Explaining Variations in the Fight against Unemployment in Times of the Global Financial Crisis: A Mixed-Methods Approach

MZES Working Paper No. 135

27 Pages Posted: 8 Apr 2011 Last revised: 10 May 2011

See all articles by Felix Hörisch

Felix Hörisch

Heidelberg University - Institute for Political Science; University of Mannheim - Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES)

Professor of Sociology Social Policy

Institute of Sociology; University of Mannheim

Date Written: July 16, 2010

Abstract

The global economic and financial crisis that commenced in 2008 has triggered massive increases in unemployed in almost all Western industrialized nations. Among the OECD nations, about half have reacted - inter alia - by introducing or expanding temporary, public sector jobs in the so-called "second labour market". This had also been a preferred option in the 1980s, following the oil shocks. Since then, however, these programs have increasingly been seen as ineffective and their use remains highly controversial. What then explains that numerous OECD countries have opted for this type of intervention, while others have not? By applying a mixed-methods approach, we first identify through the application of a discriminant analysis that the financial room for manoeuvre coupled with a rapid rise in youth unemployment are the best predictors for the introduction of direct job-creation measures. Subsequently we carefully trace the political events in three most different systems, including Germany, Sweden and the UK, thus elaborating on the how and why these two factors are crucial explanatory variables.

Keywords: crisis, labor market policy, Sweden, Germany, Britain

JEL Classification: P16

Suggested Citation

Hörisch, Felix and Weishaupt, J. Timo and Weishaupt, J. Timo, Explaining Variations in the Fight against Unemployment in Times of the Global Financial Crisis: A Mixed-Methods Approach (July 16, 2010). MZES Working Paper No. 135, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1804012 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1804012

Felix Hörisch

Heidelberg University - Institute for Political Science ( email )

University of Mannheim - Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) ( email )

D-68131 Mannheim
Germany

J. Timo Weishaupt (Contact Author)

Institute of Sociology ( email )

Platz der Göttinger Sieben 3
Göttingen, 37073
Germany

University of Mannheim ( email )

A5
D-68131 Mannheim, 68131
Germany
+49(0)6211813640 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://lssoz3.sowi.uni-mannheim.de/mitarbeiter/index.html

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
74
Abstract Views
754
Rank
576,524
PlumX Metrics