1 Introduction But in the later 1980s and 1990s, as European unemployment failed to return to its historically low level, a rough consensus emerged that high unemployment in Europe was due to labor market rigidities. Gilles Saint-Paul (2004: 51) Flexicurity promotes a combination of flexible labour markets and a high level of employment and income security and it is thus seen to be the answer to the EU’s dilemma of how to maintain and improve competitiveness whilst preserving the European social model. European Employment Strategy (2008)1 A rough consensus exists among economists and social scientists that labour market rigidities cause unemployment in Europe. Job security regulations are a very prominent example of these labour market rigidities. Numerous influential empirical studies have identified job security regulations as a major impediment to employment growth or as a source of high unemployment rates. Although there are also dissenting voices, most notably Nickell and
Share
