Exploratory analysis of flexicurity dimensions across EU countries : a statistical assessment and consensus clustering approach

The present analysis of flexicurity dimensions across EU countries draws upon available data sources from Eurostat (Statistics on Living and Income Conditions and Labour Force Survey) and OECD. The results from the updated statistical assessment are very much in line with those from previous analyses, and underscore the lack of a sound and robust correlation structure among the indicators in the different flexicurity dimensions. In addition, cluster analysis has been brought into the picture to provide additional insights on the heterogeneity of flexicurity performance across countries. With regard to the results obtained from the clustering exercise, these appear to be to a great extent sensitive to the method applied and to the indicators (and time periods) considered for the analysis. However, consensus clustering optimisation techniques might be used to overcome the problem of non-uniqueness and disagreement between partitions, and to improve the robustness of cluster solutions.