*** GYÖRGY SZÉLL (Ed.): Corporate Social responsability in the EU & Japan. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - e-mail: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.de ). "Labour, Education & Society" series, No. 1. 2006, 414 pp. ISBN 3-631-54884-2.
Corporate social responsibility can be defined as companies taking social and environmental concerns on board in their interaction with different stakeholders. Why do they do this? Perhaps because the shareholder values that were all the rage and became a corporate governance slogan some fifteen years ago at the same time, as György Széll explains, as "social justice and workers' rights were put into the waste bin of history", have not lived up to expectations. Against this backdrop, "the ongoing outsourcing and privatisation of public goods, based on neo-liberal ideologies and practices, is the reason for the necessity to introduce the concept and hopefully also the praxis of corporate social responsibility". The concept has roused great interest in the international community of sociologists, and György Széll is no exception. Throughout his thirty-five year career, he has often looked at questions of economic and organisational democracy and self management. This book is part of a multinational research project launched in April 2004 and continuing into 2007 at the EU Institute in Japan. The eighteen essays in the book are by European and Japanese authors who spoke at a workshop in Japan on 26 - 27 November 2004.
The first part of the book is made up of comparative studies. There are huge differences between European and Japanese governance models but the differences are not limited to differences between the continents. Various models co-exist in Europe but the Germanic corporate governance model has influenced several countries, starting with Germany, the economic powerhouse of Europe. The Japanese model, known as "lean management" or "Toyota-ism", has been a reference all round the globe, but as György Széll points out, these models are being challenged these days. The six essays in the first part of the book study the role of trade unions and how the German and Japanese 'welfare corporatism' models have adapted differently to the challenges of globalisation. Prof. Jean-Marc Le Duc comments that "the role of the modern corporation is pivotal to the public debate about globalisation and sustainable development" and looks at the role of workers on enterprise committees at Renault-Nissan and Arcelor.
Following this transversal section, there is a series of essays on the situation in the European Union, which is trying to become a world leader in this field and build a common position based on the debates surrounding the Green Papers on corporate social responsibility. This EU section includes regional and industry-specific case studies, like Witold Morawski, considering the role played by unequal structures engendered by globalisation in the formulation of corporate social responsibility in the EU. The third part of the book studies the situation in Japan, a country which has often led the way in the field of corporate social responsibility but which now needs to strike a new balance between tradition and innovation.
Frederik Ronse
*** JULIÁN MESSINA, CLAUDIO MICHELACCI, JARKO TURUNEN, GYLFI ZOEGA (Eds.): Labour Market Adjustments in Europe. Edward Elgar Publishing (Glensanda House, Montpellier Parade, Cheltenham, Glos, GL50 1UA, UK. Tel: (44-1242) 226934 - Fax: 262111 - E-mail: info@e-elgar.co.uk - Internet: http://www.e-elgar.com ). 2006, 504 pp. ISBN 972-9222-35-5.
This book publishes the proceedings of a conference held in June 2004 at the European Central Bank, the fifth in a series of conferences on the labour market and the impact of the EU institutions on economic performance, both theoretically and in practice. Various writers present micro-economic studies with a view to measuring the impact of European directives and other changes in regulations, using these studies to suggest measures at institution level that could strengthen European economies against the backdrop of big external macro-economic crises.
The first chapter studies the influence of trade unions on the labour market, particularly how they tend to alleviate shortcomings by providing training programmes for jobseekers, for example. The second chapter studies pay rounds and how they are influenced by decisions taken at the political and institutional level, revealing that the cut in working hours over the last thirty years has had a negative impact on per capita income in the eurozone. Pension schemes, early retirement and other social programmes of this ilk are analysed and the chapter describes how various institutions influence retirement decisions and propose economic policies which could increase the use of labour. In this connection, the next two chapters examine the impact of labour market protection on employment, studying a change in Italian regulations in the early 1990s which increased the costs of making staff redundant for some companies, with a view to identifying the impact of such employment protection measures. The study showed that the people worst hit by these measures were women and that this type of regulation generally leads to rising unemployment levels. The authors then examine the impact of this type of job protection on mobility on the labour market. The last two chapters examine the link between workers' living space and their mobility. It starts by studying the situation in the Netherlands, starting from the assumption that buying a house makes workers less likely to up sticks and move elsewhere. It reveals that people's living arrangements are not a constraint in Northern Europe but the same does not apply in Southern Europe, where young people tend to live with their parents for longer. This phenomenon might be explained by the authors' analysis of mortgage restrictions. They look in detail at the reforms introduced by Portugal's introduction of the "Crédito bonificado" in 1998 and how it impacts on young people's decisions about whether or not to buy a house. A book studying how the impact of institutions' action at the grass roots level…
(NDu)
*** FRITZ BREUSS (Ed.): The Stability and Growth Pact. Experiences and Future Aspects. Springer (P.O. Box 89, 4-6 Sachsenplatz, Vienna, Austria. Fax: (43-1) 3302426 - E-mail: books@springer.at - Internet: http://www.springer.com ). "European Community Studies Association of Austria - Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Europaforschung" series, No. 10. 2007, 261 pp. ISBN 3-211-27964-4.
This book follows on from an extremely high-level conference in Vienna, Austria, in March 2005 but most of the essays have been updated in the light of changes to the Stability and Growth Pact. The main highlight of the essays in the book is their detailed analysis of how the Stability and Growth Pact actually operates, particularly measures to prevent and correct budget slippages. Written by leading pundits in the field, it covers the Pact's legal aspects (Prof. Jean-Victor Louis, Angelika Hable and Wolfgang Wessels), the economic problems it raises (Paul van den Noord, André Sapir, Andrew Hughes-Hallett and Ewald Nowotny), its theoretical basis (Wilhelm Kohler and Waltraud Schelkle), economic aspects of changes to the Pact (Marco Buti) and simulations of theoretical models of its budget rules (Prof. Fritz Breuss, Werner Roeger, Reinhard Neck and Gottfried Haber). A book to delight experts in this field!
(MT)
*** Sinfo. Government of the Republic of Slovenia, Public Relations and Media Office (Ljubljana. Internet: http: //http://www.uvi.gov.si/eng/slovenia/publications/sinfo ). January 2007, 48 pp. This issue of the monthly Slovenian newsletter contains a special dossier on Slovenia dropping the tolar to join the euro on 1 January 2007. Slovenian finance minister Andrej Bajuk writes that it is the most important project ever undertaken in Slovenia's history.
(MT)
*** GABRIELE TONDL, IULIA TRAISTARU-SIEDSCHLAG: Regional Growth Cycle Convergence in the European Union. Wirtschafts Universität Wien (39-45 Althanstrasse, A-1090 Vienna, Austria. Tel: (43-1) 313364135 - Fax: 31336758 - e-mail: europafragen@wu-wien.ac.at - Internet: http: //fgr.wu-wien.ac.at/institut/ef/home01de.html). "EI Working Paper", No. 71. 2006, 35 pp, €7-20.
European monetary policy has both costs and benefits. The benefits are increased trade and growth through the elimination of exchange rates and lower transaction costs, and the costs are connected with the greater risk of volatility in economic activity due to the loss of stabilising tools for individual countries (monetary policies and exchange rates). Since European monetary policy can only react to economic shocks across several countries or regions, asymmetrical shocks are seen as costs in terms of business volatility and the balance between costs and benefits therefore hangs on asymmetrical shocks. The synchronisation of economic cycles is seen as an indicator of the likelihood of such shocks occurring. The more synchronised the business cycles, the less the likelihood of shocks occurring. This study aims to identify the determinants of regional growth cycles in the eurozone and isolate and explain trends towards synchronisation in these growth cycles. To this end, the authors established a four simultaneous equations system to assess the impact of regional trade integration, specialisation and exchange rate volatility on regional growth cycles in the eurozone, using information from 208 regions for the period 1989-2002.
(NDu)
*** MAXIMILIAN FUCHS, FRANZ MARHOLD (Eds.): Europäisches Arbeitsrecht. Springer (see above). " Springers Handbücher der Rechtswissenschaft" series. 2006, 338 pp. ISBN 3-211-32655-3.
Growing market globalisation has a huge influence on labour relations. Since the publication of the first edition of this book, EU legislators have been involved in tackling various aspects of labour law, particularly worker participation in company decision-making, the area where there have been the highest number of changes in legislation. The right of free circulation for workers has also changed, in line with changes in residence rights. Four new anti-discrimination guidelines have been introduced, requiring considerable transposition measures to introduce them into Member States' labour legislation. This book comments on all the new legislation and 76 new European Court of Justice rulings.
(CDi)
*** MICHEL HERBILLON: Le Fonds d'ajustement à la mondialisation: pour une Europe sociale plus solidaire, plus concrète et plus proche des salariés. Délégation pour l'Union européenne de l'Assemblée nationale (Boutique de l'Assemblée nationale, 7 rue Aristide Briand, F-75007 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40630033 - Internet: http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr ). "Documents d'information" series, No. 3445. 2006, 66 pp, €3-50. ISBN 2-11-121623-2.
In this newsletter, French parliamentarian Michel Herbillon sheds light on the value added of the European Globalisation Fund in terms of promoting a Social Europe. He points out that the new fund to deal with economic and social shocks as they happen, and more specifically the fallout of company relocations, will be working alongside longer term objectives of the EU Structural Funds and the Lisbon Strategy, which the author describes as being the only road for a dynamic and prosperous EU in the future.
(PBo)
*** Processus de Lisbonne: contribution du Conseil économique et social à la préparation du Sommet de printemps 2007. Les éditions des journaux officiels (26 rue Desaix, F-75727 Paris cedex 15. Tel: (33-1) 40587979 - Fax: 45791784 - E-mail: info@journal-officiel.gouv.fr - Internet: http://www.journal-officiel.gouv.fr ). "Avis et Rapports du Conseil Economique et social" series. 2006, 100 pp, €8-50. ISBN 2-11-120713-6.
In the run-up to the Spring European Council in March, this publication summarises recent opinions adopted by the French Economic and Social Committee (ESC) relevant to the Lisbon Strategy. As requested by the French government, it comments on the draft "Rapport de suivi 2006 du Programme national de réforme". In this book on how France is tackling the Lisbon Strategy, the ESC also gives its own analysis of the gap between citizens and European institutions so that more relevant and coherent EU policies can be developed and shared, a necessary precondition for getting wide citizen backing for a relaunch of the European project.
(PBo)