IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/econom/v74y2007i295p397-423.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why is Employment Protection Stricter in Europe than in the United States?

Author

Listed:
  • MICHÈLE BELOT

Abstract

I argue that the reason why the United States prefers a lower level of employment protection than the European countries lies in the differences in gains and costs from geographical mobility. I present a model in which labour migration and employment protection are both determined endogenously. The labour market is modelled within a matching framework, where the employment protection reduces both the job finding and job firing rates. Countries with low migration costs and high economic heterogeneity may prefer no employment protection so that workers can move quickly to better horizons rather than being maintained in low productive activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Michèle Belot, 2007. "Why is Employment Protection Stricter in Europe than in the United States?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 74(295), pages 397-423, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:econom:v:74:y:2007:i:295:p:397-423
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0335.2006.00552.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0335.2006.00552.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-0335.2006.00552.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oswald Andrew J., 1996. "A Conjecture on the Explanation for High Unemployment in the Industrialized Nations : Part I," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 475, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    2. Mr. Alun H. Thomas, 1994. "The Response of Wages and Labor Supply Movements to Employment Shocks Across Europe and the United States," IMF Working Papers 1994/158, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Björn Brügemann, 2012. "Does Employment Protection Create Its Own Political Support?," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 369-416, April.
    4. Björn Brügemann, 2007. "Employment protection: Tough to scrap or tough to get?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(521), pages 386-415, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Brunello, Giorgio & Wruuck, Patricia & Maurin, Laurent, 2019. "Skill shortages and skill mismatch in Europe: A review of the literature," EIB Working Papers 2019/05, European Investment Bank (EIB).
    2. Aparicio Fenoll, Ainoa & Kuehn, Zoë, 2016. "Education Policies and Migration across European Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 9755, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Stephen Machin & Kjell G. Salvanes & Panu Pelkonen, 2012. "Education And Mobility," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 417-450, April.
    4. Brunello, Giorgio & Wruuck, Patricia, 2019. "Skill Shortages and Skill Mismatch in Europe: A Review of the Literature," IZA Discussion Papers 12346, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Harald Oberhofer & Christian Glocker & Werner Hölzl & Peter Huber & Serguei Kaniovski & Klaus Nowotny & Michael Pfaffermayr & Monique Ebell & Nikolaos Kontogiannis, 2016. "Single Market Transmission Mechanisms Before, During and After the 2008-09 Crisis. A Quantitative Assessment," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 59156, April.
    6. Vincent Anesi & Philippe De Donder, 2013. "A coalitional theory of unemployment insurance and employment protection," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 52(3), pages 941-977, April.
    7. Per Skedinger, 2010. "Employment Protection Legislation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13686.
    8. Ainhoa Aparicio Fenoll & Zoë Kuehn, 2017. "Compulsory Schooling Laws and Migration Across European Countries," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(6), pages 2181-2200, December.
    9. Giorgio Brunello & Patricia Wruuck, 2021. "Skill shortages and skill mismatch: A review of the literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 1145-1167, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrea Vindigni & Simone Scotti & Cristina Tealdi, 2015. "Uncertainty and the Politics of Employment Protection," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(1), pages 209-267.
    2. Belot, M.V.K., 2001. "Why is the Employment Protection Stricter in Europe than in the US?," Discussion Paper 2001-79, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    3. Belot, M.V.K., 2001. "Why is the Employment Protection Stricter in Europe than in the US?," Other publications TiSEM 1b89c06b-a254-4d69-8d7f-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. Crowe, Christopher & Dell’Ariccia, Giovanni & Igan, Deniz & Rabanal, Pau, 2013. "How to deal with real estate booms: Lessons from country experiences," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 300-319.
    5. Claire Dujardin & Florence Goffette-Nagot, 2009. "Does public housing occupancy increase unemployment?," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(6), pages 823-851, November.
    6. Goerke, Laszlo & Neugart, Michael, 2015. "Lobbying and dismissal dispute resolution systems," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 50-62.
    7. Hilber, Christian A.L. & Lyytikäinen, Teemu, 2017. "Transfer taxes and household mobility: Distortion on the housing or labor market?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 57-73.
    8. Christian A. L. Hilber & Teemu Lyytikäinen, 2012. "The Effect of the UK Stamp Duty Land Tax on Household Mobility," SERC Discussion Papers 0115, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    9. Fiorella Kostoris Padoa Schioppa & Claudio Lupi, 2002. "Family Income and Wealth, Youth Unemployment and Active Labour Market Policies," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 407-416.
    10. Julie Beugnot & Olivier Charlot & Guy Lacroix, 2019. "Does promoting homeownership always damage labour market performances?," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 127(2), pages 161-183, July.
    11. Pekka Ilmakunnas & Mika Maliranta, 2005. "Worker inflow, outflow, and churning," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(10), pages 1115-1133.
    12. Serena Trucchi, 2011. "How credit markets affect homeownership: an explanation based on differences between Italian regions," CeRP Working Papers 122, Center for Research on Pensions and Welfare Policies, Turin (Italy).
    13. Loïc Cadiou & Stéphanie Guichard & Mathilde Maurel, 2000. "Disparités institutionnelles et flexibilité des marchés du travail dans l'UE," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 332(1), pages 49-63.
    14. V r E. Barrios & M. Consuelo Colom & M. Cruz Mol鳠, 2013. "Life cycle and housing decisions: a comparison by age cohorts," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(32), pages 4556-4568, November.
    15. Casper Ewijk & Bas Jacobs & Ruud Mooij, 2007. "Welfare Effects of Fiscal Subsidies on Home Ownership in the Netherlands," De Economist, Springer, vol. 155(3), pages 323-336, September.
    16. Thierry Kamionka & Guy Lacroix, 2018. "Homeownership, Labour Market Transitions and Earnings," CIRANO Working Papers 2018s-35, CIRANO.
    17. Andrea Camilli & Pedro Gomes, 2023. "Public employment and homeownership dynamics," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 194(1), pages 101-155, January.
    18. Timo Tohmo & Jutta Viinikainen, 2023. "Home-ownership and unemployment: revisiting the Oswald hypothesis from a regional heterogeneity perspective," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 12(4), pages 342-355.
    19. Gaetano Lisi, 2019. "Homeownership and entrepreneurship: a search-and-matching model and a panel analysis in Italy," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 36(3), pages 673-694, October.
    20. Gersbach, Hans & Schniewind, Achim, 2001. "Awareness of General Equilibrium Effects and Unemployment," IZA Discussion Papers 394, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:econom:v:74:y:2007:i:295:p:397-423. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.