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11. Why do we need self-employed persons? Some economic reflections, mainly tax related ones

Author:
Adam Adamczyk, Leszek Morawski, and Jarek Neneman
Publication Date:
05-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Social and Economic Research - CASE
Abstract:
For many years, we have been hearing about the need for innovation and entrepreneurship. Successive Polish government declare their support for entrepreneurs and expand the catalog of privileges, mainly related to taxes and mandatory contributions. Not infrequently, in these discussions the self-employed are equated with entrepreneurs. In this work, we will seek an answer to the questions: Who, then, are the self-employed? Are they really entrepreneurs? Should we support their activities? And finally the fundamental question: What does the economy get from the self-employed? In this work we point out that the differences in rates of self-employment between countries may result from differences in taxation on the labor provided by self-employed and salaried workers. In the main part of the work, taking advantage of the potential of the EUROMOD tax-benefit microsimulation model, we show that in Europe there is no single model of taxation of work conducted as one’s own business. In the majority of the tax-contribution systems we examined, the profitability of employment or self-employment changes along with changes in income. In light of the regressivity of the burdens on the self-employed, as a rule it begins to be profitable only above a certain income level. In the first part of the work we define the self-employed as those who run a business, and later we distinguish within this group entrepreneurs, meaning those who take on risk and create innovations. Discussing the advantages and disadvantages of self-employment from the point of view of the self employed and the employer, we point out that the benefits – including systemic (tax and contribution) benefits, outweigh the disadvantages. We also discuss in more detail the imposition of income tax on the self-employed. In the second part we present changes in the value of self-employment over the last 25 years. Here we use data from the World Bank and certain data points from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). They allow us to observe how the relationship between the self-employed and the economy is changing: The significance of services provided for other businesses is growing. Additionally, we can see that the significance of self-employment is falling. In Poland the level of (non-agricultural) self-employment is low. The dynamics of the rate of self employment indicate that the influence of legal regulations on the scale of self-employment is secondary. It seems that in this case, technological and demographic factors are much more significant.
Topic:
Demographics, Labor Issues, Employment, Business, Social Policy, Tax Systems, and Fiscal Policy
Political Geography:
Europe and Poland

12. Fixing the European Social Malaise: Understanding and Addressing the Grievances of European Workers

Author:
Lorenza Antonucci
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
Abstract:
Policy Paper titled: “Fixing the European Social Malaise: Understanding and Addressing the Grievances of European Workers” has been published by the Mercator European Dialogue. As it is mentioned in the Paper: European citizens are increasingly dissatisfied with their standard of living and unhappy about their work conditions. This ‘social malaise’ is resulting in growing distrust toward national and EU institutions as well as support for anti-establishment political forces. Against this backdrop, this paper provides policymakers and Members of Parliament with an analysis of the drivers and implications of such trends as well as some policy solutions to mitigate these phenomena. Two key questions require urgent attention: 1. What drivers explain this rising social malaise in Europe? Is there a causal link between the deteriorating work conditions for Europeans and the growth in anti-establishment forces? 2. How have recent developments in the realm of workers’ rights, employment insecurity, and growing gaps in European social security contributed to the surge of anti-establishment sentiments across Europe? Finally, further reflection is needed in terms of concrete policy options to tackle social security gaps at the national and EU level, including through the European Pillar of Social Rights.
Topic:
Labor Issues, European Union, and Social Security
Political Geography:
Europe

13. The future of work: Towards a progressive agenda for all

Author:
Claire Dhéret, Simona Guagliardo, and Mihai Palimariciuc
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Policy Centre
Abstract:
The world of work is changing, fast. Globalisation, coupled with the fragmentation of production and value chains, ageing societies, and digitalisation are all having a transformative impact on European labour markets and are putting pressure on our social welfare systems. The challenges that these disruptions pose are tremendous, and policymakers are still unsure of how to address the implications of the changing nature of work. In this Issue Paper, the result of the European Policy Centre research project “The future of work – Towards a progressive agenda for all”, authors Claire Dhéret, Simona Guagliardo and Mihai Palimariciuc take an in-depth look at how labour is evolving throughout Europe and put forward a set of policy recommendations for the EU, which despite its limited competences, can still be the driving force behind a progressive agenda for the future of work. Their analysis focuses on four different areas: the impact of new technologies on jobs in various sectors; the rise of ‘atypical’ work; the impact of labour market transformations on the welfare state and social contracts; and the effect of policy responses so far. Based on their findings, they argue that instead of trying to push back against new technologies and forms of work, we must embrace the changes brought on by the fourth industrial revolution. At the same time, the EU must endorse and support policies that align welfare state reform with emerging working structures and the conscious and controlled deployment of new technologies. The overall aim should be to establish an inclusive and competitive European labour market that is reinforced by future-fit social protection systems. Previous industrial revolutions upended traditional structures and led to widespread social malaise and suffering in the short term, despite major socio-economic gains in the long run. Many fear that this latest iteration will leave millions of people in precarious employment or even without jobs altogether. But this is not a given. How the future of work unfolds is still in human hands. With sound decision-making, the EU and its member states can harness the benefits of new technologies, counter the polarisation of labour markets and make sure that no one is left behind.
Topic:
Globalization, Science and Technology, Labor Issues, European Union, and Economy
Political Geography:
Europe

14. Maximizing the Shared Benefits of Legal Migration Pathways: Lessons from Germany’s Skills Partnerships

Author:
Michael Clemens, Helen Dempster, and Kate Gough
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
The world is experiencing significant demographic shifts. By 2100, Europe’s working-age population will have declined, and sub-Saharan Africa’s working-age population will have greatly increased. Many of these new labor market entrants will seek opportunities in Europe, plugging skill gaps and contributing to economies in their countries of destination. Germany is one country piloting and implementing projects that can help alleviate such demographic pressures and maximize the potential mutual benefits of legal labor migration. We discuss these projects, and highlight differences in their potential impact on development in the country of origin. We recommend that European governments build on, adapt, and pilot-test one of Germany’s approaches, also known as the Global Skill Partnership model: training potential migrants in their countries of origin before migration, along with non-migrants. Ideally, governments should pursue such pilot-tests with those countries that exhibit rising future migration pressure to Europe, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Neither the conclusion nor the results of this analysis reflect the opinion of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) or Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
Topic:
Migration, Labor Issues, Immigration, and Border Control
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Germany, and Sub-Saharan Africa

15. Permanent Contracts and Job Satisfaction in Academia: Evidence from European Countries”

Author:
Fulvio Castellacci and Clara Vïnas-Bardolet
Publication Date:
01-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and International Relations (IRMO)
Abstract:
Temporary contracts are increasingly used in academia. This is a major concern for non-tenured researchers, since weak job security may hamper job satisfaction. In spite of the relevance of this topic, scholarly research on the theme is scant. This paper presents an empirical analysis of the role of academic tenure for job satisfaction of researchers in European countries. The work uses data from the MORE2 survey, a recent large-scale representative survey of researchers in European countries. The results show that, ceteris paribus, academics with a permanent contract are on average more satisfied with their job than those that are employed on a temporary basis. We also show that academic tenure is a relatively more important factor of job satisfaction for researchers at an intermediate stage of the career. Finally, we point out some important differences in the working of the model among European countries. Our hypotheses receive significant empirical support for the groups of Continental EU and Nordic economies, which combine high job satisfaction and good working conditions, on the one hand, with relatively weak job security for younger academics, on the other.
Topic:
Labor Issues, European Union, and Academia
Political Geography:
Europe

16. What’s next for healthcare in Poland: diagnosis and prognosis

Author:
Alicja Domagała, Christoph Sowada, Krzysztof Kuszewski, Marzena Tambor, and Stanisława Golinowska
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Social and Economic Research - CASE
Abstract:
The health protection system is the object of constant pressures and difficulties in mitigating them, and even more so eliminating or at least reducing them. Changes are undertaken under the influence of a one-sided political assessment, the interests of various groups of participants or the protests of successive groups of medical staff. There is no professional and fully documented diagnosis of the system, made by independent experts, which could serve as the basis for a comprehensive health protection reform plan, rather than individual, incidental changes that disrupt the system’s already very fragile balance. A well thought-out reform, properly distributed over time, so that at no point does it cause negative health effects. A reform agreed among stake-holders and adopted with understanding of the need for changes, so that it is supported by society. A reform for which there will be funds, institutions and engaged professionals – leaders in health protection. A reform that won’t be criticized or changed when the government changes. Such a reform is waiting to be presented and debated. We begin this process by pointing out and presenting the system’s main problems. At the top of the list of issues that must be taken up urgently we place the problem of insufficient resources, but associated with other activities that are essential to achieve higher effectiveness in accomplishing health goals. There is no single miraculous way of balancing and fixing the functioning of the health protection system. This requires both greater financing, qualitatively and quantitatively appropriate staffing, and good institutions. Financial resources are a necessary condition but not a sufficient one – if there is no staff or appropriate institutions, and these are shaped over years. In this publication we present four subjects, corresponding to that list of the main issues that must be addressed urgently. We begin with the problem of good governance, meaning achieving a decisive improvement in institutional solutions in health protection. Next we take up the problem of the need for growth in financial outlays, with judicious public and individual responsibility. We strongly accent the need for development in Poland of medical and support staff, presenting the problems of neglect and the deep shortage of professionals, which is currently paralyzing the health service. The final text, though no less important in the group of priority problems in health protection, concerns public health and demands that it be properly valued by treating care for the health of the population as an investment in human capital with a measurable and significant rate of return.
Topic:
Demographics, Health, Labor Issues, Governance, Health Care Policy, Social Policy, and Public Policy
Political Geography:
Europe and Poland

17. Thinking about pension systems for the 21st century: A few remarks based on the Polish example

Author:
Marek Gora
Publication Date:
07-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Social and Economic Research - CASE
Abstract:
The end of 2018 will mark the 20th anniversary of the introduction of Poland’s current pension system. It has been subjected to constant modifications, in general dictated by either ideological or ad hoc goals, but it has resisted destruction, and in essence is working as it was designed. The need for its introduction, misleadingly called a reform, was dictated by a long-term shift in the age structure of the population. In essence, the earlier system was replaced by the current one. The essence of this switch is a shift from the quasi-tax financing suited to the population structure by age of the past, to quasi-savings financing suited to the structure in the 21st century. This text is not an overview of the 20-year history of the current system; it is a critical examination of the functioning of Poland’s pension system against the backdrop of the universal challenges that pension systems are facing in the 21st century. The text barely touches on many fundamental questions. A full discussion of them would require a longer discourse, for which there is no space here. The purpose of introducing the current system was to balance the interests of the working generation and the generation of retirees. The previous system worked only for the interests of retirees, while those of the working generation, expressed in the level of its net income, was treated as an afterthought. This kind of system could operate in the 20th century. But in the 21st, it turned out to be not so much immediately impossible, as socially harmful. A change of system was thus essential. The current system is now quite well suited to the current population structure. The biggest problem in its functioning is citizens’ negligible awareness of how it is actually structured and what that implies – both on the macro level and on the level of individual behaviors. Pension issues are counterintuitive. This results both from their combination of macro- and microeconomic issues and from the fact that their time horizon exceeds any other undertaking. For a pension system to work well, it has to be understood by its participants; meanwhile, pension education practically does not exist. What’s worse, the public debate concerning pensions tends to frighten people rather than helping them. Instead of knowledge, there are chaotic assumptions, often far removed from reality. They are adopted as axiomatic, or as a result of inertia in thinking, or unrealistic expectations. In the first case, the current system is perceived as if it were the previous one. Meanwhile, in reality they are fundamental opposites. In the second case, people expect that the system will miraculously multiply the funds available for pensions. But in reality each system can only divide up what has been created. Discussions partly concern side issues, partly consist of misunderstandings and partly are derivations of general views. Much harm was done by the discussion on changing the proportions of the division of contributions in the universal system (the so-called OFE discussion). Debate on pension questions requires that the issues be laid out in an orderly fashion; we need a critical view of basic concepts and how they are understood. Without that there is no chance to solve the problems of pensions systems, or even to understand what they’re about.
Topic:
Demographics, Labor Issues, Finance, and Social Policy
Political Geography:
Europe, Poland, and European Union

18. Optimizing the German Workforce: Labor Administration from Bismark to the Economic Miracle

Author:
David Meskill
Publication Date:
01-2018
Content Type:
Book
Institution:
Berghahn Books
Abstract:
During the twentieth century, German government and industry created a highly skilled workforce as part of an ambitious program to control and develop the country’s human resources. Yet, these long-standing efforts to match as many workers as possible to skilled vocations and to establish a system of job training have received little scholarly attention, until now. The author’s account of the broad support for this program challenges the standard historical accounts that focus on disagreements over the German political-economic order and points instead to an important area of consensus. These advances are explained in terms of political policies of corporatist compromise and national security as well as industry’s evolving production strategies. By tracing the development of these policies over the course of a century, the author also suggests important continuities in Germany’s domestic politics, even across such different regimes as Imperial, Weimar, Nazi, and post-1945 West Germany.
Topic:
National Security, Science and Technology, Labor Issues, Domestic politics, and Labor Policies
Political Geography:
Europe, Germany, Berlin, and Central Europe

19. From Clans to Co-Ops: Confiscated Mafia Land in Sicily

Author:
Theodoros Rakopoulos
Publication Date:
01-2018
Content Type:
Book
Institution:
Berghahn Books
Abstract:
From Clans to Co-ops explores the social, political, and economic relations that enable the constitution of cooperatives operating on land confiscated from mafiosi in Sicily, a project that the state hails as arguably the greatest symbolic victory over the mafia in Italian history. Rakopoulos’s ethnographic focus is on access to resources, divisions of labor, ideologies of community and food, and the material changes that cooperatives bring to people’s lives in terms of kinship, work and land management. The book contributes to broader debates about cooperativism, how labor might be salvaged from market fundamentalism, and to emergent discourses about the ‘human’ economy.
Topic:
Environment, Political Economy, Labor Issues, Economy, and Collaborative Efficiency
Political Geography:
Europe, Italy, Sicily, and Southern Europe

20. Industrial Relations and Social Dialogue in the Age of the Collaborative Economy (IRSDACE).

Author:
Luis Fernando Medina Sierra
Publication Date:
11-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Fundación Alternativas
Abstract:
The present document has three goals: first, present an overview of the main legal and regulatory developments regarding the digital platforms; second, reflect the diversity of view that these technologies have generated among the social actors (unions, workers, government and enterprises) and third, offer a comparative framework to make sense of this diversity and the challenges it presents for labor relations and social dialogue. The institutional response has been so far mainly reactive, giving rise to ambiguities that may generate conflicts in need of resolution. But the structure of the different industries where these platforms have been introduced is such that the workers' experiences, their opportunities and their incentives to organize are all markedly heterogeneous. Given the way in which digital platforms redefines the labor relationship between workers and companies, any possible regulation will entail a serious rethinking of key aspects of the welfare state.
Topic:
Human Welfare, Labor Issues, Regulation, and Digital Economy
Political Geography:
Europe, Spain, Western Europe, and Mediterranean