argues that spending on youth ALMP is influenced by other factors than ALMP for older people. Thereafter, it draws on the CPE literature on ALMP, collective training systems and business power, the sociological literature on school-to-work transitions and the economic literature on hiring decisions to develop a theory on how employers, pluralist and corporatist employer groups, and collective training systems (CTS) influence public expenditure on different types of youth ALMPs. This theory is then tested using a mixed-method approach combining a quantitative analysis of public expenditure on youth ALMPs between 1998 and 2014 in 28 European countries with a qualitative, process-tracing analysis of three country case studies: Germany, the United Kingdom, and Sweden. The evidence shows that employers and employer groups influence public expenditure on youth ALMPs through their structural and instrumental power. The findings regarding the effects of different forms of employer groups are mixed. There is qualitative evidence for corporatist employer organisations influencing the use of youth ALMPs in ways that pluralist groups do not, and quantitative evidence for countries with corporatist groups spending more on youth ALMPs. However, the results of the two levels of analyses do not match; the qualitative findings cannot explain the observed variation in spending. The results regarding the role of CTS are unambiguous: firm-based training is strongly and positively correlated with spending on youth ALMP, in particular on training measures. CTS influence policymakers' ability to develop training ALMPs for young people and they make employer groups more likely to lobby for youth ALMPs to fight skills shortages or to support companies in training apprentices. Furthermore, CTS increase employers' preferences for measures providing qualifications over work experience programmes. The findings highlight the influence of structural and institutional factors, while de-emphasising the effects of partisanship on the use of youth ALMP. The thesis' central contribution is the exploration of a new field of study – the determinants of the use of ALMP for young people. In addition, it unearths hitherto unknown causal dynamics in this policy area including the effect of structural business power and CTS on the human capital orientation of ALMP. Moreover, the thesis develops a method for disaggregating ALMP expenditure by age group that can be used by future studies for the separate analysis of measures for young and older people.

This thematic review essay focuses on the relationship between social inclusion and collective skill formation systems. It briefly surveys foundational literature in comparative political economy and comparative social policy that documented and explained the traditionally socially inclusive nature of these systems. It reviews how the literature conceptualized the current challenges faced by collective skill formation systems in upholding their inclusive nature in the context of the transition to post-industrial societies. It then discusses in detail a recent strand of literature that investigates the policy responses that have been deployed across countries to deal with these challenges. It concludes by providing heuristics that may be useful for researchers who seek to advance the study of the policy and politics of social inclusion in collective skill formation systems.

AbstractAs skill formation systems are increasingly under pressure from de-industrialization and the rise of knowledge economies, their ability to include the low-skilled has been strained. But what determines how skill formation systems adjust to this challenge? By explaining the divergence of two most-similar systems, those of Austria and Germany, the article highlights the key role of trade unions and of the institutional resources and legacies available to them. Where institutional resources are high and legacies positive, as in Austria, unions were crucial in setting an inclusive pathway of reform of the training system. Where, on the contrary, institutional resources are low and legacies negative, as in Germany, unions' strategies for inclusion failed, paving the way to a dualizing outcome. The article therefore provides a novel analysis of institutional change in skill formation systems, while also offering broader insights on the relationship between coordinated and egalitarian capitalism in post-industrial knowledge-based economies.

The article looks into channels of cooperation between the actors of the rotating presidency and those of the General Secretariat of the Council (GSC), the European Commission, the Council members and, for the post-Lisbon presidencies, the President of the European Council and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, with an overall research question of how did the changes introduced by the Lisbon Treaty affect these channels? It looks into the evaluation of cooperation with regard to different elements of the role of the rotating presidency as well as into frequencies of the receipt of information on substantive questions and on the positions of other actors. The article is based on data from large-scale questionnaires answered by officials closely involved with the conduct of the presidency of four member states. Slovenia and Sweden served closely prior to entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty and Belgium and Hungary closely following it. Adapted from the source document.

A burgeoning literature has analysed how and why platform workers express their (collective) voice. While this 'willingness to act' of platform workers is evidenced across several countries, there is little research on their 'willingness to pay', however. Are platform workers willing to become dues paying union members? Exploiting novel survey data from Austria, this article addresses this gap by analysing the propensity of app-mediated food delivery couriers to join trade unions. Similarly to traditional industries, the findings demonstrate that the decision to join a union is driven by instrumental and value-rational motivations. Compared to employed couriers, those on 'free-service provider contracts', i.e. freelancers, are less likely to unionise, however. Also, short expected job tenure and limited personal contacts hinder unionisation in app-mediated food delivery. Yet unions are not without tools: they can significantly improve relationships between them and the couriers by supporting grassroots activists.

Vor dem Hintergrund anhaltend hoher Langzeitbeschäftigungslosigkeit haben Jobgarantien seit einigen Jahren wieder vermehrt Aufmerksamkeit erregt. Als Beitrag zu der laufenden Debatte berechnet die vorliegende Studie mithilfe des Mikrosimulationsmodells EUROMOD die Nettokosten einer universellen Jobgarantie für Langzeitbeschäftigungslose in Österreich und den Effekt einer solchen Garantie auf Armut und Ungleichheit. Abhängig von der Höhe des in der Garantie gezahlten Bruttogehalts (1.500 € oder 1.700 €) und der angenommen Übergangswahrscheinlichkeit der Teilnehmenden in Beschäftigung betragen die monatlichen Nettokosten pro Person zwischen 451 und 703 €. Bei einem Bruttolohn von 1.500 € würde die Maßnahme die Zahl der armutsgefährdeten Personen um 77.100 senken und Einkommensungleichheit leicht reduzieren. Aus gesellschaftlicher Sicht würde die Garantie besonders Personengruppen, die stark von Langzeitbeschäftigungslosigkeit betroffen sind (Männer, ältere Menschen) helfen. Aus individueller Perspektive würden insbesondere Frauen, sehr junge Menschen, Familien und Mehrpersonenhaushalte ohne Kinder und tertiär Gebildete profitieren, da für diese Personen die Differenz zwischen der Höhe der Ersatzleistungen und dem Gehalt der Jobgarantie besonders groß ist. Die Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass eine universelle Jobgarantie für Langzeitbeschäftigungslose einen wichtigen und kostengünstigen Beitrag zur Förderung gesellschaftlicher Teilhabe und zur Reduzierung von Armut und Ungleichheit leisten kann.

PurposeTo analyse the policies, posting trends and worker experiences during the pandemic, this study uses the concept of motility, i.e. workers' mobility capital, and examines how posted workers' geographical mobility, their access to and conditions of employment and social protection were impacted. The authors discuss how the measures against the pandemic undertaken at the European Union (EU) and national level have affected labour mobility, the impact these measures have had on macro trends of posting to Austria, and lastly, how the pandemic and the actions against it have influenced the lives of posted workers at the individual level.Design/methodology/approachIn this article, the authors focus on the specific case of posting to Austria. The authors ask whether, and if so, how EU and national policies which came about during the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the motility of posted workers, and how these workers used their mobility capital in this unfolding context. The authors address the research questions with analyses of EU and national level policies, use administrative data on posting, and individual-level data based on interviews with posted workers and public authorities.FindingsThe authors find that the Austrian government's public health and economic priorities were jointly influential on the motility of cross-border workers. The specific case of the posted workers shed new light on the limits to such a national sovereignty approach when it comes to economic interests in an increasingly interdependent European labour market. This study's findings show that despite the access provided at the policy levels, the motility of posted workers was also affected by their individual circumstances, or competences, which produced different forms of appropriation.Originality/valueThe authors apply the theoretical framework of motility by studying policy developments through the element of access options and conditions, and the posting trends to Austria and worker experiences at the individual level through the lenses of appropriation and competences. The authors find that while the EU and national public policy in enhancing access options have been successful during the COVID-19 period, amelioration attempts in access conditions have not been realised as observed in our analysis of the competence and appropriation dimensions of the posted workers in Austria. This highlights the need for a more integrated approach in the study of policies by exploring beyond the national and EU level policies and focussing on the implementation and observations at the individual level.