Recoge: 1. The rationale of short-time work - 2. STWA as a component of the social safety net - 3. The complementarity between public STWA and EPL - 4. The effectiveness os STWA: review of the empirical evidence - 5. Institutional characteristics of short-time work schemes - 6. Main changes in response to the crisis - 7. The role of STW during the crisis: empirical evidence - Description of short-time working schemes by country.