Incapacity to work in a European, comparative perspective: the influence of non-standard employment and labour market policies

This project seeks to investigate how the incidence of 'incapacity to work' varies across European countries and over time. Incapacity to work is defined here as the state of not being in employment, despite being of working age, because a person's body or mind does not fit the expectations placed upon them by the labour market. The research starts with the assumption that socio-economic and institutional factors are key determinants (alongside individual characteristics and cultural factors) of individuals falling under this category. Specifically, the project will seek to understand the influence of two sets of structural factors: different labour market characteristics, broadly related to quality of work and non-standard employment; and institutional arrangements to both provide income security to those deemed temporarily incapable of working, and to help them integrate into the labour market.
The 'dependent variable' I propose to analyse are transitions between employment and incapacity to work - aiming to shed light on how the aforementioned factors influence the likelihood of these transitions, the duration of spells of employment/non-employment, and the composition of the group transitioning between one status and the other.
The research design relies on a comparative analysis of selected European countries; the current proposal is to include the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and Sweden as cases. These cases have been selected broadly following an Indirect Method of Difference logic to triangulate between different characteristics, as these cases represent a range of characteristics with regards the two main explanatory variables - labour market characteristics and incapacity-related labour market policies.
Following a detailed descriptive analysis of each country's labour market and unemployment protection system, I will use European panel survey data to infer the extent that differences in these factors across countries or over time have influenced the characteristics of transitions between employment and incapacity to work.
The research questions that this project seeks to answer are:
1. How does non-standard employment influence the likelihood and duration of transitions between employment and incapacity to work?
2. How do different national approaches to incapacity-related labour market policies influence the likelihood and duration of transitions between employment and incapacity to work?
It is expected that this project will contribute to several areas of academic study within Sociology/Social Policy: the literature on non-standard employment and its role in employment transitions; the literature regarding the disadvantages that people with health conditions or impairments face in relation to de-industrialising labour markets; and debates around different approaches to labour market policies in the context of 'new social risks'.
This study will also contribute to the evidence base for policy. It will provide empirical evidence that policymakers can use to answer questions such as: 'should activation policies seek to encourage work incapacitated individuals into all forms of non-standard employment, or only those which have the characteristics associated with sustainable transitions?'; 'can we expect work-welfare cycling to increase alongside non-standard employment for this group?'; or 'is a narrowing down of the incapacity benefit category compatible with the increasing expectations of employment integration for this group?'. Given that there is a significant policy attention on incapacity benefit claimants across several European countries, with specific active labour market programmes emerging for this group (e.g. the 'Work and Health' programme in England and Wales), these findings will be a relevant and timely contribution.