Wage setting in the European Union before and after the Great Recession

• Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
• Department of Political and Social Sciences

This session will explore the supranational political and financial pressures impacting national wage policy in European member states.

In this session, Mattia Guidi and Igor Guardiancich will present a paper embedded in a broader research programme spanning pensions, wage setting, unemployment insurance and other aspects of EU labour markets. Their paper analyses the supranational political and financial pressures impacting national wage policy in European member states. It innovates the field theoretically, empirically and methodologically, by analysing the formulation and implementation phases of a nascent multi-level policy cycle, coding country-specific recommendations on wage policy and distinguishing between measures granting more or less protection to workers. It concludes that the Commission is not entirely objective when recommending wage policy, unambiguously preferring reforms reducing workers’ protection. Such (at least partly) biased approach exerts a tangible impact on national policymaking, where implementation follows a marked external conditionality logic.

Mattia Guidi is associate professor at the University of Siena. He obtained his PhD in political science from the EUI, and has held positions among others at LUISS Guido Carli and Scuola Normale Superiore. His research interests include regulatory governance, international political economy and EU integration. Igor Guardiancich is associate professor at the University of Padova. He obtained his PhD in political science from the EUI, and has held positions among others at Scuola Normale Superiore and the University of Michigan. His research interests include comparative social policy, EU integration and post-socialist transition.