Winner of a RIPE Read Award from the Review of International Political Economy

“This important book provides insight into understanding the different ways countries are dealing with the economic crisis of our period and will thus be extremely valuable to all specialists of international and comparative political economy.”
—Peter Gourevitch, University of California, San Diego

“Coping with Crisis speaks to the crucial mysteries of life after the global economic crisis, and to the widespread confusion about what governments should and can do to rescue us from the current malaise. An impressive group of scholars reflects on policymakers’ capacities for action, the relative weight of international imperatives and domestic power balances in delimiting policy solutions, the lessons of past major downturns in charting a path for current recovery, and the capacities of states to forge a new democratic consensus. This elegantly argued, wonderfully perceptive book addresses a central fear of the twenty-first century: that the new global order is unhinged from mechanisms of democratic or even elite-expert control.”
—Cathie Jo Martin, Boston University

The financial crisis that erupted on Wall Street in 2008 quickly cascaded throughout much of the advanced industrial world. Facing the specter of another Great Depression, policymakers across the globe responded in sharply different ways to avert an economic collapse. Why did the response to the crisis—and its impact on individual countries—vary so greatly among interdependent economies? How did political factors like public opinion and domestic interest groups shape policymaking in this moment of economic distress? Coping with Crisis offers a rigorous analysis of the choices societies made as a devastating global economic crisis unfolded.

With an ambitiously broad range of inquiry, Coping with Crisis examines the interaction between international and domestic politics to shed new light on the inner workings of democratic politics. The volume opens with an engaging overview of the global crisis and the role played by international bodies like the G-20 and the WTO. In his survey of international initiatives in response to the recession, Eric Helleiner emphasizes the limits of multilateral crisis management, finding that domestic pressures were more important in reorienting fiscal policy. He also argues that unilateral decisions by national governments to hold large dollar reserves played the key role in preventing a dollar crisis, which would have considerably worsened the downturn. David R. Cameron discusses the fiscal responses of the European Union and its member states. He suggests that a profound coordination problem involving fiscal and economic policy impeded the European Union's ability to respond in a timely and effective manner. The volume also features several case studies and country comparisons. Nolan McCarty assesses the performance of the American political system during the crisis. He argues that the downturn did little to dampen elite polarization in the United States; divisions within the Democratic Party—as well as the influence of the financial sector—narrowed the range of policy options available to fight the crisis. Ben W. Ansell examines how fluctuations in housing prices in thirty developed countries affected the policy preferences of both citizens and political parties. His evidence shows that as housing prices increased, homeowners expressed preferences for both lower taxes and a smaller safety net. As more citizens supplement their day-to-day income with assets like stocks and housing, Ansell's research reveals a potentially significant trend in the formation of public opinion.

Five years on, the prospects for a prolonged slump in economic activity remain high, and the policy choices going forward are contentious. But the policy changes made between 2007 and 2010 will likely constrain any new initiatives in the future. Coping with Crisis offers unmatched analysis of the decisions made in the developed world during this critical period. It is an essential read for scholars of comparative politics and anyone interested in a comprehensive account of the new international politics of austerity.

NANCY BERMEO is the Nuffield Professor of comparative politics at Oxford University, Oxford, U.K.

JONAS PONTUSSON is professor of comparative politics at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.

CONTRIBUTORS: Ben W. Ansell, Klaus Armingeon, Lucio Baccaro, Lucy Barnes, David R. Cameron, Eric Helleiner, Torben Iversen, Johannes Lindvall, Nolan McCarty, David Rueda, Waltraud Schelkle, David Soskice, Yves Tiberghien, Anne Wren.

“Europe has joined North America as a region of immigration and cities such as such as Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Stockholm, and Vienna have become major immigrant gateways, along with traditional gateways such as New York and Los Angeles. The Changing Face of World Cities offers the first truly comparative analysis of patterns and processes of assimilation and integration in Europe and the United States. In a model of collaborative scholarship, the multinational team assembled by Maurice Crul and John Mollenkopf use comparable methods and data to shed analytic light on the barriers and bridges that immigrants and their children face in different national settings. It is essential reading for students of immigration on both sides of the Atlantic.”
—Douglas S. Massey, Princeton University

“The Changing Face of World Cities offers new, comparative vistas on immigrant integration around the Atlantic. It challenges the widely-held assumption that American society is more open toward the young adult children of immigrants than Europe and shows how the varied approaches on the European continent lead to different trajectories of immigrant integration. It should provoke deeper and more informed policy discussions on both sides of the Atlantic.”
—Andreas Wimmer, UCLA

“Maurice Crul and John Mollenkopf have produced the first systematic, in-depth comparative analysis of the effects of global migration in Europe and the United States. It will be essential reading for all immigration scholars. Moreover, anyone who cares about the future of either Europe or the United States must read this book.”
—Alex Stepick, Florida International University

A seismic population shift is taking place as many formerly racially homogeneous cities in the West attract a diverse influx of newcomers seeking economic and social advancement. In The Changing Face of World Cities, a distinguished group of immigration experts presents the first systematic, data-based comparison of the lives of young adult children of immigrants growing up in seventeen big cities of Western Europe and the United States. Drawing on a comprehensive set of surveys, this important book brings together new evidence about the international immigrant experience and provides far-reaching lessons for devising more effective public policies.

The Changing Face of World Cities pairs European and American researchers to explore how youths of immigrant origin negotiate educational systems, labor markets, gender, neighborhoods, citizenship, and identity on both sides of the Atlantic. Maurice Crul and his co-authors compare the educational trajectories of second-generation Mexicans in Los Angeles with second-generation Turks in Western European cities. In the United States, uneven school quality in disadvantaged immigrant neighborhoods and the high cost of college are the main barriers to educational advancement, while in some European countries, rigid early selection sorts many students off the college track and into dead-end jobs. Liza Reisel, Laurence Lessard-Phillips, and Phil Kasinitz find that while more young members of the second generation are employed in the United States than in Europe, they are also likely to hold low-paying jobs that barely life them out of poverty. In Europe, where immigrant youth suffer from higher unemployment, the embattled European welfare system still yields them a higher standard of living than many of their American counterparts. Turning to issues of identity and belonging, Jens Schneider, Leo Chávez, Louis DeSipio, and Mary Waters find that it is far easier for the children of Dominican or Mexican immigrants to identify as American, in part because the United States takes hyphenated identities for granted. In Europe, religious bias against Islam makes it hard for young people of Turkish origin to identify strongly as German, French, or Swedish. Editors Maurice Crul and John Mollenkopf conclude that despite the barriers these youngsters encounter on both continents, they are making real progress relative to their parents and are beginning to close the gap with the native-born.

The Changing Face of World Cities goes well beyong existing immigration literature focused on the U.S. experience to show that national policies on each side of the Atlantic can be enriched by lessons from the other. The Changing Face of World Cities will be vital reading for anyone interested in the young people who will shape the future of our increasingly interconnected global economy.

MAURICE CRUL is professor of sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

JOHN MOLLENKOPF is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology, and director, Center for Urban Research, at The Graduate Center, City University of New York.

CONTRIBUTORS: Richard Alba, Susan K. Brown, Leo Chavez, Louis DeSipio, Rosita Fibbi, Nancy Foner, Barbara Herzog-Punzenberger, Philip Kasinitz, Elif Keskiner, Jennifer Lee, Laurence Lessard-Phillips, Leo Lucassen, Liza Reisel, Jeffrey G. Reitz, Jens Schneider, Philipp Schnell, Patrick Simon, Thomas Soehl, Van C. Tran, Constanza Vera-Larrucea, Mary Waters, Min Zhou.

A Volume in the American Sociological Association’s Rose Series in Sociology

Honorable Mention, 2013 Best Book Award, Political Economy of the World-System Section of the American Sociological Association

Honorable Mention, 2013 Best Book Award, Global and Transnational Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association

"Beginning from the current crisis in the world economy, and basing their work on solid empirical research, Jackie Smith and Dawn Wiest see in the world polity strengthened opportunities for transnational social movements, their increased capacity to mobilize antisystemic challenges, and a shift in the bases of power from territorial to normative claims. Not everyone will agree with their bold claims, but serious students of the world polity will need to take them seriously."
-SIDNEY TARROW, Emeritus Maxwell Upson Professor of Government and visiting professor, Cornell Law School

"With Social Movements in the World-System, Jackie Smith and Dawn Wiest have broken new ground in the ongoing quest to understand why and explain how transnational social movements succeed and fail in the era of capitalist globalization. Based on their own original and unique Transnational Social Movement Organizations Dataset and exemplary use of the scholarly sources (a bibliography of 400 plus items), they connect the systemic nature of global capitalism and the antisystemic and transformational potential of TSMOs, all the way from UN conferences on global human rights issues to what is happening on the streets all over the world today."
-LESLIE SKLAIR, emeritus professor of sociology, London School of Economics

"A much-needed and very comprehensive analytic integration of the realities of worldwide social movements and their theorization. Social Movements in the World-System permits us to appreciate and integrate the new spectacular occupy movements as something with deep roots in what has happened over the past fifty years."
-IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN, Senior Research Scholar, Yale University

Global crises such as rising economic inequality, volatile financial markets, and devastating climate change illustrate the defects of a global economic order controlled largely by transnational corporations, wealthy states, and other elites. As the impacts of such crises have intensified, they have generated a new wave of protests extending from the countries of the Middle East and North Africa throughout Europe, North America, and elsewhere. This new surge of resistance builds upon a long history of transnational activism as it extends and develops new tactics for pro-democracy movements acting simultaneously around the world.

In Social Movements in the World-System, Jackie Smith and Dawn Wiest build upon theories of social movements, global institutions, and the political economy of the world-system to uncover how institutions define the opportunities and constraints on social movements, which in turn introduce ideas and models of action that help transform social activism as well as the system itself. Smith and Wiest trace modern social movements to the founding of the United Nations, as well as struggles for decolonization and the rise of national independence movements, showing how these movements have shifted the context in which states and other global actors compete and interact. The book shows how transnational activism since the end of the Cold War, including United Nations global conferences and more recently at World Trade Organization meetings, has shaped the ways groups organize. Global summits and UN conferences have traditionally provided focal points for activists working across borders on a diverse array of issues. By engaging in these international arenas, movements have altered discourses to emphasize norms of human rights and ecological sustainability over territorial sovereignty. Over time, however, activists have developed deeper and more expansive networks and new spaces for activism. This growing pool of transnational activists and organizations democratizes the process of organizing, enables activists to build on previous experiences and share knowledge, and facilitates local actions in support of global change agendas.

As the world faces profound financial and ecological crises, and as the United States' dominance in the world political economy is increasingly challenged, it is especially urgent that scholars, policy analysts, and citizens understand how institutions shape social behavior and the distribution of power. Social Movements in the World-System helps illuminate the contentious and complex interactions between social movements and global institutions and contributes to the search for paths toward a more equitable, sustainable, and democratic world.

JACKIE SMITH is professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh.

DAWN WIEST is senior research analyst at the American College of Physicians.

“Parents’ socioeconomic status affects later child outcomes in all of the advanced nations studied in this fascinating book, but nowhere is this relationship stronger than in the United States. How can we make children’s life chances more equal without interfering with the rights of parents and the efficiency of the economy? This book does not provide all of the answers but it contains a wealth of data and analysis with important implications for both research and policy. From Parents to Children is a tour de force.”
—Isabel Sawhill, senior fellow, The Brookings Institution

“Intergenerational transmission of resources and rewards has gained more interest with the increase in income inequality during the last thirty years. In this book a number of first-rate scholars review how outcomes depend on various conditions in childhood. The role of parental socioeconomic and educational resources as well as that of societal institutions, like child care and schools, is studied for several countries in America and Europe. This broad perspective gives every reader, regardless of prior knowledge, an increased understanding of the mechanisms through which parental advantage is transferred to children.”
—Robert Erikson, Stockholm University

Does economic inequality in one generation lead to inequality of opportunity in the next? In From Parents to Children, an esteemed international group of scholars investigates this question using data from ten countries with differing levels of inequality. The book compares whether and how parents' resources transmit advantage to their children at different stages of development and sheds light on the structural differences among countries that may influence intergenerational mobility.

How and why is economic mobility higher in some countries than in others? The contributors find that inequality in mobility-relevant skills emerges early in childhood in all of the countries studied. Bruce Bradbury and his coauthors focus on learning readiness among young children and show that as early as age five, large disparities in cognitive and other mobility-relevant skills develop between low- and high-income kids, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. Such disparities may be mitigated by investments in early childhood education, as Christelle Dumas and Arnaud Lefranc demonstrate. They find that universal pre-school education in France lessens the negative effect of low parental SES and gives low-income children a greater shot at social mobility. Katherine Magnuson, Jane Waldfogel, and Elizabeth Washbrook find that income-based gaps in cognitive achievement in the United States and the United Kingdom widen as children reach adolescence. Robert Haveman and his coauthors show that the effect of parental income on test scores increases as children age; and in both the United States and Canada, having parents with a higher income betters the chances that a child will enroll in college.

As economic inequality in the United States continues to rise, the national policy conversation will not only need to address the devastating effects of rising inequality in this generation but also the potential consequences of the decline in mobility from one generation to the next. Drawing on unparalleled international datasets, From Parents to Children provides an important first step.

JOHN ERMISCH is professor of family demography at Oxford University.

MARKUS JäNTTI is professor of economics at the Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University.

TIMOTHY M. SMEEDING is director of the Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

CONTRIBUTORS: Silke Anger, Lars Bergman, Erik Bihagen, Paul Bingley, Anders Bjorklund, Jo Blanden, Bruce Bradbury, Massimiliano Bratti, Lorenzo Cappellari, Miles Corak, Emilia Del Bono, Kathryn Duckworth, Christelle Dumas, Greg J. Duncan, Olaf Groh-Samberg, Robert Haveman, John Jerrim, Jan O. Jonsson, Ilan Katz, Katja Kokko, Arnaud Lefranc, Henning Lohmann, Anna-Liisa Lyyra, Katherine Magnuson, Molly Metzger, John Micklewright, Carina Mood, Martin Nybom, Frauke H. Peter, Patrizio Piraino, Lea Pulkkinen, Gerry Redmond, John Roemer, Sharon Simonton, C. Katharina Spiess, Jane Waldfogel, Eizabeth Washbrook, Niels Westergard-Nielsen, James A. Wilson, Kathryn Wilson.

"In the last decade, the growing body of research by sociologists and economists showing that advantages in one generation are inherited by the next has clearly filtered through to policymakers who now consider economic mobility to be an important policy objective. Persistence, Privilege, and Parenting breaks new ground by probing deeper into the various factors over the life course that contribute to differences in intergenerational mobility across countries. The work in this volume advances our knowledge and will contribute to policy discussions going forward."
-BHASH MAZUMDER, senior economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

"This eye-opening collection of papers on cross-national research on social mobility is an invaluable contribution to the literature. It is no exaggeration to say that it is a must-read volume for students of stratification and the family."
-FRANK F. FURSTENBERG, Zellerbach Family Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania

"That growing up poor does not mean one's children will be poor is a source of pride in America, 'the land of opportunity.' But how does intergenerational mobility in education and income in the United States stack up against mobility in other advanced industrialized countries? What are the sources of differences across countries in rates of intergenerational mobility? What roles do public policies and social institutions play in leveling the playing field in particular countries? Making use of rich recent data from a variety of countries, Persistence, Privilege, and Parenting addresses these questions and provides striking and compelling evidence with important implications for debates about public tax and expenditures policies."
-RICHARD J. MURNANE, Thompson Professor of Education and Society, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Americans like to believe that theirs is the land of opportunity, but the hard facts are that children born into poor families in the United States tend to stay poor and children born into wealthy families generally stay rich. Other countries have shown more success at lessening the effects of inequality on mobility—possibly by making public investments in education, health, and family well-being that offset the private advantages of the wealthy. What can the United States learn from these other countries about how to provide children from disadvantaged backgrounds an equal chance in life? Making comparisons across ten countries, Persistence, Privilege, and Parenting brings together a team of eminent international scholars to examine why advantage and disadvantage persist across generations. The book sheds light on how the social and economic mobility of children differs within and across countries and the impact private family resources, public policies, and social institutions may have on mobility.

In what ways do parents pass advantage or disadvantage on to their children? Persistence, Privilege, and Parenting is an expansive exploration of the relationship between parental socioeconomic status and background and the outcomes of their grown children. The authors also address the impact of education and parental financial assistance on mobility. Contributors Miles Corak, Lori Curtis, and Shelley Phipps look at how family economic background influences the outcomes of adult children in the United States and Canada. They find that, despite many cultural similarities between the two countries, Canada has three times the rate of intergenerational mobility as the United States—possibly because Canada makes more public investments in its labor market, health care, and family programs. Jo Blanden and her colleagues explore a number of factors affecting how advantage is transmitted between parents and children in the United States and the United Kingdom, including education, occupation, marriage, and health. They find that despite the two nations having similar rates of intergenerational mobility and social inequality, lack of educational opportunity plays a greater role in limiting U.S. mobility, while the United Kingdom’s deeply rooted social class structure makes it difficult for the disadvantaged to transcend their circumstances. Jane Waldfogel and Elizabeth Washbrook examine cognitive and behavioral school readiness across income groups and find that pre-school age children in both the United States and Britain show substantial income-related gaps in school readiness—driven in part by poorly developed parenting skills among overburdened, low-income families. The authors suggest that the most encouraging policies focus on both school and home interventions, including such measures as increases in federal funding for Head Start programs in the United States, raising pre-school staff qualifications in Britain, and parenting programs in both countries.

A significant step forward in the study of intergenerational mobility, Persistence, Privilege, and Parenting demonstrates that the transmission of advantage or disadvantage from one generation to the next varies widely from country to country. This striking finding is a particular cause for concern in the United States, where the persistence of disadvantage remains stubbornly high. But, it provides a reason to hope that by better understanding mobility across the generations abroad, we can find ways to do better at home.

TIMOTHY M. SMEEDING is director of the Institute for Research on Poverty and Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

ROBERT ERIKSON is professor of sociology at the Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University.

MARKUS JANTTI is professor of economics at the Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University.

CONTRIBUTORS: Jo Blanden, Miles Corak, Lori J. Curtis, Matthew Di Carlo, Greg J. Duncan, Robert Erikson, John Ermisch, Gøsta Epsing-Andersen, David B. Grusky, Robert Haveman, Markus Jäntti, John Jerrim, Jan O. Jonsson, Ariel Kalil, Bertrand Maître, John Micklewright, Carina Mood, Brian Nolan, Fabian T. Pfeffer, Shelley Phipps, Reinhard Pollak, Chiara Pronzato, Timothy M. Smeeding, James P. Smith, Kjetil Telle, Sander Wagner, Jane Waldfogel, Elizabeth Washbrook, Christopher T. Whelan, Kathryn Wilson, Kathleen M. Ziol-Guest, Julie M. Zissimopoulos

"Bringing together a team of internationally known social scientists and historians, Social Contracts Under Stress exam ines the expansion of the middle classes in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan, as well as the problems that the universalist promise of the post-1945 'democratization of wealth' ran into in later decades. A truly outstanding anthology that convinces by virtue of its intellectual rigor and cohesion-and its timeliness-as the industrialized nations face the age-old social contract question, but this time on a global scale."
-Volker R. Berghahn, Columbia University

"It is rare that a single volume covers so important a theme across so wide a swath of nations at so high a level of analysis. This book explores the postwar social contract as it comes under increasing strain at the turn of our own century. The growth of the middle class-above all the turning of former proletarians into members of the bourgeoisie-was the social and political basis of postwar stability and democracy. This process, though similar across the industrialized world, took different inflections in various nations: from the the European focus on redistribution and social welfare, through the North American liberalist concern with consumer society, to the Japanese solution whereby exporting industries earned the wherewithal that allowed inefficient modes of production to continue, cushioning the hard social choices that would have been necessary in its absence. In our own day, however, this social contract has been challenged: by issues of race and gender and, above all, by globalization and the hard social choices it requires. It is such problems, at the core of contemporary political dilemmas, that these essays address with vision, rigor, and coherence."
-Peter Baldwin, University of California, Los Angeles

The years following World War II saw a huge expansion of the middle classes in the world's industrialized nations, with a significant part of the working class becoming absorbed into the middle class. Although never explicitly formalized, it was as though a new social contract called for government, business, and labor to work together to ensure greater political freedom and more broadly shared economic prosperity. For the most part, they succeeded. In Social Contracts Under Stress, eighteen experts from seven countries examine this historic transformation and look ahead to assess how the middle class might fare in the face of slowing economic growth and increasing globalization.

The first section of the book focuses on the differing experiences of Germany, Britain, France, the United States, and Japan as they became middle-class societies. The British working classes, for example, were slowest to consider themselves middle class, while in Japan by the 1960s, most workers had abandoned working-class identity. The French remain more fragmented among various middle classes and resist one homogenous entity. Part II presents compelling evidence that the rise of a huge middle class was far from inclusive or free of social friction. Some contributors discuss how the social contract reinforced long-standing prejudices toward minorities and women. In the United States, Ira Katznelson writes, Southern politicians used measures that should have promoted equality, such as the GI bill, to exclude blacks from full access to opportunity. In her review of gender and family models, Chiara Saraceno finds that Mediterranean countries have mobilized the power of the state to maintain a division of labor between men and women. The final section examines what effect globalization might have on the middle class. Leonard Schoppa's careful analysis of the relevant data shows how globalization has pushed "less skilled workers down and more skilled workers up out of a middle class that had for a few decades been home to both." Although Europe has resisted the rise of inequality more effectively than the United States or Japan, several contributors wonder how long that resistance can last.

Social Contracts Under Stress argues convincingly that keeping the middle class open and inclusive in the face of current economic pressures will require a collective will extending across countries. This book provides an invaluable guide for assessing the issues that must be considered in such an effort.

OLIVIER ZUNZ is Commonwealth Professor of History, University of Virginia.

LEONARD SCHOPPA is associate professor in the Woodrow Wilson Department of Government and Foreign Affairs, University of Virginia.

NOBUHIRO HIWATARI is professor of political science at the University of Tokyo.

"The Russell Sage series on job quality is a very welcome contribution in a world where employment seems to be polarizing. Low-Wage Work in Denmark is especially noteworthy because the Danish case is internationally regarded as a model to follow if we desire flexible labor markets without social exclusion. And, as Niels Westergaard-Nielsen and his colleagues show in their laudably balanced and empirically rich analyses, the model does seem to work. Danish low-wage workers clearly fare much better than elsewhere. This excellent study explains why. It is a must-read for policymakers and analysts; an indispensable resource for social scientists."
-GØSTA ESPING-ANDERSEN, professor of sociology, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona

"All nations struggle with the problem of unskilled working-age people. 'Flexicurity' -few labor restrictions and a generous safety net-is Denmark's unique arrangement. There, the unskilled are not poor, move rapidly out of low-skill jobs, and are treated with dignity-all huge accomplishments. But the system also creates problems-high tax rates, welfare dependency, and costs, and the effective exclusion of immigrants. Low-Wage Work in Denmark, a volume in the Russell Sage series of systematic, cross- country analyses of low-wage work, gives us a careful and in-depth assessment-both blemishes and beauty-of this small country's approach."
-ROBERT HAVEMAN, professor emeritus of public affairs and economics, Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison

"For millions of employed Americans, 'work doesn't pay,' occupational and social benefits are meager, and opportunities for shifting into substantially higher-paying work are scarce. American analysts often view low-paid work as the lamentable but inevitable byproduct of a flexible labor market, technological advancement, and the global economy. This first-rate volume will challenge that sense of resignation, as it vividly demonstrates that a multitude of institutional reforms could both reduce the incidence of low-wage work and lessen its problematic consequences. The Danish flexicurity model, which melds flexibility for employers with economic security for workers, operates alongside impressive economic outcomes, including comparatively high labor force participation, low unemployment, and high mobility out of low-wage work. This accessible collection outlines an institutional blueprint that could help structure an overhaul of low-wage work in the United States should the political opportunity arise."
-JANET GORNICK, professor, political science and sociology, City University of New York, and director, Luxembourg Income Study

The Danish economy offers a dose of American labor market flexibility inside a European welfare state. The Danish government allows employers a relatively high level of freedom to dismiss workers, but also provides generous unemployment insurance. Widespread union coverage and an active system of collective bargaining help regulate working conditions in the absence of strong government regulation. Denmark’s rate of low-wage work—8.5 percent—is the lowest of the five countries under analysis. In Low-Wage Work in Denmark, a team of Danish researchers combines comprehensive national registry data with detailed case studies of five industries to explore why low-end jobs are so different in Denmark. Some jobs that are low-paying in the United States, including hotel maids and meat processors, though still demanding, are much more highly compensated in Denmark. And Danes, unlike American workers, do not stay in low-wage jobs for long. Many go on to higher paying jobs, while a significant minority ends up relying temporarily on income support and benefits sustained by one of the highest tax rates in the world.  Low-Wage Work in Denmark provides an insightful look at the particularities of the Danish labor market and the lessons it holds for both the United States and the rest of Europe.

NIELS WESTERGAARD-NIELSEN is professor of economics at the School of Business, University of Aarhus.

CONTRIBUTORS: Anne-Mette Sonne, Nuka Buck, Tor Eriksson, Lars Esbjerg, Jacob K. Eskildsen, Klaus K. Grunert, Jingkun Li, Ann-Kristina Lokke Nielsen, Robert Solow, Ole Henning Sorensen.

A Volume in the RSF Case Studies of Job Quality in Advanced Economies