Abstract When crises hit, social theory predicts increased hostility toward immigrants. We exploit the Covid-19 pandemic as a unique exogenous crisis and examine whether discrimination increased in its wake. Repeating a field experiment in the Swiss housing market in 2018 and 2020, we find no evidence of increased discrimination against the most important immigrant groups in Switzerland. Contrarily, when uncertainty dominates the market, proprietors appear to change their selection behavior by substituting signals of ethnicity for other markers of solvency and reliability and, consequently, invitation rates for immigrants increase relative to native house-hunters. We conclude that crises do not necessarily increase discriminatory behavior in market situations.
{"title":"No sign of increased ethnic discrimination during a crisis: evidence from the Covid-19 pandemic","authors":"Daniel Auer, Didier Ruedin, Eva Van Belle","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwac069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwac069","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract When crises hit, social theory predicts increased hostility toward immigrants. We exploit the Covid-19 pandemic as a unique exogenous crisis and examine whether discrimination increased in its wake. Repeating a field experiment in the Swiss housing market in 2018 and 2020, we find no evidence of increased discrimination against the most important immigrant groups in Switzerland. Contrarily, when uncertainty dominates the market, proprietors appear to change their selection behavior by substituting signals of ethnicity for other markers of solvency and reliability and, consequently, invitation rates for immigrants increase relative to native house-hunters. We conclude that crises do not necessarily increase discriminatory behavior in market situations.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135594782","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study investigates the hourly wage gap between 25- and 55-year-old temporary and permanent employees across 30 countries worldwide based on Luxembourg Income Study data from 2000 to 2019 supplemented by other survey data. Two-stage multilevel regressions reveal wage disadvantages for temporary workers, particularly for prime-age workers and those working in medium-/high-level occupations. There is no evidence that a stronger institutional dualization in terms of stronger employment protection for permanent contracts increases the wage gap. Instead partial deregulation matters: In countries where permanent workers are strongly protected, the wage gap is larger if the use of temporary contracts is deregulated. Moreover, results suggest that the larger the size of the temporary employment segment the larger the wage gap. Thus, our findings indicate that stronger institutional and structural labor market dualism amplifies labor market inequality in terms of wage gaps between temporary and permanent workers.
{"title":"Labor market dualism and the heterogeneous wage gap for temporary employment: a multilevel study across 30 countries","authors":"Sophia Fauser, M. Gebel","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwac072","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwac072","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This study investigates the hourly wage gap between 25- and 55-year-old temporary and permanent employees across 30 countries worldwide based on Luxembourg Income Study data from 2000 to 2019 supplemented by other survey data. Two-stage multilevel regressions reveal wage disadvantages for temporary workers, particularly for prime-age workers and those working in medium-/high-level occupations. There is no evidence that a stronger institutional dualization in terms of stronger employment protection for permanent contracts increases the wage gap. Instead partial deregulation matters: In countries where permanent workers are strongly protected, the wage gap is larger if the use of temporary contracts is deregulated. Moreover, results suggest that the larger the size of the temporary employment segment the larger the wage gap. Thus, our findings indicate that stronger institutional and structural labor market dualism amplifies labor market inequality in terms of wage gaps between temporary and permanent workers.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2023-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44469928","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jan Behringer, Martin Gonzalez-Granda, Till van Treeck
Abstract We ask why working hours in the rich world have not declined more sharply or even risen at times since the early 1980s, despite a steady increase in productivity, and why they vary so much across rich countries. We use an internationally comparable database on working hours (Bick et al., 2019) and conduct panel data estimations for a sample of 17 European countries and the USA over the period 1983–2019. We find that high or increasing top-end income inequality, decentralized labor relations, and limited government provision of education and other in-kind services contribute to long working hours. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that upward-looking status comparisons in positional consumption (‘Veblen effects’) contribute to a ‘rat race’ of long working hours that is more or less pronounced in different varieties of capitalism.
{"title":"Varieties of the rat race: working hours in the age of abundance","authors":"Jan Behringer, Martin Gonzalez-Granda, Till van Treeck","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwac067","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwac067","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract We ask why working hours in the rich world have not declined more sharply or even risen at times since the early 1980s, despite a steady increase in productivity, and why they vary so much across rich countries. We use an internationally comparable database on working hours (Bick et al., 2019) and conduct panel data estimations for a sample of 17 European countries and the USA over the period 1983–2019. We find that high or increasing top-end income inequality, decentralized labor relations, and limited government provision of education and other in-kind services contribute to long working hours. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that upward-looking status comparisons in positional consumption (‘Veblen effects’) contribute to a ‘rat race’ of long working hours that is more or less pronounced in different varieties of capitalism.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135276892","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Our First 20 Years","authors":"Ákos Róna-Tas, A. Guseva","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwad006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwad006","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43014493","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article analyzes the structure of socially embedded exchange under uncertainty in the context of a community currency system in Germany. We discuss three relational and path-dependent mechanisms—experience-based trust, networked reputation and public reputation—which serve as navigation practices to mitigate uncertainty. We furthermore associate these mechanisms with observable structures of exchange, namely repeated transactions and reciprocity, transitivity and provider activity, and discuss differences in product-inherent uncertainty as a source of variation in network structure. Based on original observations of more than 4000 transactions over a period of 8 years, we use relational event models to demonstrate that the history of transactions exhibits structure consistent with the three hypothesized mechanisms, with some variation across different types of transactions. This variation is partly in line with differences in product-inherent uncertainty, but we also discuss alternative sources of variation related to organizational and institutional conditions of the exchange system.
{"title":"Navigating uncertainty in networks of social exchange: a relational event study of a community currency system","authors":"Jakob Hoffmann, Johannes Glückler","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwac066","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwac066","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article analyzes the structure of socially embedded exchange under uncertainty in the context of a community currency system in Germany. We discuss three relational and path-dependent mechanisms—experience-based trust, networked reputation and public reputation—which serve as navigation practices to mitigate uncertainty. We furthermore associate these mechanisms with observable structures of exchange, namely repeated transactions and reciprocity, transitivity and provider activity, and discuss differences in product-inherent uncertainty as a source of variation in network structure. Based on original observations of more than 4000 transactions over a period of 8 years, we use relational event models to demonstrate that the history of transactions exhibits structure consistent with the three hypothesized mechanisms, with some variation across different types of transactions. This variation is partly in line with differences in product-inherent uncertainty, but we also discuss alternative sources of variation related to organizational and institutional conditions of the exchange system.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43892318","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Whilst both the level and the make-up of public debt are high salience issues, the management of public debt seldom commands public attention. This study examines the quiet politics of public debt management in advanced capitalist societies, comparing debt management reforms and the everyday practice of debt management in Germany and the UK. We present evidence of two factors contributing to the political quietude around public debt management: a persistent absence of partisan contestation and conflict; and the dominance of ‘market discipline’ as an interpretative frame, which prevents changes in interest rates and debt servicing costs to be seen as the product of faulty debt management. We also find that this quietude creates a space for the coordination and cooperation between contemporary capitalist states and large dealer banks, whose capacities effectively to act within their respective domains depend on each other.
{"title":"The quiet side of debt: public debt management in advanced economies","authors":"Charlotte Rommerskirchen, Arjen W van der Heide","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwac070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwac070","url":null,"abstract":"Whilst both the level and the make-up of public debt are high salience issues, the management of public debt seldom commands public attention. This study examines the quiet politics of public debt management in advanced capitalist societies, comparing debt management reforms and the everyday practice of debt management in Germany and the UK. We present evidence of two factors contributing to the political quietude around public debt management: a persistent absence of partisan contestation and conflict; and the dominance of ‘market discipline’ as an interpretative frame, which prevents changes in interest rates and debt servicing costs to be seen as the product of faulty debt management. We also find that this quietude creates a space for the coordination and cooperation between contemporary capitalist states and large dealer banks, whose capacities effectively to act within their respective domains depend on each other.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138507472","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article investigates how mothers’ and fathers’ daily time use changed across social classes from 1990 to 2013 in Germany. In the 2000s, Germany’s adherence to the male breadwinner model was eroded by labor and family policy reforms typical of the adult worker model, which assumes individual self-sufficiency. The implications for gender and class inequality have been heatedly discussed. Drawing on the German Time Use Survey, I find that gender equality in the division of labor is greatest among full-time dual-earner couples with standard schedules. The prevalence of this pattern increased among the middle- and upper-class in historically conservative western Germany, but declined across classes in formerly socialist eastern Germany. In parallel, nonstandard work patterns and dual-joblessness gained in importance among lower-class couples, particularly in eastern Germany. I conclude that the adult worker model benefited mothers with access to standard full-time jobs but at the cost of greater class polarization.
{"title":"Who benefits from an adult worker model? Gender inequality in couples’ daily time use in Germany across time and social classes","authors":"Carolin Deuflhard","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwac065","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwac065","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article investigates how mothers’ and fathers’ daily time use changed across social classes from 1990 to 2013 in Germany. In the 2000s, Germany’s adherence to the male breadwinner model was eroded by labor and family policy reforms typical of the adult worker model, which assumes individual self-sufficiency. The implications for gender and class inequality have been heatedly discussed. Drawing on the German Time Use Survey, I find that gender equality in the division of labor is greatest among full-time dual-earner couples with standard schedules. The prevalence of this pattern increased among the middle- and upper-class in historically conservative western Germany, but declined across classes in formerly socialist eastern Germany. In parallel, nonstandard work patterns and dual-joblessness gained in importance among lower-class couples, particularly in eastern Germany. I conclude that the adult worker model benefited mothers with access to standard full-time jobs but at the cost of greater class polarization.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42477488","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Correction to: Cooperative enterprise at scale: comparative capitalisms and the political economy of ownership","authors":"","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwac068","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwac068","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47328516","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article analyzes the hidden developmental state (HDS) from a cultural perspective, exploring the values and vocabularies of motive among technology experts, managers and government officials involved in state-led innovation. We consider the rollout of smart meters in Washington State, an endeavor primarily funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Mobilizing evidence from 70 key informant interviews, we develop two related arguments. First, despite its ‘hiddenness’, the ARRA provided cash injections that shifted utility business models and electricity markets from fossil fuels infrastructure and toward renewable technologies by funding projects rather than organizations. The funding structure enabled engineers and managers to bypass conventional industry gatekeepers. Second, this shift was conditioned by a traditional ‘business case’ discourse, which functioned as a rhetorical lubricant, legitimating risky innovation and disguising individual and organizational values that run against established norms. A concluding discussion highlights the implications for future research.
{"title":"Making the ‘business case’: vocabularies of motive and clean tech innovation in the hidden developmental state","authors":"M. Kallman, S. Frickel","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwac061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwac061","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article analyzes the hidden developmental state (HDS) from a cultural perspective, exploring the values and vocabularies of motive among technology experts, managers and government officials involved in state-led innovation. We consider the rollout of smart meters in Washington State, an endeavor primarily funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Mobilizing evidence from 70 key informant interviews, we develop two related arguments. First, despite its ‘hiddenness’, the ARRA provided cash injections that shifted utility business models and electricity markets from fossil fuels infrastructure and toward renewable technologies by funding projects rather than organizations. The funding structure enabled engineers and managers to bypass conventional industry gatekeepers. Second, this shift was conditioned by a traditional ‘business case’ discourse, which functioned as a rhetorical lubricant, legitimating risky innovation and disguising individual and organizational values that run against established norms. A concluding discussion highlights the implications for future research.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2022-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47160855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Studies on digitalization and business power tend to focus on digital platform firms. In contrast, we argue that data, digital technologies and digital infrastructures create novel digital power resources (DPR) for firms throughout sectors. DPR can be structural, that is, rooted in data and digital technologies, and infrastructural, that is, rooted in digital infrastructure. We propose indicators and apply them to a sample of 120 large firms from the USA, UK, France and Germany, active in five sectors. We find that firms from all sectors control DPR but the sectoral distribution varies depending on the national political–economic context. Lastly, we demonstrate the analytical value added of our concept by explaining variation in business preferences and strategies toward data sovereignty and data-sharing regulation in the German automotive sector. Our DPR concept improves our understanding of why and how business seeks to influence (digital) policies and politics in digital(ized) capitalism in general.
{"title":"Digital power resources (DPR): the political economy of structural and infrastructural business power in digital(ized) capitalism","authors":"Michael Kemmerling, Christine Trampusch","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwac059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwac059","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Studies on digitalization and business power tend to focus on digital platform firms. In contrast, we argue that data, digital technologies and digital infrastructures create novel digital power resources (DPR) for firms throughout sectors. DPR can be structural, that is, rooted in data and digital technologies, and infrastructural, that is, rooted in digital infrastructure. We propose indicators and apply them to a sample of 120 large firms from the USA, UK, France and Germany, active in five sectors. We find that firms from all sectors control DPR but the sectoral distribution varies depending on the national political–economic context. Lastly, we demonstrate the analytical value added of our concept by explaining variation in business preferences and strategies toward data sovereignty and data-sharing regulation in the German automotive sector. Our DPR concept improves our understanding of why and how business seeks to influence (digital) policies and politics in digital(ized) capitalism in general.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2022-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44037656","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}