Unpacking self-employment ‘flexibility’
Platform companies trumpet the ‘freedom’ their ‘independent contractors’ enjoy. They misrepresent what freedom is.
Economy
Social Europe is an award-winning digital media publisher driven by the core values of freedom, sustainability, and equality. These principles guide our exploration of society’s most pressing challenges. This archive page curates Social Europe articles focused on economic issues, offering a rich resource for innovative thinking and informed debate.
The monetary tightening trap
The over-reliance on interest-rate increases will likely lead to economic disaster in low- and middle-income countries.
Pay gaps between firms driving wage inequality
Inter-firm differences are not only widening wage gaps but also threaten wider social division among workers.
Setting human-rights due diligence back on track
A carve-out for the finance sector would water down the ambition of the EU’s human-rights due-diligence legislation.
Interest-rate rises versus the public interest
In going along with rate rises, European governments are saving the European Central Bank—not their societies.
Almost-new fiscal rules for an old Europe
The proposed new fiscal rules may represent modest steps from the status quo. But they are in the right direction.
General strike in Belgium
Belgian trade union confederations this week led strikes and other actions to challenge the impact of inflation on purchasing power.
Using common strengths to overcome the crisis
Europe needs to move from fear of the ‘moral hazard’ of fiscal co-operation to confidence in its collective benefits.
How to reform the European fiscal rules
The fiscal rules have been in abeyance with the pandemic. What will replace them is up for grabs.
Does the minimum-wages directive get it right?
Are statutory minimum wages or collective-bargaining coverage the answer to low pay? Both, actually.
Organising and bargaining in the platform economy
Unions have the capacities to mobilise and represent platform workers and connected workforces in non-standard work forms.
Mental health in a digital world of work
A crisis of wellbeing is invisibly surging in the digital economy. As with the coronavirus, Europe needs to get a grip on it.
Ten years for a small but important step for women
European Union institutions at long last finalise a directive to put more women on company boards.
Combating inflation: the case for one-off wealth taxes
Monetary tightening only risks recession, whereas fiscal measures can set Europe on a sustainable recovery path.
Asbestos: eradicating the hidden killer
Workers facing asbestos exposure need much more protection—through tighter limits and proper equipment and protocols.
A noble award for a ‘popular misconception’
Peter Bofinger questions last week’s award of a prestigious economics prize to an orthodox school which could not anticipate the 2008 crash.