The Changing Effect of Age on Labour Market Outcomes over the Post-communist Transformation in Central Europe
Résumé
Various mechanisms, including lower productivity, discrimination and composition effects, have been cited to explain the disadvantaged position on the labor market of young people, women, and persons nearing the end of their working life. In this article, which adopts the perspective of life cycle theory, this phenomenon is understood as a consequence of giving priority on the job market to middle-aged fathers. In the case of the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary in the period running from the 1980s to the early 2000s, these arrangements vary in time and by country, as is shown by employment chances and earnings for a variety of groups, corresponding here to the life stages of youth, motherhood, and old age. This information brings to light which groups are disadvantaged and in what way. The configurations observed change with the countries’ economic and socio-political situations, becoming more diverse by country at the end of the period. Older workers appear excluded from the labor market in Hungary; young people in Poland are integrated but paid relatively low wages; in the Czech Republic, where employment rates are relatively high, mothers are less likely to work.