Cutting wages and employment in the public sector: Smarter fiscal consolidation strategies needed

Intereconomics

Volumn 45, Issue 4, 2010, Pages 212-219

  Glassner, Vera ^b   Watt, Andrew ^a  

^a Employment and Social Policies Unit of the Research Department at the European Trade Union Institute   (Belgium)

^b NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 77955547493     PISSN: 00205346     EISSN: 1613964X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s10272-010-0339-2     Document Type: Article

References (34)

1. European Commission: European Economic Forecast - Spring 2010, Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, February 2010, pp. 200, 202.
2. European Commission: Commission services issue an analysis of the main innovative financing options, IP/10/405, Brussels, 6 April 2010.
3. R. O'Farrel: Wages in the crisis, ETUI Working Paper, 2010.03.
4. Eurofound: EIROonline, consulted between June and July 2010, www. eurofound.europa.eu.
5. Planet Labour: database consulted between June and July 2010, www.planetlabor.com.
6. EPSU: Epsucob@NEWS database, consulted between June and July 2010, www.epsu.org.
7. EPSU: Cuts will undermine growth says Europe's largest union federation as Council meets, Press release, 15 June 2010, available at: http://www.epsu.org/IMG/pdf/Appendix_2_PR_15_June_2010_-_briefings.pdf.
8. Eurostat, 2010, available at: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/.
9. E.g. F. Nauschnigg: Growth friendly fiscal consolidation, in: ETUI Policy Brief European Economic and Employment Policy, 4-2010
10. A. Watt: Europe's Policymakers are rushing towards the Edge of the Cliff, in: Social Europe Journal, 2010, http://www.social-europe.eu/2010/06/europe%E2%80%99s-policymakers-are-rushing-towards-the-edge-of-the-cliff/
11. A. Watt: A Greek Tragedy or a European Farce? Time to Re-Write the Script, in: Social Europe Journal, 2010, http://www.social-europe.eu/2010/02/a-greek-tragedy-or-a-european-farce-time-to-re-write-the-script/.
12. E.g. European Commission: Public finances in EMU 2010, European Economy 4, 2010, p. 171.
13. E.g. F. Holm-Hadulla, K. Kamath, A. Lamo, J. Pérez, L. Schuknecht: Public wages in the Euro area. Towards securing stability and competitiveness, in: European Central Bank: Occasional Paper Series, No. 112, June 2010
14. European Commission: Public finances in EMU 2010, op.cit., p. 233.
15. E.g. European Commission: Public finances in EMU 2010, op.cit., p. 22.
16. M. Keune, J. Leschke, A. Watt (eds.): Privatisation and liberalisation of public services in Europe. An analysis of economic and labour market impacts, ETUI Brussels 2008.
17. As shown above and see V. Glassner, M. Keune: Negotiating the crisis? Collective bargaining in Europe during the economic downturn, in: DIALOGUE Working Paper, No. 10, Geneva 2010, International Labour Office
18. J. Leschke, A. Watt: How do institutions affect the labour market adjustment to the economic crisis in different EU countries?, in: ETUI Working Paper 2010.04
19. For an interesting comparison of employment characteristics in the two sectors see J. Leschke, A. Keune: Precarious employment in the public and private sectors: comparing the UK and Germany, in: ETUI Policy Brief European Economic and Employment Policy, 1-2008.
20. See also below and A. Watt: Distributional issues in the context of the economic crisis in Europe, in: Intereconomics, Vol. 44, No. 2, 2009, pp. 82-89.
21. Here and below reference is made to the recent study of public sector wages and employment by the ECB. There are a number of caveats to these data regarding country coverage, definitions, weighting, etc. See footnotes 2 and 3 on p. 8 of the study. The figures given are based on weighted averages rather than the unweighted figures used by the ECB authors. See F. Holm-Hadulla et al., op. cit., p. 8.
22. P. Schulmeister: A general financial transaction tax: enhancing stability and fiscal consolidation, in: A. Watt, A. Botsch (eds.): After the crisis: towards a sustainable growth model, Brussels 2010, ETUI, pp. 45-49
23. European Union: Taxation trends in the European Union. Main results, 2010 edition, http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-EU-10-001/EN/KS-EU-10-001-EN.PDF/, pp. 5-10.
24. See e.g. D. Soskice: Wage Determination: The changing role of institutions in advanced industrialized countries, in: Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Vol. 6, 1990, pp. 36-61
25. D.C. North: Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, Cambridge 1990,Cambridge Univ. Press
26. F. J. Flanagan: Macroeconomic Performance and Collective Bargaining: An International Perspective, in: Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 37, No. 3, 1999, pp. 1150-1175
27. F. Traxler, B. Kittel: The Bargaining System and Performance: A Comparison of 18 OECD countries, in: Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 33, 2000, pp. 1154-1190
28. F. Traxler, S. Blaschke, B. Kittel: National labour relations in internationalized markets, Oxford 2001, Oxford University Press
29. F. Traxler: Bargaining (De)centralization, Macroeconomic Performance and Control over the Employment Relationship, in: British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 41, No. 1, 2003, pp. 1-27.
30. F. Holm-Hadulla et al., op. cit., p. 29.
31. A. Watt: Imbalances in Europe: What caused them? What role did they play in the crisis? What is the right political response? What are the implications for trade unions?, Background paper for Congress of UNI-Europa, in: ETUI discussion paper, forthcoming 2010.
32. OECD: Employment Outlook, Paris 1994, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
33. F. Holm-Hadulla et al., op. cit., pp. 29 ff.
34. See also V. Glassner, A. Watt: The current Crisis reveals both: The Importance and the Limitations of the transnational Coordination of Collective Bargaining Policies, in: Social Europe Journal, 2010, www. social-europe.eu/2010/07/the-current-crisis-reveals-both-the-importance-and-the-limitations-of-the-transnational-coordination-of-collective-bargaining-policies/.