Working hours has become, besides unemployment, the most important labour market issue in the European Union (EU) and other European countries during the 1990s. The aim of the thesis is to discuss, analyse and evaluate how the issue of working hours legislation is resolved in Finland, a Finland that differs significantly from previous decades. The main concepts in the thesis are corporatism and corporate pluralism, both underlining consensual policy making. The thesis focuses mainly on a third level of consensus, labelled policy consensus. The overall research question is what an in-depth sectoral analysis of working hours legislation can tell us about labour market policy making in Finland in the 1990s. The empirical material is based on both official and unofficial material from the decision making processes, complemented by interviews with the major participants. Although the main focus is on Finland, comparisons with Sweden and the United Kingdom are made. The result of the analysis is that the development of working hours legislation, and Finnish labour market policy making overall in the 1990s, is characterised by one-dimensionality. The one-dimensional politics brings with it some side effects, the most important being an intolerance of dissensus and opposition in the name of consensus. The consensus politics in Finland are therefore no more than a rule by the more powerful. The normative justification of the inclusion of main economic interest groups in terms of their knowledge of the issues is questionable, since knowledge has become overshadowed by power. The use of the corporatist concept if also inappropriate when it comes to Finnish labour market policy making, since it is debatable whether labour market policy making in Finland has adhered to any distinct forms of the concept.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the direct effects of labour market institu- tions on unemployment rates in the selected EU Members. For this purpose, we use macroeconomic cross-country, time series analysis for 21 OECD European members over the 2001-2011 period. The results gained from our empirical ana- lysis are rather inconclusive over the possibility to explain the development of European unemployment solely by analysing the effects of labour market insti- tutions. This finding might as well be caused by the volatile evolution of both output and unemployment over the observed period. The importance of busi- ness cycle is confirmed by our results as the measure for the output gap appears highly significant in every model specification. Unlike the majority of previous literature, in our estimates the proxies for macroeconomic shocks do not turn out to be significant. Hence, we decided not to examine mutual interactions between macroeconomic shocks and institutions. JEL Classifications: J08, J30, J51, J64 Keywords: unemployment, labour market institutions, EU, active labour mar- ket policies Author s e-mail: janhnevkovsky@gmail.com Supervisor s e-mail: strielkowski@fsv.cuni.cz 1

This thesis consists of three theoretical chapters, all related to the response of unemployment to shocks and the role of active and passive labour market policies. Throughout the thesis, unemployment is assumed to evolve as a result of the uncoordinated nature of the labour market along the lines outlined in the Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides equilibrium search and matching model. Chapter 2 examines the effects of employment policies on vacancy creation and allocation decisions of firms and unemployment across workers with different skills. We develop a partial equilibrium model with heterogeneous high- and low-tech jobs and with skilled and unskilled workers, which we motivate by the stark evidence on the incidence of cross-skill employment (which crowds out unskilled workers, e.g. evidence for the US, the UK and the EU put these at 58%, 32%, and 35%, respectively). We show that certain employment protection policies could, in fact, lead to a reduction in job creation and might alter the allocation of vacancies across low- and high-tech job type. We find that: (i) skilled workers benefit while unskilled workers experience high jobless rate; (ii) policy effects differ when they are skill-specific; (ii) stricter policies can have more severe consequences; and (iv) vacancy creation subsidy can play a key role in reducing unemployment across worker type as well as alleviating the cross-skill crowding out of jobs. Against conventional wisdom, we demonstrate that severance compensation can have a ‘real’ effect on job creation decision, provided there is some degree of strictness in its enforcement. Motivated by the extensive use of fiscal stimulus policies and labour market reforms during the last economic crisis, in Chapter 3 we study the implications of labour market regulations in driving the sensitivity of an economy to fiscal spending shocks, in a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model with job search frictions. We demonstrate that less rigidity in the labour market reduces the impact of fiscal demand shock on job creation and employment, both at extensive and intensive margins, whereas higher rigidity amplifies it. We also establish that the extent to which government spending promotes economic activity, job creation and employment depends on the degree of substitutability between private and public consumption. Higher substitutability dampens economic activity and reduces the sizes of output and employment multipliers. Labour market-oriented fiscal spending is found to be the most potent policy instruments for promoting employment – especially in the presence of high labour market rigidities. Finally, in Chapter 4, we study how openness to international trade and capital mobility and their interactions with labour market policies affect the behaviour of an economy, in particular with respect to its unemployment level. We show that the degree of openness to international capital flow is crucial for understanding the response of unemployment to different shocks. In isolation, by raising the incentive to invest, a reduction in capital mobility barriers leads to lower unemployment, both in the long-run and the dynamic short-run. With limited restrictions to capital movement, unemployment responds faster and with greater magnitude to a domestic productivity shock, and this is further enhanced the more the economy is open to international trade. A striking finding of this study is that while a higher degree of capital mobility enhances the adjustment of unemployment in response to a domestic productivity shock, it dampens its adjustment to a foreign demand shock. By contrast, higher openness to international trade enhances the adjustment effects of both shocks on unemployment. Finally, we find that heterogeneity in the welfare state systems in the EU can generate substantial differentials in the adjustment of unemployment to various shocks.

The Swedish refugee policy during the 1930’s and during the beginning of the Second World War can be described as restrictive. In the year 1939 the number of refugees in Sweden was about 4000. By the year 1945 the number was approximately 200 000. The responsibility for the reception of the refugees was mainly the governments. Since the late 1920’s, Swedish politics where largely formed by the Social Democratic party’s idea of the welfare state. Central to this idea and embodied in society was labour as almost a moral obligation. This thesis examines the relationship between the refugees, government bodies and the labour market policies in Sweden during the years for the Second World War. The purpose is to explore the government’s labour markets bodies’ relationship to refugees and labour by studying the government’s state officials. How was this relationship organized? Much of the previous research in the related area has focused on the government’s bodies rather than their state officials. Therefor this thesis adds a new perspective to this research area. The main questions of interest are how the labour market government bodies and their state officials where organized, and the challenges they were put before in the meeting with the refugees.A hypothesis for the thesis is that refugee reception and labour market politics are linked. A natural step in the reception of refugees is for government bodies to mediate them to the labour market. Refugees tend over time to transfer to labourers. A sociological theoretical approach in the thesis is that the individual is subordinated to the governing structure. In this regard, the state officials are to be seen as acting agents through the governing structure. Hence, two following questions regarding their autonomy in this structure are interesting: where the state officials to be regarded as agents acting out the policies directed to them? Where they also able to form policies? The primary source material consists of memorandums, reports and correspondence written by state officials. The research methodology is qualitative.The thesis results show that much of the government bodies’ work was made up by compromise and the ability to adapt to the current circumstances, dictated by the war. The state officials also seem to have been able to, in smaller cases, form policies. But mainly their actions should be regarded as part of a collective larger formative element (“formativt moment”) - the war itself dictated their options and formed Swedish labour market policies. The thesis also points to new areas of research. Could the same research model be applied on other, for example neutral, countries during the same period? Keywords: The Second World War, refugee reception, refugees, labour market policies, state officials

This thesis is about exploring the politics within and around research. The starting point is a European project which ran from late 1997 to the end of 2000. It was called "Self-employment activities concerning women and mi­norities: their success or failure in relation to social citizenship policies" and had as its objective to provide the EU-Commission with recommendations for improved self-employment policies. Background material was comple­mented by interviews with "experts", but the main source of information was in the form of biographical interviews with the self-employed, or for­merly self-employed, themselves. The qualitative method was used as a way of researching how individuals' background and experiences influenced their decision to become self-employed as well as their tendency to use labour market policies available for starting businesses. It was also a way to find out how those policies impacted on the individuals' lives. The conse­quent recommendations included a suggestion for broadening existing policies to comprise social aspects as well as financial allowances, and also the caution that self-employment was perhaps not the best solution to labour market and social exclusion. This latter doubt arose during project work, as did questions about methodology, the role of the researcher, and eventually about the politics that inform research. Only briefly touched upon in the project reports, these issues instead became the basis for the thesis. A reflexive rereading of the Final Report led to a critical examination of the political uses of con­cepts and categories, of how stereotypes affect research, and of the embeddedness in ethnocentric discourses of both research and researcher. The use of postcolonial and feminist theory, discourse analysis and a social constructionist perspective broadened the analytical possibilities and fur­thered understanding of the connections between politics and research. A conclusion is that a comprehensive change in the social order as well as in people's conscience is required to stem ethnic discrimination in society and the perpetuation of stereotypes and preconstructed categories in research. / digitalisering@umu

The aim of the thesis is to study some of the essential consequences of the location of Algots Ltd in three municipalities (Lycksele, Norsjö and Skellefteå) in Västerbotten County in northern Sweden. The factories were established with huge subsidies from the Swedish Government which considered the location as a major effort to stimulate regional development in Västerbotten County.The study shows that the yearly working time has increased, on average, by 80 per cent for the women who received employment in one of the factories. Both the incomemult i pi i er and the employmentmult i piier effects in Västerbotten County are rather small since the intermediate goods used by the firm are produced outside the region. The study also contain cost-benefit analysis as applied to the whole economy. Primarily due to very poor private profitability, the investment has yielded negative profitability to the whole economy except in the case of the Norsjö factory. / digitalisering@umu

yes / Although many different analyses in some ways acknowledge the relevance of labour markets to the political economy of violent conflict and of war to peace transitions, there has been little sustained or systematic exploration of this dimension of war economies and post-conflict reconstruction. This paper highlights the empirical and analytical gaps and suggests that a framework departing from the assumptions of the liberal interpretation of war allows for a richer analysis of labour market issues and policies. This is illustrated by the history of rural Mozambique through the war economy and into the first post-war decade.

La tesi si inserisce nell'ambito dell'animato dibattito politico e scientifico in merito alle misure volte a supportare i soggetti più deboli nel processo di inclusione socio-lavorativa. Al centro della riflessione si situano i cambiamenti che hanno caratterizzato il mercato del lavoro negli ultimi trent'anni e le politiche di welfare sviluppate a livello nazionale e comunitario per rispondere ai nuovi rischi e bisogni dei cittadini. In particolare, si approfondiscono le politiche del mercato del lavoro, cioè tutte quelle misure e quei servizi finalizzati a supportare i lavoratori in difficoltà occupazionale. La lettura proposta è volta a comprendere il significato delle azioni di politica del lavoro, alla luce dei cambiamenti introdotti dalle riforme degli ultimi anni. Si parla oggi di politiche attive del lavoro, di occupabilità, di responsabilizzazione degli individui, di personalizzazione degli interventi e, sul fronte degli attori che governano e gestiscono il sistema, di concertazione e di sinergia pubblico-privato. Nella seconda parte della tesi sono proposti due studi di caso, il modello lombardo e il modello danese di politiche del lavoro, che presentano logiche di intervento e orientamenti differenti, pur in presenza di situazioni occupazionali simili, caratterizzate da ridotti problemi di disoccupazione e da elevati tassi di partecipazione al mercato del lavoro. / The thesis is positioned within the political and scientific debate regarding the measures aimed to support the vulnerable people in the social and employment integration process. The study in depth concerns the changes of the labour market of the last thirty years and the welfare policies developed on national and European level to meet new citizens requirements. In particular, the thesis is focused on the labour market policies, which include measures and services supporting people with employment difficulties. The analysis concerns the new trends in labour market policies, the Italian model, the actors who govern the system and the types of measures (vocational guidance, vocational training, employment services, etc). The second part of thesis explores two cases, Lombardy and Denmark labour market policies models, with the analysis of different labour market problems and the various strategies to improve social cohesion and integration for disadvantaged people.

The employment issue of drug users in the Czech Republic is still in addiction to current research topics. Partly describe the situation in the Czech Republic as the study "Analysis of the needs of treated drug users in terms of their employability" (Miovský, 2006), or documents "Comparative analysis" and "Getting and keeping a job." Support in entering the labor market ", which arose in the context of the international project" Prague - Vienna, issue of employment and work integration of people at risk of drug addiction "(Ambrož, 2012). These studies performed SANANIM, that the drug has long worked and served primarily as a feedback for the development of services. Among the jobseekers who are registered at the Labour Office, we find a group of drug users for which it is difficult to find suitable employment and the labor market. These clients often have limited information about how they could Labour Office job search assistance. The research group, were drug users who are in the register of job seekers to contact the workplace Labour Office in Prague 10 and who voluntarily agreed to participate in research. The basic method was analysis of the needs of drug users and analysis of active employment policy measures. Data collection was conducted through semi-structured interview, adding data was...

瑞典是世界上最早開始實施積極勞動市場政策的國家之一，同時也是目前世界上最致力於實施積極勞動市場政策的國家之一。積極勞動市場政策在瑞典的勞動就業中佔有重要地位，並且也是瑞典勞動就業政策以及瑞典模型的一個基本特徵。瑞典積極勞動市場政策充分開發並利用了邊緣勞動力，提高了勞動參與率，促進了不同部門之間勞動力的合理配置,但其高昂的支出也加重了財政負擔，減少了正規就業。 換言之，積極勞動市場政策已成為瑞典經濟與政治政策的註冊商標。回顧1930年代具體的制度措施，有助於解釋近年來瑞典如何成功地結合高福利與經濟增長和高就業水準。對充分就業承諾與以積極的態度來面對開放經濟所帶來的結構變化，其最終目的在於保障就業。而在此體制的背後是強大的社會合作夥伴奧援。儘管全球化對瑞典模式造成不少壓力，惟最近的經驗顯示瑞典模式是可持續的。 雖然在促進就業方面瑞典所採行之政策與我國有若干相似之處，包括強調積極勞動市場措施的重要性，對直接僱用、薪資補貼與職業訓練投入大筆經費等，但他山之石可以攻錯，就瑞典積極勞動市場政策之探討結論本研究提出以下建議：（一）就業能力與方案類型存在一定的關聯性，故應對方案參與者有較多評估，並協助其選擇及參與適當的促進就業方案以及注意不同促進就業措施的競合關係，使之減少方案間排擠現象，發揮方案間加乘效果；（二）不同景氣狀況宜適用不同促進就業措施與建立完整方案參與者之長期追蹤資料庫，以利評估和政策導引；（三）調整積極性勞動市場措施之內容，縮減直接僱用的規模；（四）行政層級職掌分工與就業政策之彈性因應化；（五）修訂賦稅制度、促進工作激勵制度。 / Sweden is one of the countries in the world coming into force an active labour market policy at the earliest stage, and one of the countries with policy efforts which currently commits to carry out an active labor market policy. The active labor market policy takes an important position in Sweden labour market , and a main characteristic of Sweden labour market policies and Swedish Model. It develops and makes good use of the marginal labour force , improves the labour force participation rate , and promotes the rational allocation of labour between different departments. But its high expenditure adds to the financial burden , and reduces the formal employment . In words, an active labour market policy has been a trademark of Swedish economic policies. Specific institutional features which go way back to the 1930s help to explain why Sweden have been so relatively successful in recent years in combining high welfare with economic growth and high employment levels. A commitment to full employment and to an open economy brought about a proactive attitude towards structural change, aiming at protecting employment. The institutional framework behind is strong social partners. Even though globalization puts additional pressure on the system and demands ever more skilful political and economic governance, most recent experiences suggest that the model might be sustainable. To promote the employment, Swedish and Taiwan take some similar policy measures. Although there are a number of similarities, including the emphasis on active labour market measures, the importance of direct employment creation, vocational training and wage subsidies for large investment funds, there are still the followings worthwhile for our country to learn as an advice from others may help one’s defects.Therefore, this study makes the following recommendations:（a）there is a certain relevance between employability and the type of programmes. We need to assist participants to choose and participate in appropriate programmes to promote employment;（b）to pay attention to the promotion measures to reduce the crowding out among programs; make programs synergistic;（c）to adjust the contents of the labor market measures to reduce the scale of direct employment creation;（d）to take some employment measures according to differnt economic situation to promote employment and establish the long-term database of the programme participants to track and facilitate the assessment and policy guidance; （e）to amend the tax system to promote work incentives.