The change in work arrangements in Denmark and Germany

Abstract

"In all industrial countries the composition of work arrangements that diverge from the "standard work arrangement" continues to cause fierce controversy. Irrespective of this, the paper does not aim at assessing the various implications of non-standard work arrangements for the labour market or individuals in terms of "goods" and "bads". Instead it regards such arrangements as outcomes of different forces and asks specifically for the reasons of the ongoing developments. Unfortunately, the knowledge about the determinants of change is still rather limited. In particular, shift-share analyses have shown that irrespective of the sector-specific and gender-specific changes of employment the shares of non-standard work arrangements would have developed to roughly the same extent. One answer could be the availability of options. The choice of work arrangements for both sides of the market not least depends on which alternatives they have at their disposal. The labour market performance as well as the institutional setting particularly influences the scope of action. The paper focusses on two countries in which the development of work arrangements went into different directions. In order to deal with this set of questions it does make sense to look beyond national borders. Of special interest are obviously countries where developments moved into different directions, which is the case in Denmark and Germany. Concerning Germany the question is, to what extent the growth in non-standard work arrangements can be seen as a process of catching-up with countries already experiencing a large diversity of employment forms. In the case of Denmark we will ask how far the decline in non-standard work arrangements indicates a renaissance of "normal employment". The empirical analyses are mainly based on the European Labour Force Survey and partly on national data." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Hoffmann, E. & Walwei, U. (2001): The change in work arrangements in Denmark and Germany. Reasons for diverging developments. In: (2001): Combining work home and education : Conference, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal, 26-27 October 2001, p. 1-39.