Defining and testing flexicurity indicators in Europe: How well performs the Dutch labour market comparably?

The paper concerns the definition and testing of institutional and outcome

indicators on flexibility and income and employment security. The aim is to

develop dynamic outcome indicators for measuring the performance of

countries on balancing flexibility and security in the EU and in particular to

assess how well the Netherlands perform comparably to other countries in

this respect. We first elaborated a conceptual model based on Sen’s capability

approach and used this model to arrive at the definition of particular dynamic

indicators. Then we explain the indicators we want to use and how they are

calculated using the SILC data sets. In the second part we examine how the

Netherlands according to these indicators perform in terms of balancing

flexibility and security comparably. On the basis of the mapping of the

Netherlands on the various institutional and dynamic outcome indicators, we

formulate some conclusions with respect to research on the causal modelling

of transitions and to examine the effect of institutions on these transitions. In

the end we formulate the main challenges the Netherlands face in the domain

of flexicurity.

Report for the Dutch Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs/OSA report A236: OSA: Tilburg.