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Employment Protection Reforms, Employment and the Incidence of Temporary Jobs in Europe: 1995–2001

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  • Kahn, Lawrence M.

    () (Cornell University)

Abstract

Using European Community Household Panel data for nine countries for 1996-2001, I investigate the impact of reforms of employment protection systems on employment and on temporary jobs for wage and salary workers. Individual fixed effects models are estimated, with the inclusion of country-specific trends in the dependent variable, addressing the possibly changing labor force composition and the possible endogeneity of the reforms. A basic finding that is robust to all specifications and to the disaggregation of the sample by country is that policies making it easier to create temporary jobs raise the likelihood that wage and salary workers will be in temporary jobs. However, there is no evidence that such reforms raise employment, and in some countries, they appear to lower employment. Thus, these reforms appear rather to encourage a substitution of temporary for permanent work. Reforms of permanent employment protection mandates have small and insignificant effects on employment and temporary jobs on average. Moreover, when I disaggregate by country, such reforms appear more often to lower overall employment and to lower the share of employment in permanent jobs. These are likely to reflect short run impacts of such reforms, which make it easier for firms to discharge substandard workers.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 3241.

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Length: 47 pages
Date of creation: Dec 2007
Date of revision:
Publication status: published in: Labour Economics, 2010, 17 (1), 1-15
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3241

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Keywords: temporary jobs; employment protection;

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References

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  1. Saint-Paul, Gilles, 1999. "The Political Economy of Employment Protection," CEPR Discussion Papers 2109, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  2. Adriana Kugler & Juan F. Jimeno & Virginia Hernanz, 2002. "Employment consequences of restrictive permanent contracts: Evidence from Spanish labor market reforms," Economics Working Papers 651, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
  3. Lawrence M. Kahn, 2007. "The Impact of Employment Protection Mandates on Demographic Temporary Employment Patterns: International Microeconomic Evidence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(521), pages 333-356, 06.
  4. Bertola, Giuseppe, 1999. "Microeconomic perspectives on aggregate labor markets," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 45, pages 2985-3028 Elsevier.
  5. David Autor & Susan Houseman, 2009. "Do Temporary-Help Jobs Improve Labor Market Outcomes for Low-Skilled Workers? Evidence from 'Work First'," Upjohn Working Papers and Journal Articles 05-124, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
  6. Booth, Alison L. & Francesconi, Marco & Frank, Jeff, 2000. "Temporary Jobs: Stepping Stones or Dead Ends?," IZA Discussion Papers 205, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  7. Giuseppe Bertola & Francine Blau & Lawrence Kahn, 2007. "Labor market institutions and demographic employment patterns," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 833-867, October.
  8. Ioana Marinescu, 2007. "Shortening the Tenure Clock: the Impact of Strengthened U.K. Job Security Legislation," Working Papers 07-04, Utrecht School of Economics.
  9. Bertil Holmlund & Donald Storrie, 2002. "Temporary Work in Turbulent Times: The Swedish Experience," CESifo Working Paper Series 671, CESifo Group Munich.
  10. Brugemann, Bjorn, 2006. "Employment Protection: Tough to Scrap or Tough to Get?," Working Papers 21, Yale University, Department of Economics.
  11. Adriana Kugler, 1999. "The Impact of Firing Costs on Turnover and Unemployment: Evidence from the Colombian Labour Market Reform," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 389-410, August.
  12. Kugler, Adriana & Pica, Giovanni, 2008. "Effects of employment protection on worker and job flows: Evidence from the 1990 Italian reform," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 78-95, February.
  13. 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, 06.
  14. Alison L Booth & Juan J. Dolado & Jeff Frank, 2002. "Symposium On Temporary Work Introduction," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(480), pages F181-F188, June.
  15. Adriana Kugler adkugler@uh.edu & Giovanni Pica, 2005. "The Effects of Employment Protection on the Italian Labour Market," CSEF Working Papers 135, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
  16. O Blanchard & A Landier, 2002. "The Perverse Effects of Partial Labour Market Reform: fixed--Term Contracts in France," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(480), pages F214-F244, June.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. María Cervini-Plá & Xavier Ramos, 2012. "Long-Term Earnings Inequality, Earnings Instability and Temporary Employment in Spain: 1993–2000," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 50(4), pages 714-736, December.
  2. Centeno, Mario & Machado, Carla & Novo, Alvaro A., 2009. "Excess Turnover and Employment Growth: Firm and Match Heterogeneity," IZA Discussion Papers 4586, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  3. Kahn, Lawrence M., 2009. "Temporary Jobs and Job Search Effort in Europe," IZA Discussion Papers 4020, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  4. Güell, Maia & Rodríguez Mora, José Vicente, 2010. "Temporary Contracts, Incentives and Unemployment," CEPR Discussion Papers 8116, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

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