—The Japanese labour market during the global financial
crisis and the role of non-standard work: A micro perspective
This paper analyses aggregate labour dynamics during the global
financial crisis in Japan and the role of non-standard work using
micro data. The analysis proceeds in two steps. First, using comprehensive
establishment-level datasets for the period 1991–2009, it
provides a detailed portrait of the adjustment behaviour of establishments
at the micro level. Second, it compares aggregate labour
market dynamics during the global financial crisis with that
observed during the 1997 crisis and decomposes the observed differences
into components that can be attributed to changes in the
micro-adjustment behaviour of Japanese establishments, changes
in the incidence of non-standard work and changes in the distribution
of shocks across establishments. It finds that the incidence of
non-standard work has increased considerably, worker turnover is
much higher among non-standard than standard workers and
adjustments in working-time are less important for non-standard
workers. Counterfactual simulations suggest that the employment
response during the global crisis would have been smaller if the