IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/anc/wpaper/445.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

No Consensus In The Imf-Oecd 'Consensus': A Meta-Analysis On The Employment Impact Of Labour Deregulations

Author

Listed:
  • Emiliano Brancaccio

    (Universita' degli studi del Sannio)

  • Fabiana De Cristofaro

    (Institute of Economics and EMbeDS Department, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa)

  • Raffaele Giammetti

    (Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (Italy))

Abstract

The so-called 'IMF-OECD consensus' suggests that labour market deregulations increase employment and reduce unemployment. We present a first meta-analysis on the subject based on MAER-NET guidelines. We examine the relation between Employment Protection Legislation indexes on one hand and employment and unemployment on the other. Among 53 academic papers published between 1990 and 2019 and contained in the Web of Science, only 28% supports the 'consensus' while the remaining 72% report results that are controversial (21%) or contrary to the 'consensus' (51%). The decline in 'consensus' is particularly evident in the last decade. Results are independent of the citations of the papers examined, the impact factor of the journals and the techniques used. A FAT-PET meta-regression model confirms these outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Emiliano Brancaccio & Fabiana De Cristofaro & Raffaele Giammetti, 2020. "No Consensus In The Imf-Oecd 'Consensus': A Meta-Analysis On The Employment Impact Of Labour Deregulations," Working Papers 445, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
  • Handle: RePEc:anc:wpaper:445
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://docs.dises.univpm.it/web/quaderni/pdf/445.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2020
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michèle Belot & Jan C. van Ours, 2004. "Does the recent success of some OECD countries in lowering their unemployment rates lie in the clever design of their labor market reforms?," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 56(4), pages 621-642, October.
    2. Bruno Amable & Lilas Demmou & Donatella Gatti, 2011. "The effect of employment protection and product market regulation on labour market performance: substitution or complementarity?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(4), pages 449-464.
    3. Scarpetta, Stefano & Tressel, Thierry, 2004. "Boosting productivity via innovation and adoption of new technologies : any role for labor market institutions?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3273, The World Bank.
    4. Jean-Paul Fitoussi & Francesco Saraceno, 2013. "European economic governance: the Berlin–Washington Consensus," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 37(3), pages 479-496.
    5. Richard B. Freeman, 2007. "Labor Market Institutions Around the World," NBER Working Papers 13242, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Richard B. Freeman, 2009. "Labor Regulations, Unions, and Social Protection in Developing Countries: Market distortions or Efficient Institutions?," NBER Working Papers 14789, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Blanchard, Olivier & Wolfers, Justin, 2000. "The Role of Shocks and Institutions in the Rise of European Unemployment: The Aggregate Evidence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(462), pages 1-33, March.
    8. Boeri, Tito & Helppie, Brooke & Macis, Mario, 2008. "Labor regulations in developing countries : a review of the evidence and directions for future research," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 46306, The World Bank.
    9. Olivier Blanchard & Emiliano Brancaccio, 2019. "Crisis and Revolution in Economic Theory and Policy: A Debate," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(2), pages 271-287, April.
    10. Carmen Pagés-Serra, 2000. "The Cost of Job Security Regulation: Evidence from Latin American Labor Markets," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2000), pages 109-154, August.
    11. Stephen Nickell & Luca Nunziata & Wolfgang Ochel, 2005. "Unemployment in the OECD Since the 1960s. What Do We Know?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(500), pages 1-27, January.
    12. Guerriero, Marta & Sen, Kunal, 2012. "What Determines the Share of Labour in National Income? A Cross-Country Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 6643, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Micco, Alejandro & Pagés, Carmen, 2006. "The Economic Effects of Employment Protection: Evidence from International Industry-Level Data," IZA Discussion Papers 2433, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Kahn, Lawrence M., 2010. "Employment protection reforms, employment and the incidence of temporary jobs in Europe: 1996-2001," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 1-15, January.
    15. International Finance Corporation & World Bank, 2008. "Doing Business 2009 : Comparing Regulation in 181 Economies," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6313, December.
    16. Edward P. Lazear, 1990. "Job Security Provisions and Employment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(3), pages 699-726.
    17. Tito Boeri & Pietro Garibaldi, 2007. "Two Tier Reforms of Employment Protection: a Honeymoon Effect?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(521), pages 357-385, June.
    18. Stephen Nickell, 1997. "Unemployment and Labor Market Rigidities: Europe versus North America," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 55-74, Summer.
    19. World Bank, 2013. "World Development Report 2014 [Informe sobre el desarrollo mundial 2014, Riesgo y oportunidad : la administración del riesgo como instrumento de desarrollo - Panorama general]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 16092, December.
    20. Parisi, Maria Laura, 2017. "Labor market rigidity, social policies and the labor share: Empirical evidence before and after the big crisis," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 492-512.
    21. Djankov, Simeon & Ramalho, Rita, 2009. "Employment laws in developing countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 3-13, March.
    22. Gabriele Ciminelli & Romain Duval & Davide Furceri, 2022. "Employment Protection Deregulation and Labor Shares in Advanced Economies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(6), pages 1174-1190, November.
    23. Juergen B. Donges, 1985. "Chronic Unemployment in Western Europe Forever?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(4), pages 353-372, December.
    24. Emerson, Michael, 1988. "Regulation or deregulation of the labour market : Policy regimes for the recruitment and dismissal of employees in the industrialised countries," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 775-817, April.
    25. Per Skedinger, 2010. "Employment Protection Legislation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13686.
    26. Oecd, 2009. "Employment and Social Protection," OECD Journal on Development, OECD Publishing, vol. 9(4), pages 7-54.
    27. Janine Berg (ed.), 2015. "Labour Markets, Institutions and Inequality," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 16143.
    28. Danielle Venn, 2009. "Legislation, Collective Bargaining and Enforcement: Updating the OECD Employment Protection Indicators," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 89, OECD Publishing.
    29. Horst Siebert, 1997. "Labor Market Rigidities: At the Root of Unemployment in Europe," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 37-54, Summer.
    30. Carmen Pagés-Serra & James J. Heckman, 2000. "The Cost of Job Security Regulation: Evidence from Latin American Labor Markets," Research Department Publications 4227, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    31. Sabina Avdagic, 2015. "Does Deregulation Work? Reassessing the Unemployment Effects of Employment Protection," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 53(1), pages 6-26, March.
    32. Simon DEAKIN & Jonas MALMBERG & Prabirjit SARKAR, 2014. "How do labour laws affect unemployment and the labour share of national income? The experience of six OECD countries, 1970–2010," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 153(1), pages 1-27, March.
    33. Andrew Glyn & David Howell & John Schmitt, 2006. "Labor Market Reforms: The Evidence Does Not Tell the Orthodox Tale," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(2), pages 5-22.
    34. Baccaro, Lucio & Rei, Diego, 2007. "Institutional Determinants of Unemployment in OECD Countries: Does the Deregulatory View Hold Water?," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 61(3), pages 527-569, July.
    35. John Martin & Stefano Scarpetta, 2012. "Setting It Right: Employment Protection, Labour Reallocation and Productivity," De Economist, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 89-116, June.
    36. Andrea Bassanini & Romain Duval, 2006. "The Determinants of Unemployment across OECD Countries," Post-Print halshs-00120584, HAL.
    37. Howell David R. & Baker Dean & Glyn Andrew & Schmitt John, 2007. "Are Protective Labor Market Institutions at the Root of Unemployment? A Critical Review of the Evidence," Capitalism and Society, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-73, May.
    38. Gregory DeFreitas & Adriana Marshall, 1998. "Labour Surplus, Worker Rights and Productivity Growth: A Comparative Analysis of Asia and Latin America," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 12(3), pages 515-539, September.
    39. Brancaccio, Emiliano & Garbellini, Nadia & Giammetti, Raffaele, 2018. "Structural labour market reforms, GDP growth and the functional distribution of income," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 34-45.
    40. Dragos Adascalitei & Clemente Pignatti Morano, 2016. "Drivers and effects of labour market reforms: Evidence from a novel policy compendium," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-32, December.
    41. John T. Addison & Paulino Teixeira & Jean-Luc Grosso, 2000. "The Effect of Dismissals Protection on Employment: More on a Vexed Theme," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 67(1), pages 105-122, July.
    42. David H. Autor & William R. Kerr & Adriana D. Kugler, 2007. "Does Employment Protection Reduce Productivity? Evidence From US States," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(521), pages 189-217, 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. Grodzicki, Maciej J. & Możdżeń, Michał, 2021. "Central and Eastern European economies in a Goldilocks age: A model of labor market institutional choice," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    2. Filomena, Mattia & Picchio, Matteo, 2021. "Are Temporary Jobs Stepping Stones or Dead Ends? A Meta-Analytical Review of the Literature," IZA Discussion Papers 14367, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    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. Dragos Adascalitei & Sameer Khatiwada & Miguel Á. Malo & Pignatti Moran, 2015. "Employment protection and collective bargaining during the great recession: a comprehensive review of international evidence," Revista de Economía Laboral - Spanish Journal of Labour Economics, Asociación Española de Economía Laboral - AEET, vol. 12, pages 50-87.
    2. Per Skedinger, 2010. "Employment Protection Legislation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13686.
    3. Johanna Kemper, 2016. "Resolving the Ambiguity: A Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Employment Protection on Employment and Unemployment," KOF Working papers 16-405, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    4. Dosi, G. & Pereira, M.C. & Roventini, A. & Virgillito, M.E., 2017. "When more flexibility yields more fragility: The microfoundations of Keynesian aggregate unemployment," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 162-186.
    5. Sachs Andreas & Smolny Werner, 2015. "Youth Unemployment in the OECD: The Role of Institutions," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 235(4-5), pages 403-417, August.
    6. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/9d007rc2q9huruni0kde2vr73 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Andrea Bassanini & Romain Duval, 2009. "Unemployment, institutions, and reform complementarities: re-assessing the aggregate evidence for OECD countries," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 25(1), pages 40-59, Spring.
    8. Brancaccio, Emiliano & Garbellini, Nadia & Giammetti, Raffaele, 2018. "Structural labour market reforms, GDP growth and the functional distribution of income," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 34-45.
    9. Chletsos, Michael & Sintos, Andreas, 2023. "The effects of IMF conditional programs on the unemployment rate," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    10. Paulo Mota & José Varejão & Paulo Vasconcelos, 2015. "A hysteresis model-based indicator for employment adjustment rigidity," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 42(3), pages 547-569, August.
    11. Valeria Cirillo & Marta Fana & Dario Guarascio, 2017. "Labour market reforms in Italy: evaluating the effects of the Jobs Act," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 34(2), pages 211-232, August.
    12. Abiodun O. Folawewo, 2016. "Institutions, regulatory framework and labour market outcomes in Nigeria," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 18(1), pages 67-84, October.
    13. Heimberger, Philipp & Kapeller, Jakob & Schütz, Bernhard, 2017. "The NAIRU determinants: What’s structural about unemployment in Europe?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 883-908.
    14. Simon Sturn, 2011. "Labour market regimes and unemployment in OECD countries," IMK Working Paper 6-2011, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    15. MacLeod, W. Bentley, 2011. "Great Expectations: Law, Employment Contracts, and Labor Market Performance," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 18, pages 1591-1696, Elsevier.
    16. Simon STURN, 2013. "Are corporatist labour markets different? Labour market regimes and unemployment in OECD countries," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 152(2), pages 237-254, June.
    17. Hipp, Lena & Anderson, Christopher J., 2015. "Laziness or liberation? Labor market policies and workers' attitudes toward employment flexibility," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 101872, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Gaetano Perone, 2018. "Produttività del lavoro, dinamica salariale e squilibri commerciali nei Paesi dell'Eurozona: un'analisi empirica," Economia & lavoro, Carocci editore, issue 3, pages 61-98.
    19. Hijzen, Alexander & Mondauto, Leopoldo & Scarpetta, Stefano, 2017. "The impact of employment protection on temporary employment: Evidence from a regression discontinuity design," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 64-76.
    20. Tito Boeri & Jan van Ours, 2013. "The Economics of Imperfect Labor Markets: Second Edition," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10142.
    21. Valeria Cirillo & Andrea Ricci, 2022. "Heterogeneity matters: temporary employment, productivity and wages in Italian firms," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(2), pages 567-593, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labour market; Employment protection legislation; Unemployment; Meta-analysis; Meta-Regression;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B5 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches
    • C83 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Survey Methods; Sampling Methods
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J48 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Particular Labor Markets; Public Policy
    • K31 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Labor Law

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:anc:wpaper:445. 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: Maurizio Mariotti (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deancit.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.