Maggi, Rico Baruffini, Moreno 2014-05-26 The thesis focuses on labour market flexibility, security and complexity. The research is divided into three chapters: two of the chapters specifically relate to perceived security, flexibility and job satisfaction, using data from the longitudinal Swiss Household Panel (SHP), while the last investigates labour market programs and their impact on a regional labour market. The first essay analyses perceptions of economic insecurity in Switzerland, during the business cycle between 2008 and 2011. The analysis contributes to depict perceptions of Swiss workers; results show that perceptions of job security tend to be higher among workers with supervisory responsibilities, among permanent workers and among workers who live in regions that are not adversely affected by economic conditions. The second essay focuses on the determinants of perceived job satisfaction, a summary measure reflecting how workers value various job characteristics, paying specific attention to the role of perceived security and temporary contracts. Results indicate that the duration of the contract may be less important if the worker perceives that he is not at risk of unemployment: job stability and perceived security are nonetheless valued in different ways and the lack of job security is a primary source of job dissatisfaction. No significant differences emerge on the estimated effect by gender, while some heterogeneity is evident by age and education. Finally, the third paper, that follows (ACE) models approach, highlights a mechanism of the job search in a regional labour market characterized by a complex environment where firms, worker agents and policies interact in a systemic way. The model allows to approximate quite a number of stylized features of the southern Swiss regional labour market. application/pdf https://n2t.net/ark:/12658/srd1318622 https://susi.usi.ch/global/documents/318622 https://susi.usi.ch/documents/318622/files/2014ECO008.pdf eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/urn/urn:nbn:ch:rero-006-113451 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/ark/12658/srd1318622 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess License undefined Perceptions Job insecurity Job satisfaction Flexicurity Unobserved heterogeneity Labour market policy evaluation Agent-based computational model info:eu-repo/classification/udc/33 Regional labour market analysis and policy evaluation : Job insecurity, flexibility and complexity. Evidence from Switzerland http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06