Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 08/2010

Job quality and labour market performance

Christine Erhel, Mathilde Guergoat-Larivière

June 2010

Centre for European Policy Studies

Abstract

Job quality is a multidimensional concept, but the empirical analysis of job quality in Europe leads to three main types of result. First, it reveals important differences across countries, with four main regimes prevalent in Europe. Second, it supports the hypothesis that a higher level of job quality is associated with better labour market and economic performance. Finally, it emphasises the heterogeneity of quality across social groups, especially according to gender, age, and education. The authors of this Working Document are Christine Erhel, a Researcher at the French Centre d’Etudes de l’Emploi and Associate Professor at the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and Mathilde Guergoat-Larivière, doctoral student at University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.