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Flexicurity and Workers Well-Being in Europe: Is Temporary Employment Always Bad?

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  • Federica Origo
  • Laura Pagani

Abstract

In this paper we study the effect of a micro-level measure of flexicurity on workers job satisfaction. To this aim, using micro data from the Eurobarometer survey, we split workers in different groups according not only to their employment contract (i.e. permanent or temporary), but also to their perceived job security, and we evaluate differences in job satisfaction between these groups. After controlling for the potential endogeneity of job type, results show that what matters for job satisfaction is not just the type of contract, but mainly the perceived job security, which may be independent of the type of contract. The combination “temporary but secure job” seems preferable with respect to the combination “permanent but insecure job”, pointing out that the length of the contract may be less relevant if the worker perceives that he/she is not at risk of becoming unemployed. Our main conclusions are robust to the use of alternative definitions of workers’ types and they generally hold within different welfare regimes and also for different aspects of job satisfaction, mainly for those more related to job security.

Suggested Citation

  • Federica Origo & Laura Pagani, 2008. "Flexicurity and Workers Well-Being in Europe: Is Temporary Employment Always Bad?," Working Papers 141, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Jun 2008.
  • Handle: RePEc:mib:wpaper:141
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    Cited by:

    1. Ms. Chie Aoyagi & Mr. Giovanni Ganelli, 2013. "The Path to Higher Growth: Does Revamping Japan’s Dual Labor Market Matter?," IMF Working Papers 2013/202, International Monetary Fund.
    2. Aoyagi, Chie & Ganelli, Giovanni, 2015. "Does revamping Japan's dual labor market matter?," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 339-357.
    3. Gabriele Maria Mazzolini & Federica Origo, 2014. "Is Flexicurity Good in Bad Times? Evidence on worker security in Europe," Working Papers (2013-) 1401, University of Bergamo, Department of Management, Economics and Quantitative Methods.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Flexicurity; Job Satisfaction; POLS;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J28 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy
    • J81 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Working Conditions

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