Active Labour Market Policies for Disabled People:
A Comparative Analysis of the European Union Member States
Betul Yalcin
•In what ways are the EU Member States similar and different in
their active labour market policies for disabled people?
(Situational Analysis)
MACRO
•What work ? (Structural Equation Modeling)
MESO
• What kind of active labour market policies reveal better
employment outcomes for disabled people? (QCA)
• How is employment of disabled people perceived by
public? (Logistic Regression)
MICRO
• How are active labour market policies implemented in
private sector? (Thematic Analysis)
• How are these policies experienced and negotiated by
private sector M-SME employers and disabled employees?
(Thematic Analysis)
Perception of Attitudes towards Disabled People
in the Labour Market:
A Comparative Analysis in the European Context
ATTITUDES
• ‘an idea charged with emotions which predisposes a class of actions to
a particular class of situations’ (Triandis, 1984)
• serves as a framework through which people interpret and link
themselves to the social world.
• Industrialization and globalization devalued labor of disabled people
• EU employment rates (DP- 45 % vs. 72 % N-DP)
• Presence of institutional, attitudinal and environmental barriers.
• Public attitudes gain attention due to the role it plays in policy making
processes
LITERATURE
• Two way interaction between public attitudes and public policies
• Public attitudes shape/dictate policies (Hanh, 1885; Kamieniechki,
1885)
• Public attitudes are shaped by policies (Hick 1999; Jacobs and Shapiro,
2000)
• Understanding how public policy and attitudes interact with each other
is important for stipulation and implementation of enabling policies.
Perception of Attitudes towards Disabled People
in the Labour Market:
A Comparative Analysis in the European Context
AIM
• To provide pattern and trends in the European citizens' perception of the
attitudes towards disabled people in the labor market
• To investigate the factors that influence this perception by taking individual
and country level factors into account.
• What is the pattern and trend in European citizens’ perception of
QUESTIONS
attitudes towards disabled people in the labor market?
• Who holds such perception?
• Eurobarometer Opinion Survey Series 2007, 2009, and 2012
DATA
• Descriptive statistics
• Logistic regression
Perception of Attitudes towards Disabled People
in the Labour Market:
A Comparative Analysis in the European Context
RESULTS
• There is a sharp decrease in the number of people who see disability as a discriminatory
criteria in the labour market between 2007 and 2012
• Individual level factors, compared to their reference groups
• Males (excluding 2012 series)
• People who are 55 and older
• People who have shorter schooling periods
• People who are coming from high social level
• People who hold right wing political orientation
• People who belong to Islam religion
• People who do not have disability or no familiarity with disability
are less likely to refer disability as a discriminatory criteria in the labour market
• Country level factors
• Liberal welfare states
• States that have quota system for public and private sector
are less likely to refer disability as a discriminatory criteria
Perception of Attitudes towards Disabled People
in the Labour Market:
A Comparative Analysis in the European Context
CONCLUSION
• Although there is a decline in the number of people who sees disability as a discriminatory, recent
average employment rates showed that disabled people have 63% lower employment rate than that
of non disabled people
• Amongst individual level factors: gender, educational attainment, age, disability and familiarity with
disability, perceived social level, religious denomination and political orientation are found to be
significant factors in explaining differences in people’s perceptions.
• For country level factors, both welfare typology and quota system revealed consistent significant
effect, where liberal systems and countries which have quota system in public and private sectors
display consistent lower likelihoods of referring disability as discriminatory criteria
• Compared to descriptive statistics, logistic regression revealed slightly different, but statistically more
sound results for the effects of individual and country level factors, as well as likelihoods for their sub
parameters
• Occupational status do not reveal consistent statistical significance, meaning that employers and
people who are potential colleagues hold similar views.
Perception of Attitudes towards Disabled People
in the Labour Market:
A Comparative Analysis in the European Context
RECOMMENDATIONS
EU organs and EU member states
• Increase in the number of people who do not see disability as a discriminatory criteria, might result
in lessening the public pressure on policy makers. Considering the fact that sharpest decline overlaps
with 2008 global economic crisis, intervention and awareness programs regarding employment of
disabled people should be given utmost priority, particularly at the time of economic crises.
Additionally, special focus should be given to those people who are less likely to think that disabled
people are discriminated in economic life.
• During the planning of those programs, special attention should be given to eliminate the risk
created by applied quota system. Having lower likelihoods than no quota systems, might be resulting
from the air created by having legal obligations in the recruitment. In those countries, people might
hold the view that such measures would prevent people being discriminated against in the labour
market.
Literature
• Descriptive statistics and logistic regression are complementary to each other
• Logistic regression serves better for likelihoods.
Perception of Attitudes towards Disabled People
in the Labour Market:
A Comparative Analysis in the European Context
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION
Email: B.Yalcin@leeds.ac.uk; betulyn@gmail.com