Title:
The Changing Quality of Part-time Work - A Cross-Country Comparison

Abstract:
Aim of the paper

The main objective of this paper is to examine whether differences in institutional context within which part-time work developed led to significant differences in the quality of part-time work. The focus is on countries that provide relatively strong institutional contrasts – such as the Scandinavian countries on the one hand, which have been characterized as having inclusive employment systems, and Britain, on the other, which is often taken as the exemplar of a liberal or deregulated employment system. The nature of change in the quality of part-time work between the early 1990s and the mid 2000s within these countries is studied. While at the beginning of the period, the characteristics of part-time work were determined primarily by national institutional systems, by the end of the period they are likely to have been increasingly affected by European regulations. Other factors that might have acted as a driving force to changes in the quality of part-time work over time could for example be increased levels of education and a potential rise in employers’ demand for flexible labour. These questions are examined using the Swedish Level of Living Survey (LNU) and the Swedish Living Condition Survey (ULF), respectively the British Skill Survey and the Employment in Britain Survey (EIB).