High non-standard employment rates in the Republic of Korea and Japan: Analyzing policy configurations with fuzzy-set/QCA

초록

The paper investigates policy conditions for high rates of non-standard employment in Korea and Japan exploiting fs/QCA (fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis). We first review the previous literature on labor market risks and discuss the advantages of taking a configurational approach in investigating policies related to increase of non-standard workers. Secondly, non-standard employment in Korea and Japan are examined more closely in comparison with other OECD countries. In case of Korea, a low level of statutory minimum wage in combination with strict employment protection legislation for permanent workers is suggested as the sufficient condition for high rate of non-standard employment rate. In case of Japan, a low level of statutory minimum wage in combination with weak employment protection legislations for temporary workers is suggested to lead to a high level of non-standard employment rate. We empirically test which policy configurations cause high rate of non-standard employment and discuss (i) the importance of examining multiple policies together and (ii) that there can be different pathways to the same outcome. (C) 2013 Policy and Society Associates (APSS). Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.