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This work aims to bring together two research fields: the debate concerning different labor market flexibilization strategies and the determinants of training chances. The purpose of our work is therefore to assess the trade-off between temporary employment and training opportunities in a comparative analysis of three groups of countries characterized by different levels of labour market segmentation and training coverage. Particular attention is paid to the impact of the 2008 economic downturn in shaping training opportunities for contingent workers. In this study, we do not distinguish neither the type of training carried out (specific versus general), which depends on the (in)transferability of the acquired skills for a subsequent job, nor between firm-sponsored and self-funded training. Anyway, the distinction between alternative forms of training is rarely well operationalizable and our data does not exempt; moreover, the empirical evidence indicates that specific training is far less common than the general one and that, in most cases, training activities of both types are paid by employers. If not provided by the firm, the human capital investment paid directly by employees does not compensate the lacking of financed training opportunities. We assume that the decision to invest in training is inscribable in a utility maximizing framework both for the employers and the employees, in terms of expected returns (productivity on one side, wage and career prospects on the other). In such a cost-benefit framework, if the payback period is short, firms will have poor incentives to invest in the workforce training. Consequently, there is empirical evidence of underinvestment in training activities for part-time and even more for temporary workers , with likely negative implications in terms of productivity and career prospects for that part of the workforce less attached to the labour market. If the short payback period is the mechanism responsible for the FTC training penalty, it can be argued, from a theoretical perspective, that this mechanism should be exacerbated in those circumstances that lower the stability of the employment relation (in terms of unemployment risks) for temporary workers, i.e., (i) in highly segmented labour markets, where repeated experiences of unemployment-temporary work are common, or (ii) during negative economic conjunctures. Starting from the former, there is in fact enough empirical evidence of a negative relation between FTCs and training in different labour markets, but mainly based on single-nation studies The aim of this article is not only to address the question of the relation between temporary employment and training chances per se, but to detect, if any, the distribution of training retrenchment among different kind of workers in response to a negative economic conjuncture. Generally speaking, the question whether training is pro-or counter-cyclical is still highly debated, even if results seem to confirm a positive relation between economic downturns and training. Based on...

This article examines the relationship between health and volunteering in advanced age in a cross-national comparison. We used longitudinal data from five waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe covering 13 European countries from 2004 to 2015 and employed dynamic random-effects probit models to study the consequences of declining health on voluntary work. Our results confirm that worsening health conditions (i.e., mobility limitations and depression) reduce the likelihood of volunteering, whereas chronic diseases do not. Most interestingly, we found important differences across countries: Worsening health reduces voluntary work participation, especially in contexts characterized by high rates of volunteering. Our findings have implications for policy makers and voluntary organizations that aim to encourage participation: Individual characteristics and contextual aspects must be taken into account, and people with health problems might need specific support through policies, recruitment, and retention even in contexts of overall high levels of volunteering.

In this article, we provide a longitudinal account of institutionally originated, cohort inequalities in a two-tier labour market, taking Italy as an exemplary case of partial and targeted deregulation. We examine the incidence and career consequences of temporary employment relying on panel data, across reforms implemented in the 1990s and early 2000s. A substitution effect is found for the initial stages of workers’ careers: while the youngest cohorts of school-leavers increasingly enter the flexible labour market, access to stable positions is hampered. Previous experiences in the flexible segment of the labour force also increase the risk of entrapment in temporary jobs. This lock-in dynamic is more visible for post-reforms cohorts and might have increased labour market inefficiency. Indeed, the entrapment risk has risen disproportionately for those individuals whose (un)observed characteristics could instead predict a faster exit from the flexible labour market, possibly towards stable positions. Our findings cast doubts on the transitory nature of temporary work in Italy and on the efficiency of partial and targeted reforms.

Dynamic random-effects probit models are increasingly applied in many disciplines to study dynamics of persistence in dichotomous outcomes. Despite the increasing popularity of these models, an estimation command for them does not exist yet. In this article, we present the xtpdyn command, which implements the model as proposed by Rabe-Hesketh and Skrondal (2013, Economics Letters 120: 346–349). We also present probat, a postestimation command that provides estimates of transition rates and a set of associated statistics.