Does it make sense to regionalize labour market institutions?

Re-Bel e-book 2, published in April 2009, 36 pages.

Lead piece: Jean-Claude Marcourt and Frank Vandenbroucke (employment ministers for Wallonia and Flanders, respectively)
Editors: Bart Cockx (UGent) and Bruno Van der Linden (UCLouvain)

Abstrast

This e-book addresses one of the most hotly debated questions in the Belgian federation: To what extent should some federal labour market institutions be decentralized? “Labour market institutions” include formal organizations, laws, rules and policies that affect the functioning of the labour market. The e-book starts with an opinion piece jointly published on December 8, 2008 by Ministers Marcourt and Vandenbroucke, then in charge of employment in the Walloon and Flemish governments, respectively. In this piece, they present a a list of institutions that should remain federal and another list of institutions and policies that should be decentralized. The bulk of the e-book consists of comments on the viewpoint expressed in this piece. One of them is by Minister Cerexhe, then in charge of employment in the Brussels government. All other comments are by academics active in the areas of labour economics and social policy.

Reactions to the e-book

Comment on the e-book by Koen ALGOED, April 30, 2009

Comment on the e-book by Frank VANDENBROUCKE, April 28, 2009