The embedded flexibility of Nordic labour market models under pressure from EU-induced dualisation—The case of posted work in Denmark and Sweden

While many coordinated market economies have responded to internationalisation by regulation that creates dualisation between insiders and outsiders, the Nordic countries have opted for an embedded flexibilisation in which strong unions and cooperative employers have combined flexibility and equality. However, in recent years, the Nordic countries have come under pressure from an EU-induced dualisation that has institutionalised mobile low-wage workers as an outside group. This article presents case studies of how Denmark and Sweden have responded to these challenges. While political processes have been different in the two countries, pressure from EU regulation and changes in employers' incentive to compromise implies that there is now a specific category of low-wage workers in both countries' otherwise egalitarian labour markets. The article, thus, contributes to the literature on dualisation by highlighting the pressure coming from EU regulation rather than national policy.

Read full article 'The embedded flexibility of Nordic labour market models under pressure from EU-induced dualisation - The case of posted work in Denmark and Sweden' by Bjarke Refslund and Jens Arnholtz, published in Regulation & Governance, march 2022.