Smart Policies or Sheer Luck? Labour Market Resilience in the Low Countries

Abstract

This article explores the labour market resilience of Belgium and the Netherlands. We define labour market resilience as the capacity of labour markets to resist, withstand or quickly recover from negative exogenous shocks and disturbances and to renew, adjust or re-orientate in order to benefit from positive shocks. This article focuses on the labour market consequences of the crisis in these two countries and discusses their policy responses. Belgium and the Netherlands are often considered as comparable countries because of their open economies, their institutional characteristics and the fact that they usually are grouped together in the same welfare regimes. This article clearly shows that there are considerable differences between the countries. Although both countries have managed to limit the labour market consequences of the crisis, they have done so through the application of different interventions and reforms. From the comparison of these two countries we distillate more general conclusions about the factors that promote or limit labour market resilience.