ASTK12077U The Danish Labour Market in International Perspective

Since the nineties, the institutions and practices of the Danish labour market have been in focus worldwide. The reason is simple: In spite of all conventional wisdom, the Danish unemployment rate has dropped more than ten percentage points from 1993 to 2007 (followed by a minor increase in the wake of the financial crisis), while at the same time inflation has been low and stable. The key to this enigma is often claimed to be the Danish flexicurity model of the labour market. This famed model consists of three elements, often called “The Golden Triangle”: Flexibility for employers to hire and fire labourers, security for labour force participants by means of generous unemployment benefits, and an active labour market policy on the part of the state and local governments. This course will provide an insight into the functioning and the contemporary challenges of the flexicurity model: How do actors of the model cope with recession, international migration and other problems? Also, some comparative studies of labour markets in other countries will be included. Recent macroeconomic developments and changes in legislation and collective bargaining raises the question of how resilient the flexicurity model is to external changes. As the course will start with some basics of labour market theory, no previous knowledge in the field is required.

The course will consist of five parts:

1. Theories of the labour market
    
2. Institutional features and development of the Danish labour market and a comparative analysis of the labour markets of other countries, such as Germany and the UK
    
3. The future challenges of the Danish labour market, such as changes of legislation and demography
    
4. Labour market reform in Denmark and Europe since 1994
    
5. Selected issues such as discrimination and equal opportunity, migration, occupational health and safety or other issues following the students’ suggestions