Vor einem Jahr hatte ich beschrieben, wie der ebenso umstrittene wie finanzkräftige Fahrdienstvermittler Uber sich mit Daten und Geld Wissenschaftler einkauft, die wohlgefällige Studien erstellen, mit denen Uber Regulierer gnädig stimmt. Eine dieser Studien vom Princeton-Ökonomen Alan Krueger und dem Uber-Chefvolkswirt wurde jetzt von zwei unerschrockenen Ökonominnen in der Top-Zeitschrift Industrial & Labour Relations Review (ILR) zerpflückt, ohne dass Krueger eine Replik eingefallen wäre.
French unions go on strike not because they are too strong, but rather because they are weak (really strong unions, such as in Belgium and Scandinavia rarely need to show it). And when they descend into the street or "bossnap" managers, it is probably not to take the Bastille and guillotine opponents – it may well be because they are desperately crying out for talks.
The 2013 European Semester is in full swing. The Commission published the country-specific recommendations for each Member State, along with an overarching communication on what is needed to return to growth and jobs.
ECB president Mario Draghi, however, has outdone himself. Even prior to candidate president François Hollande’s official proposal of a “Growth Compact”, the ECB president took over the initiative by offering his own version to the European Parliament. As could be expected, the ECB’s version of such a “Growth Compact” is based on the idea of structural labour market reforms, thereby making explicit reference to the German Hartz reforms.
S. Demetriades, and F. Eiffe. Report, EF1707. European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), Dublin, (June 2017)
E. Fernández-Macías, and C. Vacas-Soriano. Report, EF1510. European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), Luxembourg, (May 2015)