Incapacity to work in a European, comparative perspective: the influence of non-standard employment and labour market policies

该项目旨在调查“丧失工作能力”的发生率在欧洲各国和不同时期的变化。在这里，丧失工作能力的定义是，尽管处于工作年龄，但由于一个人的身体或精神不符合劳动力市场对他们的期望而没有就业的状态。该研究首先假设社会经济和制度因素（以及个人特征和文化因素）是这一类人的关键决定因素。具体而言，该项目将设法了解两组结构性因素的影响：与工作质量广泛相关的不同劳动力市场特征和非标准就业；制度安排既要为那些被认为暂时没有工作能力的人提供收入保障，又要帮助他们融入劳动力市场。我建议分析的“因变量”是就业和无工作能力之间的过渡——旨在阐明上述因素如何影响这些过渡的可能性、就业/无就业的持续时间，以及在一种状态和另一种状态之间过渡的群体的组成。研究设计依赖于对选定的欧洲国家的比较分析；目前的建议是将英国、德国、西班牙和瑞典作为案例。这些案例是根据间接差异法逻辑广泛选择的，以便在不同特征之间进行三角测量，因为这些案例代表了关于两个主要解释变量的一系列特征- -劳动力市场特征和与无能力有关的劳动力市场政策。在对每个国家的劳动力市场和失业保护制度进行详细的描述性分析之后，我将使用欧洲面板调查数据来推断这些因素在各国之间或随着时间的推移对就业和无工作能力之间过渡特征的影响程度。本项目试图回答的研究问题是：1。非标准就业如何影响就业和无工作能力之间过渡的可能性和持续时间？各国对与丧失工作能力有关的劳动力市场政策采取的不同做法如何影响就业和丧失工作能力之间过渡的可能性和持续时间？预计该项目将有助于社会学/社会政策内的几个学术研究领域：关于非标准就业及其在就业过渡中的作用的文献；关于有健康问题或有缺陷的人在劳动力市场去工业化方面面临不利条件的文献；在“新的社会风险”的背景下，围绕劳动力市场政策的不同方法进行辩论。这项研究也将有助于为政策提供证据基础。它将提供经验证据，供政策制定者用来回答以下问题：“激活政策应该寻求鼓励无工作能力的个人从事各种形式的非标准就业，还是只从事那些具有可持续转型特征的就业？”“我们能指望工作福利循环和非标准就业一起增加吗？”或者“缩小无工作能力福利类别与对这一群体就业一体化的日益增长的期望相一致吗？”鉴于几个欧洲国家在政策上对丧失工作能力福利申领人给予了重大关注，并为这一群体制定了具体的积极劳动力市场方案（例如英格兰和威尔士的“工作与健康”方案），这些研究结果将是一项相关和及时的贡献。

This project seeks to investigate how the incidence of 'incapacity to work' varies across European countries and over time. Incapacity to work is defined here as the state of not being in employment, despite being of working age, because a person's body or mind does not fit the expectations placed upon them by the labour market. The research starts with the assumption that socio-economic and institutional factors are key determinants (alongside individual characteristics and cultural factors) of individuals falling under this category. Specifically, the project will seek to understand the influence of two sets of structural factors: different labour market characteristics, broadly related to quality of work and non-standard employment; and institutional arrangements to both provide income security to those deemed temporarily incapable of working, and to help them integrate into the labour market. The 'dependent variable' I propose to analyse are transitions between employment and incapacity to work - aiming to shed light on how the aforementioned factors influence the likelihood of these transitions, the duration of spells of employment/non-employment, and the composition of the group transitioning between one status and the other. The research design relies on a comparative analysis of selected European countries; the current proposal is to include the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and Sweden as cases. These cases have been selected broadly following an Indirect Method of Difference logic to triangulate between different characteristics, as these cases represent a range of characteristics with regards the two main explanatory variables - labour market characteristics and incapacity-related labour market policies. Following a detailed descriptive analysis of each country's labour market and unemployment protection system, I will use European panel survey data to infer the extent that differences in these factors across countries or over time have influenced the characteristics of transitions between employment and incapacity to work.The research questions that this project seeks to answer are:1. How does non-standard employment influence the likelihood and duration of transitions between employment and incapacity to work?2. How do different national approaches to incapacity-related labour market policies influence the likelihood and duration of transitions between employment and incapacity to work?It is expected that this project will contribute to several areas of academic study within Sociology/Social Policy: the literature on non-standard employment and its role in employment transitions; the literature regarding the disadvantages that people with health conditions or impairments face in relation to de-industrialising labour markets; and debates around different approaches to labour market policies in the context of 'new social risks'.This study will also contribute to the evidence base for policy. It will provide empirical evidence that policymakers can use to answer questions such as: 'should activation policies seek to encourage work incapacitated individuals into all forms of non-standard employment, or only those which have the characteristics associated with sustainable transitions?'; 'can we expect work-welfare cycling to increase alongside non-standard employment for this group?'; or 'is a narrowing down of the incapacity benefit category compatible with the increasing expectations of employment integration for this group?'. Given that there is a significant policy attention on incapacity benefit claimants across several European countries, with specific active labour market programmes emerging for this group (e.g. the 'Work and Health' programme in England and Wales), these findings will be a relevant and timely contribution.