Sub-theme 1: National models and their handling of the crisis - flexicurity and more

Wednesday, 25 November 2009

In recent years flexicurity - the combination of flexibility and security in the labour market and welfare states regulation - has been seen as an ideal in Europe as well as elsewhere. Denmark, and to some extent Holland, have been hold up as models to learn from. To support other member states' attempts to find their own pathways to flexicurity, common EU principles for flexicurity was adopted in 2007. The various flexicurity models and policies have now to show their worth in a time of crisis. Under the sub-theme, various models of flexicurity will be presented and compared to other models of labour market regulation. It will also be discussed how different national labour market models respond to the crisis and what the relevance of flexicurity is in economic downturn.

• Professor Ton Wilthagen, ReflecT, Tilburg University
• Professor Niels Kærgård, Institute of Food and Resource Economics, LIFE, University of Copenhagen
• Associate Professor Mikkel Mailand, FAOS, University of Copenhagen