European Social Models from Crisis to Crisis: Employment and Inequality in the Era of Monetary Integ

This book analyzes the interaction of European social models - the institutions structuring labor markets' supply side - and their turbulent macroeconomic environment from the deep Europe-wide recession, ending Germanys post-unification boom, through monetary union's establishment, to the Great Recession following the recent financial crisis. The analysis reaches two conclusions challenging the dominant view that the social models caused unemployment by impairing labor markets' efficiency in the name of equity. First, the social models' employment and distributive effects are far outweighed by their macroeconomic environment, especially in the Eurozone, where its truncated structure of economic governance transformed the Great Recession into a sovereign debt crisis. Second, instead of a trade-off between efficiency and equity, the employment effects of counteracting markets tendency to generate inequality depends on the macroeconomic conditions under which it occurs and how it is done. This is a fascinating book providing a wealth of information and incisive analysis on how monetary integration affects the evolution of social models in Europe. It is required reading for all those who are eager to understand the social dimension of the euro crisis. Paul De Grauwe, John Paulson Professor in European Political Economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science European Social Models from Crisis to Crisis is an amazing volume with sobering conclusions for European welfare state and integration prospects. It is the first collection in welfare regime studies and comparative political economy to show how the European sovereign debt crisis, with its aftershocks of mass unemployment and rising inequality resulted from how monetary integration unfolded since the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. By doing so in a highly structured fashion, the volume rightly breaks with the convention of 'methodological nationalism.' It's a first rate, timely and utterly indispensable read for EU and domestic policy makers, welfare state students, political economists and EU integration pundits and academics. Anton Hemerijck, Professor of Institutional Policy Analysis, VU University Amsterdam, and Centennial Professor of Social Policy, LSE This volume delivers a pioneering study of the connection between the development of Europe's monetary system and the evolution of European welfare and labour regimes. Analysing the causes and consequences of the recent crisis, Dolvik and Martin conclude that the divergence within the Eurozone is likely to deepen. Clearly, ignoring the crisis' severe social consequences implies risking disintegration of EMU and destabilisation of the EU. To better reconcile Europe's economic and social objectives, EMU needs further reform. Reading this book will help all who want to work on this in either theory or practice." Laszlo Andor, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, European Commission 2010-20141. Introduction ; 2. Eurozone Economic Governance: "A Currency Without a Country" ; 3. The Transformation of the German Model ; 4. France in the Middle ; 5. The United Kingdom's Social Model: From Labour's New Deal to the Economic Crisis and the Coalition ; 6. The Evolution and Crises of the Social Models in Italy and Spain ; 7. The Liberal Road to High Employment and Low Inequality? The Dutch and Swiss Social Models in the Crisis ; 8. The Nordic Social Models in Turbulent times: Consolidation and Flexible Adaptation ; 9. Redistribution and the Power of the Advanced Nation State: Government Responses to Rising Inequality ; 10. When Institutions Reciprocate: Turning European Social Models Around ; 11. From Crisis to Crisis: European Social Models and Labor Market Outcomes in the Era of Monetary Integration ; 12. Conclusion