Political and Institutional Determinants of Labour Market Dualisation

The paper examines the political mechanisms and the impact of political constraints on welfare state reforms and their consequences for labor market inequalities. Specifically, I examine how varying government coalitions affect social policies and labor market institutions and, as a consequence, how politics and affect social inequality and the dualization of labor markets in post-industrial societies. Theoretically, I address the impact of various types of government on the dualization of labor markets. Different types of government have divergent abilities and resources to address economy and societal changes, e.g. dualization and the divide between labor market insiders and outsiders will stagnate or increase if the incumbent consists of a coalition that includes parties from different party families and therefore encompasses a wide ideological range (e.g. the `grand coalition’ in Germany). If a governing coalition, however, consists of parties sharing a more homogeneous electorate and therefore have similar policy platforms, the government will be able to make a more coherent policy, targeting particular groups in society. Empirically, I extend the comparative political economy literature by constructing a novel dataset that directly measures changes in social and public policy reforms that influence the patterns of social inequality within societies by quantifying legislative processes of reforms using computer assisted text analysis. These quantified policy decisions (policy positions of party governments and parties in parliament) based on legislative actions will document changes in policy preferences and realignment of policy positions over time. The countries included in the project are Germany, Austria, Ireland and the UK.