Public procurement: ending the race to the bottom on workers’ conditions
On International Workers’ Memorial Day, it’s worth remembering that when workers don’t have a say they may lose more than their voice.
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.
Good news for gender equality as we exit the Covid-19 crisis?
The pandemic has had differential impacts on women. Raised consciousness about them must be applied to advance gender equality in recovery measures.
‘Old’ rules and protections for the ‘new’ world of work
A 'rebuttable presumption of employment' is emerging as a response to platforms denying their workers employee status.
Does it make sense to question the morality of capitalism?
Keynes warned that ‘practical men’ were often in thrall to some dead economist. In fact many leading economists have agreed on the idea of guaranteed work.
The ‘long Covid’ of work relations and the future of remote work
The pandemic made us all familiar with ‘social distancing’. Employers are starting to glimpse a future where ‘contractual distancing’ is normalised.
How to stimulate the economy after the lockdown
A ‘helicopter money’ stimulus of direct payments to individuals, as in the US, would be neither well targeted nor transformatory in Europe.
The eurozone won’t work without safe government bonds
The arcane notion of ‘monetary dominance’ lay behind the last eurozone crisis. Unless challenged, it could underlie another one.
A simultaneously expanding and shrinking world
Branko Milanovic warns that the post-pandemic world could see further polarisation in a now global labour market.
Covid-19 and Europe-wide inequality
Between 2017 and 2019, income disparities in Europe decreased. The pandemic stopped that decline.
Spain’s platform workers win algorithm transparency
Legal amendments will not only recognise ‘riders’ as employees but require algorithm transparency from platforms generally.
Europe could make good use of a new SDR allocation
Jayati Ghosh begins a new Social Europe column by pricking Europe’s conscience on its pandemic-related responsibilities towards the developing world.
UK gig drivers recognised as workers—what next?
The UK’s highest court has delivered another benchmark judgment on gig workers. But the battle is not over.
Covid-19: a tale of two service sectors
If the 2008 crash brought on a ‘mancession’ of lost jobs, the sectors most hit by the pandemic employ mainly low-paid women workers.
Bearing the brunt: the impact of Covid-19 on women
The pandemic has proved not to be an equal-opportunity destroyer of economic and social wellbeing.
Germany adds to recognition of platform workers
The Federal Labour Court ruled late last year that a crowdworker was indeed an employee, despite the platform’s contrary claim.
Algorithmic control
Work in the social sciences on algorithmic systems can inform how unions address their impact on the power balance between workers and employers.
Bitcoin lacks a unique selling proposition
Peter Bofinger identifies the cryptocurrency’s Achilles heel.