The Future European Labor Supply: The Critical Role of the Family

The European employment strategy initiated in 1997 is critically dependent upon the further integration of women into the labor market. The European Union has set a specific target employment rate for women of 60 percent by 2010 and is also committed to providing more and better child care facilities. This gender focus is reinforced by the requirement for gender mainstreaming in all aspects of European employment policy. There is an implied Europe-wide, universal policy of encouraging female labor-market participation and reducing the care work performed by domestic labor. However, the European Commission continues to have limited competence in areas of family, social, and welfare policy. As a result, these common employment objectives for women are thus being pursued against a background of quite different systems of social, family, welfare, and indeed labor-market organization. These systems have different economic and employment implications, such that the outcomes of the common European employment strategy will also be highly variable.     

Analyzing the Techno-Economic Determinants for the Repowering of Wind Farms

The aim of this article is to identify the relative importance of technical and economic variables in the financial feasibility of repowering wind farm projects. A financial valuation model is developed. We carry out a sensitivity analysis with several variables considered to be key in the repowering decision. The most relevant technical variable is the increase in production efficiency and the most relevant economic variable is the capital expenditures in new equipment. Furthermore, the decision to repower critically depends upon the level of support being provided. The repowering project would not be feasible in the absence of support.     

Gender Differences in Time Use over the Life Course in France,Italy, Sweden,and the US

Abstract

This contribution analyzes how men and women in France, Italy, Sweden, and the United States use their time over the life cycle and the extent to which societal and institutional contexts influence the gender division of labor. In order to test the hypothesis that contextual factors play a crucial role in shaping time allocation, this study considers countries that diverge considerably in terms of welfare state regime, employment and paid working time systems, family policies, and social norms. Using national time-use surveys for the late 1990s and early 2000s and regression techniques, the study not only finds large gender discrepancies in time use in each country at all stages of life but also determines that institutional contexts, in particular the design of family policies and employment regimes, do shape gender roles in different ways, and that Sweden displays the lowest gender gap in time allocation across the life course.