Labor Market Reforms in Europe – Towards More Flexicure Labor Markets?

European countries have started a new wave of labor market reforms in the aftermath of the 2008/09 crisis. This concerns in particular reforms of in (1) employment protection, i.e. dismissal protection and restrictions on fixed-term contracts, (2) unemployment benefit generosity and coverage and (3) the intensity of active labor market policies. The paper gives an overview of reform patterns and tries to assess if and to what extent these reforms have led to more or less dualized labor markets in terms of dismissal protection, provision of unemployment benefits and access to ALMPs. This will allow us to understand if labor markets have become more segmented or more 'flexicure' over the last years. In particular, and addressing one of the most important cleavages in European labor markets, we will provide some empirical evidence on potential changes in hirings on temporary and permanent contracts.