The European Employment Strategy and National Employment Policies

Abstract

This chapter discusses the variables of this study. The first part examines the independent variable of this study — the European Employment Strategy (EES) — arguing that the EES is composed of two kinds of stimuli:¹ (i) soft law instruments (EES guidelines, country-specific recommendations and benchmarks) and (ii) financial conditionality (funding from the ESF). This conceptualization of the EES diverges from most of the literature on the topic as the EES is usually treated primarily as a soft law instrument (cf. Hodson and Maher 2001; Regent 2003; de la Porte 2002; for a review, see Trubek and Trubek 2005; Kroger 2009b; Borras and Radaelli 2010). The benefit of this understanding is that it encompasses all possible EES stimuli when examining the domestic impact of the EES. The second part discusses the way the impact of the EES will be measured on the study’s dependent variable — national employment policy. The book will use a combination of established indicators and typologies to do so, namely the policy cycle model, Hall’s and Europeanization typologies of change.