IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nms/joseer/10.5771-1435-2869-2023-1-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is no employment better than self-employment? The story of how Romania managed to create a class of ‘invisible’ and forgotten workers

Author

Listed:
  • Pop, Luana Miruna

Abstract

Romania has been, for the past decade, not only the country with the highest in-work poverty among EU member states, but – unlike most of the others – also a country with a steadily growing welfare polarisation of the workforce. This article aims to explain why Romania still finds itself in this situation. The article documents the increasing differences in exposure to poverty and social exclusion between employees and the self-employed and points to the mix of factors responsible. Unlike most European countries, where a certain gap between employees and non-employees is the result of the flexibilisation of the labour market, in Romania this appears rather to be the result of a unique inherited structure of employment alongside an inadequate package of social and fiscal measures which has kept and further pushed the self-employed into informality. Thus, Romania is still searching for a policy solution that would allow the existing self-employed to become ‘visible’ in the formal economy and for a diversification of forms of employment. Finally, the article explores the possibilities for a reversal of the current trend.

Suggested Citation

  • Pop, Luana Miruna, 2023. "Is no employment better than self-employment? The story of how Romania managed to create a class of ‘invisible’ and forgotten workers," SEER Journal for Labour and Social Affairs in Eastern Europe, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 26(1), pages 7-46.
    • Handle: RePEc:nms:joseer:10.5771/1435-2869-2023-1-7
    DOI: 10.5771/1435-2869-2023-1-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/1435-2869-2023-1-7
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5771/1435-2869-2023-1-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John T. Addison & Christopher J. Surfield, 2008. "Atypical Work and Employment Continuity," Working Paper series 12_08, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis, revised Jan 2008.
    2. Christina Behrendt & Quynh Anh Nguyen & Uma Rani, 2019. "Social protection systems and the future of work: Ensuring social security for digital platform workers," International Social Security Review, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 72(3), pages 17-41, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrey SHEVCHUK & Denis STREBKOV, 2023. "Digital platforms and the changing freelance workforce in the Russian Federation: A ten‐year perspective," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 162(1), pages 1-22, March.
    2. Rossella Bozzon & Annalisa Murgia, 2022. "Independent or Dependent? European Labour Statistics and Their (In)ability to Identify Forms of Dependency in Self-employment," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 160(1), pages 199-226, February.
    3. Addison, John T. & Cotti, Chad & Surfield, Christopher J., 2009. "Atypical Work: Who Gets It, and Where Does It Lead? Some U.S. Evidence Using the NLSY79," IZA Discussion Papers 4444, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Inga Laß & Mark Wooden, 2019. "Non-standard Employment and Wages in Australia," RBA Annual Conference Papers acp2019-04, Reserve Bank of Australia, revised Jul 2019.
    5. Daniëlle Bertrand-Cloodt & Frank Cörvers & Ben Kriechel & Jesper Thor, 2012. "Why Do Recent Graduates Enter into Flexible Jobs?," De Economist, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 157-175, June.
    6. Giovanni S.F. Bruno & Floro E. Caroleo & Orietta Dessy, 2013. "Stepping stones versus dead end jobs: exits from temporary contracts in Italy after the 2003 reform," Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Sociali, Vita e Pensiero, Pubblicazioni dell'Universita' Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, vol. 121(1), pages 31-62.
    7. Nikhil Datta & Giulia Giupponi & Stephen Machin, 2019. "Zero-hours contracts and labour market policy," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 34(99), pages 369-427.
    8. Davide Arcidiacono & Giorgio Piccitto, 2023. "Assessing Inclusivity Through Job Quality in Digital Plat‐Firms," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(4), pages 239-250.
    9. Alexander Schiersch, 2015. "TFP, Labor Productivity and the (Un)observed Labor Input: Temporary Agency Work," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1532, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    10. Anel A. Kireyeva & Zaira T. Satpayeva & Gaukhar K. Kenzhegulova & Dana M. Kangalakova & Aruzhan Jussibaliyeva, 2022. "Kazakhstani womenʼs participation in online marketplaces: Benefits and barriers," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(3), pages 343-369, September.
    11. Surfield, Christopher & Welch, William, 2009. "Atypical Work and Employment Regulations: A Comparison of Right-to-Work to Closed-Shop States," MPRA Paper 14462, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Hanita Sarah Saad Author_Email: NIL, 2011. "Regulating Atypical Employment In The Malaysian Private Sector: Balancing Flexibility And Security," Annual Summit on Business and Entrepreneurial Studies (ASBES 2011) Proceeding 2011-040-126, Conference Master Resources.
    13. Sebastian NIELEN & Alexander SCHIERSCH, 2016. "Productivity in German manufacturing firms: Does fixed-term employment matter?," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 155(4), pages 535-561, December.
    14. John T. Addison & Chad D. Cotti & Christopher J. Surfield, 2015. "Atypical Jobs: Stepping Stones or Dead Ends? Evidence from the NLSY79," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 83(1), pages 17-55, January.
    15. Kool, Tamara & Bordon, Giulio & Gassmann, Franziska, 2021. "Access to social protection for platform and other non-standard workers: A literature review," MERIT Working Papers 2021-002, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    16. Addabbo, Tindara & Favaro, Donata, 2010. "The flexibility penalty in a long-term perspective," MPRA Paper 21064, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Galina SAVELIEVA & Svetlana ZAHAROV, 2021. "Challenges Of Labor Market Transformations Towards Social Policies In The Republic Of Moldova," Contemporary Economy Journal, Constantin Brancoveanu University, vol. 6(3), pages 95-120.
    18. Valeria Cirillo & Andrea Ricci, 2022. "Heterogeneity matters: temporary employment, productivity and wages in Italian firms," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(2), pages 567-593, July.
    19. Schiersch, Alexander, 2016. "Considering the (Un)observed: temporary agency work in productivity estimations," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145749, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    20. Bürgisser, Reto, 2023. "Policy Responses to Technological Change in the Workplace," SocArXiv kwxn2, Center for Open Science.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nms:joseer:10.5771/1435-2869-2023-1-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nomos.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.