Wage setting policy in the European Union before and after the Great Recession

Igor Guardiancich will present a paper co-authored with Mattia Guidi that deals with the supranational political and financial pressures impacting national wage policy in EU member states. This paper is part of a broader research programme spanning pensions, wage setting, unemployment insurance and other aspects of EU labour markets. The co-authored research analyses the supranational political and financial pressures impacting European labour markets, in particular their wage policy. It innovates the field theoretically, empirically and methodologically, by analysing the formulation and implementation phases of a nascent multi-level policy cycle, coding country-specific recommendations and reform events on wage policy and distinguishing between measures granting more or less protection to workers. It concludes that the Commission unambiguously favours reforms reducing workers’ protection, in line with the preferences of international financial institutions. Through external conditionality, such biased approach exerts a tangible impact on national policymaking, ultimately resulting in in weakened labour market institutions and reduced wellbeing of workers.

Mattia Guidi is associate professor at the University of Siena. He obtained his PhD in political science from the European University Institute, and has held positions among others at LUISS Guido Carli and Scuola Normale Superiore.

Igor Guardiancich is associate professor at the University of Padova. He obtained his PhD in political science from the European University Institute, and has held positions among others at the Scuola Sant’Anna, the University of Michigan and worked for the International Labour Organization.