Industrial Relations and Social Partners in the EU

Brief description

  • Actors in industrial relations: Trade unions, employers' associations, states
  • Differences and similarities of national wage and labour market policies (Varieties of Capitalism/Welfare State Models)
  • Current development of industrial relations in the EU member states and the EU
  • Theoretical models for analysing wage and labour market policies: Wage setting/Price setting model in the open economy, Phillips curve, Beveridge curve
  • Industrial relations forums at EU level: role of macro-economic dialogue, social partners in the European Semester
  • International competitiveness and wage policy
  • Inflation and employment in the Eurozone under the condition of a single monetary policy

Mode of delivery

face to face

Type

compulsory

Recommended or required reading and other learning resources/tools

Carlin, Wendy/Soskice, David (2015): Macroeconomics. Institutions, Instability, and the Financial System, Oxford: University Press.
Eurofound (2020): Industrial relations: Developments 2015–2019, Challenges and prospects in the EU series, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
European Commission (2015): Industrial Relations in Europe 2014, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
Hancké, Bob (2012): Unions, Central Banks, and EMU: Labour Market Institutions and Monetary Integration in Europe, Oxford: University Press.
Current literature will be announced by the lecturer at the beginning of the semester.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

Group discussions, presentations, group discussions, self-directed learning, implementation and evaluation of expert hearings

Assessment methods and criteria

Presentation (40%) and home assignment (60%)

Prerequisites and co-requisites

None

Infos

Degree programme

Europäische Wirtschaftspolitik

Cycle

International Programme

ECTS Credits

5.00

Language of instruction

German

Curriculum

Full-Time

Academic year

2025

Semester

3 WS

Incoming

No

Learning outcome

After successful completion of the module, students can:

  • describe the main forums of industrial relations at EU level (e.g. role in the European Semester, macroeconomic dialogue, etc.),
  • analyse the role of trade unions, employers' organisations and member states,
  • examine how national industrial relations are influenced by Europeanisation and globalisation,
  • analyse, on the basis of economic models of wage and labour market policy, how the different types of industrial relations influence wages, employment, inflation and competitiveness nationally and in the Eurozone as a whole,
  • assess different wage and labour market policy options,
  • analyse tensions that arise from different national wage policies with a simultaneous uniform European monetary policy and to classify, evaluate and develop policy options in this field of tension.

Course code

0899-23-01-VZ-DE-23