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German Microdata Lab

Operationalization of employment protection and effects on substantive results

Author: Dr. Klaus Pforr
Cooperation partners: Dr. Anne Balz
Department: Data and Research on Society (DRS), German Microdata Lab

Project description

In this project, it is shown that the OECD index for measuring employment protection of permanent employees is flawed in terms of content validity and criterion validity. Therefore, a theory-driven index for measuring employment protection is developed, which implements a theory-driven selection of items, normalization rules and aggregation procedures. In addition, it is tested how this theory-driven operationalization of dismissal protection affects substantive results. To this end, the probability of fixed-term contracts for new hires is examined on the basis of the European Labor Force Survey and the subjective job insecurity of fixed-term and permanent employees is examined using data from the European Social Survey, the European Working Condition Survey and the European Quality of Life Survey. While the results based on the OECD index clearly contradict the hypotheses from the literature, this is not the case when using the new EPR index, and further hypotheses from the literature can also be confirmed.

Publications:

Balz, Anne, and Klaus Pforr (2019): "Operationalization of employment protection legislation: Implications for Substantive Results." ISA RC28 Spring Meeting 2019, 21.03.2019.

Balz, Anne (2017): "Cross-National Variations in the Security Gap: Perceived Job Insecurity among Temporary and Permanent Employees and Employment Protection Legislation." European Sociological Review 33 (5): 675–692. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcx067.

Balz, Anne (2013): "The security gap: perceived job and labour market insecurity among temporary and permanent employees in European labour markets." 2013 Spring Meeting of the RC28. http://events.unitn.it/en/isa-rc28.

Balz, Anne (2012): "Perceived job insecurity: Effects of temporary employment under different labour market conditions." 11th International Society for Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS) International Conference.