Varieties of Capitalism, Partisan Politics and Labour Market Policies in OECD Member States after the Financial Crisis

Research question/goal: 

In recent years, after the financial crisis, the degree and development of labour market regulation have varied substantially among the OECD member states. The research project aims to explain these differences in labour market regulation by combining insights of partisan theory and the Varieties of Capitalism literature. Thus, the aim of the research project is to explain the different labour market policies in different political economies of the OECD world – including eastern European OECD members – with regard to outcomes like the degree of active labour market policies, employment protection and replacement rates in case of unemployment. To answer the research question, a two-tiered analytic process is applied. In a first step, hypotheses derived out of partisan theory and the Varieties of Capitalism approach are tested using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. The second step applies methods of process tracing in line with comparative case studies of carefully selected cases.

Due to the leave of the project director, the project was continued at the University of Heidelberg.

Fact sheet

Funding: 
MZES
Duration: 
2013 to 2015
Status: 
continued elsewhere
Data Sources: 
Macro data, OECD.stat, CPDS
Geographic Space: 
OECD

Publications