Equalising function

Quick info
Data type	Numeric
Scale	Metric
Value labels	0 to 1. High values refer to a high level of norm-related equalising.
Technical name	labor_equa_func
Category	Labour and labour market
Label	Equalising function
Related indicators	Type of employment law Standard-setting function Privileging function Law provides for equal access to employment for men and women Law provides regulation of positive discrimination of women Law provides for equal access to employment concerning ethnicity/race Law provides regulation of positive discrimination of ethnicity/race Equal pay for equal work is legally provided for Law provides for equal working conditions for men and women Law provides for equal working conditions concerning ethnicity/race Employees enjoy right to a general minimum wage Fixed-term contracts are allowed only for limited duration Maximum duration of fixed-term contracts Agency work is prohibited or strictly controlled Part-time workers have the right to equal treatment Dismissing costs for part-time workers is proportional Fixed-term workers have the right to equal treatment Agency workers have the right to equal treatment

The equalising function refers to a form of legal segmentation which arises from passivity, meaning that contractual freedom allows employers to circumvent employment protection resulting in inequalities between groups. Thus, it captures the level of protection of social groups of employees who are discriminated against, as part of a cultural phenomenon or related to non-standard employment contracts. The function is measured by 15 indicators and includes norms relating to the two dimensions discrimination and flexibilisation and focuses on two aspects each (access, working conditions, restriction, equal treatment).

Coding rules

The index calculation relies on nine CBR-LRI and eight own coded indicators: Law provides for equal access to employment for men and women, Law provides regulation of positive discrimination of women, Law provides for equal access to employment concerning ethnicity/race, Law provides regulation of positive discrimination of ethnicity/race, Equal pay for equal work is legally provided for, Law provides for equal working conditions for men and women, Law provides for equal working conditions concerning ethnicity/race, Employees enjoy right to a general minimum wage, Fixed-term contracts are allowed only for limited duration, Maximum duration of fixed-term contracts, Agency work is prohibited or strictly controlled, Part-time workers have the right to equal treatment, Dismissing costs for part-time workers is proportional, Fixed-term workers have the right to equal treatment, Agency workers have the right to equal treatment. We calculated the mean of all indicators of one dimension, and again the mean of all dimensions of the function, thereby assigning equal weights to each dimension, and thus equal weights to all indicators of one dimension.

Bibliographic info

Citation:

• Dingeldey, Irene, Heiner Fechner, Jean-Yves Gerlitz, Jenny Hahs, and Ulrich Mückenberger. 2020. "Measuring Legal Segmentation in Labour Law." SOCIUM SFB 1342 Working Papers No. 5, Bremen: SOCIUM, University of Bremen. https://www.socialpolicydynamics.de/f/90e3891ffd.pdf
• Dingeldey, Irene, Heiner Fechner, Jean-Yves Gerlitz, Jenny Hahs, and Ulrich Mückenberger. FORTHCOMING. "Worlds of Labour: Introducing the SPE Typology as a Measure of Legal Segmentation in Labour Law." Manuscript under review at the Industrial Law Journal.

Related publications:

• Adams, Zoe, Louise Bishop, and Simon Deakin. 2016. CBR Labour Regulation Index (Dataset of 117 Countries). Cambridge: Centre for Business Research. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1810/263766/CBR_LRI_Dataset_Codebook_Methodology_2017_pdf.pdf?sequence=16&isAllowed=y
• Adams, Zoe, Parisa Bastani, Louise Bishop, and Simon Deakin. 2017. "The CBR-LRI Dataset: Methods, Properties and Potential of Leximetric Coding of Labour Law." International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations 33 (1): 59–91. http://kluwerlawonline.com/abstract.php?area=Journals&id=IJCL2017004
• Deakin, Simon, Jonas Malmberg, and Prabirjit Sarkar. 2014. "How do labour laws affect unemployment and the labour share of national income? The experience of six OECD countries, 1970-2010". International Labour Review 153 (1): 1-27. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1564-913X.2014.00195.x
• Deakin, Simon, John Armour, and Mathias Siems. 2017. "CBR Leximetric Datasets [updated] [Dataset]". https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.9130

Misc

Project manager(s):

• Andrea Schäfer
• Jean-Yves Gerlitz

Data release:

Revisions:

Sources

• Own coding