Shaping decent work in Europe: the effect of regulations and political settings on early transitions to work

Regulations setting the age and standards at which a minor can be employed are popular interventions to deter early entry into the workforce, yet the historical impact of such policies remains debated. Despite the rich political economy literature on social policy, there is also a limited understanding of the political dimensions of decent work regulations, especially child labor laws. Computing novel series on the starting working age of minors across several European countries, this article assesses the impacts of youth-related regulations on early transitions to work between 1960-1990 through country-level panel data analysis. It also examines whether the effectiveness of such regulations is influenced by forms of governance or government partisanship. Apart from economic development, the results suggest regulations have contributed to increasing the starting working age of minors across Europe, particularly compulsory schooling laws. Schooling and decent work regulations were also interrelated, and aligning these provisions increased the age at starting work of minors. Moreover, our results highlight the empirical and theoretical importance of political settings for youth-related regulations: the significance of minimum age varies, being absent in countries with a low share of cabinet posts assigned to left-wing parties but positive in less conservative governments with higher working-class power. We also observe that the increased policy-making effectiveness of majority governments contributes to the success of international labor standards, leading to a higher starting working age in Post-war Europe.