scholarly journals The Impact of Employment Protection Legislation on the Labor Market Under a Negative Economic Shock

2012 ◽  
Vol 260 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski ◽  
Przemysław Włodarczyk
2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-44
Author(s):  
Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski ◽  
Przemysław Włodarczyk

This article presents the impact of the global crisis on employment in the OECD countries, and in particular is an attempt to explain why the impact is of a different scope in particular countries. Particular attention has been paid to the question of the role played by labour market institutions (such as employment protection legislation and fixed-term employment). The global economic crisis has influenced the situation in the labour markets of OECD countries, causing declines in employment and increases in unemployment. Changes in the level of employment in individual countries varied. Between 2007-2012 declines in production took place in the majority of OECD countries. Declines in real wages were also observed in those countries. On the other hand, in the period of 2005-2012 relatively small changes in labour market institutions occurred. With respect to both the stringency of employment protection legislation, as well as the share of fixed-term employment, there were no clearly visible trends in the data during the period of economic crisis. The econometric verification of theoretical hypotheses was performed using annual data from the 2005-2012 period for 26 OECD countries, and it shows that GDP and real wages were statistically significant determinants of employment size in the analyzed period. The study also confirmed the hypothesis of the existence of a non-linear (U-shaped) relationship between employment elasticity with respect to GDP and the level of stringency of employment protection legislation, as well as the share of fixed-term employment in the total number of employment contracts. The results show that the smallest declines in employment during a crisis might be expected in countries where the level of EPL is close to 2, and the share of fixed-term employment in the total number of employment contracts is close to 18%.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Niall O’Higgins ◽  
Giovanni Pica

AbstractWe analyse theoretically and empirically the effects on young people’s labour market outcomes of two specific labour market institutions and their interaction: employment protection legislation and active labour market policy. The paper examines recent policy reforms in Italy focussing on the impact of the 2012 Fornero reforms of employment protection legislation as well as the initial impact of the EU-wide Youth Guarantee scheme introduced in Italy in March 2014. The paper then examines how these two policy reforms interacted. The analysis first confirms the finding that the Fornero reform increased permanent hires particularly amongst the very youngest workers; it then goes on to find that the YG was indeed successful in increasing the hires of young people, although this operated through a statistically significant increase in female hires on temporary contracts. Third, it finds some evidence of a dampening effect of the YG on EPL reforms as predicted by theory.


Author(s):  
Samir Amine ◽  
Wilner Predelus

With emerging economies facing significant lags in the use of information technology to improve their productivity and compete with industrialized economies, the availability of relatively lower-cost labor in the emerging economies is considered a powerful asset that can compensate for their technological disadvantage. However, regulating the labor market often proves to be rather challenging as it is important that a balance be struck between protecting workers and stimulating economic growth. This chapter analyzes the literature on labor market regulations in the emerging economies to observe that the trade-off between employment protection legislation (EPL), job creation, productivity, and innovation often cited in the literature is not conclusive.


2006 ◽  
pp. 122-143
Author(s):  
V. Gimpelson ◽  
R. Kapeliushnikov

The article focuses on diversification and destandartization of employment in the Russian economy. The authors discuss global and objective preconditions for this process but underline a few specific features of the Russian case. The latter are due to the market transition as well as to incomplete and selective enforcement of the excessively restrictive employment protection legislation. This explains high incidence of household-based subsistence farming, underemployment, time-related overemployment, informal employment against low level of formal contracts for fixed-term or part-time employment. Using representative data the authors illustrate all major forms of non-standard employment in Russia that have evolved since 1992.


ILR Review ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 733-759 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jisun Baek ◽  
WooRam Park

The authors examine the impact of employment protection legislation on firm-level outcomes such as employment and profitability in South Korea. The 2007 Act on the Protection of Temporary Workers restricted the use of specific types of temporary contracts to a period of two years. Exploiting the fact that the impact of the reforms was greater for establishments that intensively used the affected temporary workers, the authors apply a difference-in-differences framework. Their results show that businesses responded to the Act by reducing the use of temporary contracts protected by the reforms and partially substituting them with permanent and other unprotected temporary contracts. As a result, the reform decreased overall employment level of establishments. Furthermore, the authors find that the newly introduced regulations had a limited negative impact on firms’ profitability. Evidence suggests that establishments also improved their capital intensity and their labor productivity in response to the labor reform.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (45) ◽  
pp. 45-58
Author(s):  
Carlos Coca Gamito ◽  
Georgios Baltos

AbstractThe paper introduces a model of how workers rationally decide to which country within an area of monetary and economic integration they will move for the purposes of living and working. Since Mundell accomplished his pivotal respective analyses, the Optimal Currency Area (OCA) literature has highlighted the importance of the reallocation of the labour force within common currency areas in order to cushion asymmetric shocks. However, several studies have put into question whether such a mobility may be considered adequately effective and efficient within the Euro Zone and, hence, political solutions have been urgently requested. This paper, using the concept of employment protection legislation (EPL), looks at the impact of the different flexibility degrees applied among national labour markets on the international labour movements within the Euro Zone, and it then proposes a reform of such in terms of the degrees of flexibility that could achieve the optimal point.


2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
JENNY BENNETT ◽  
KATJA MÖHRING

AbstractWe investigate the labour market situation of older individuals in Europe in relation to their previous employment history as well as the regulations relating to employment protection legislation and early retirement. Specifically, we look at the competing risks of early retirement and late career unemployment. The central research question is whether policy effects differ according to the characteristics of an individual's previous work history. We employ data for twelve European countries from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARELIFE) and estimate multilevel regression models. The results show different mechanisms for the risks of unemployment and early retirement. Late career unemployment results from individual factors related to fragmented careers, marginal employment and short tenures. In the case of early retirement, we find the interplay of individual and policy factors to be crucial. Persons with consistent careers have an increased probability of early retirement, but only in countries with generous early retirement benefits. However, employment protection legislation appears to counteract early retirement for this group of individuals. We conclude that policy factors do not have uniform effects for older individuals, but should rather be viewed against the background of previous developments in individual career paths.


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