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Shirking and Employment Protection Legislation: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

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  • Scoppa, Vincenzo

Abstract

In 1990 a reform in Italy has modified the employment protection legislation for employees of small firms (with fewer than 16 employees) making much more costly for firms to dismiss workers, while leaving unchanged the employment protection in large firms. Using a sample of administrative data (WHIP) from National Institute of Social Security we compare absenteeism rates (used as a proxy of shirking) in small and in large firms in the years just before (1989) and after (1991) the reform, with a difference-in-differences estimator. In line with theoretical predictions, we find a strong increase (around 18%) in shirking of workers employed in small firms after the increase in dismissal costs. This finding is robust to alternative definitions of small firm and to different time periods.

Suggested Citation

  • Scoppa, Vincenzo, 2008. "Shirking and Employment Protection Legislation: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," MPRA Paper 16694, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:16694
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    1. Employment protection effects
      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2011-01-11 19:43:39

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    1. Vincenzo Scoppa & Daniela Vuri, 2014. "Absenteeism, unemployment and employment protection legislation: evidence from Italy," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-25, December.
    2. Marco Leonardi & Giovanni Pica, 2013. "Who Pays for it? The Heterogeneous Wage Effects of Employment Protection Legislation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 123(12), pages 1236-1278, December.
    3. Maria De Paola & Roberto Nisticò & Vincenzo Scoppa, 2020. "Fertility Decisions And Employment Protection: The Unintended Consequences Of The Italian Jobs Act," Working Papers 202003, Università della Calabria, Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica e Finanza "Giovanni Anania" - DESF.
    4. Andrea Pacella & Riccardo Realfonzo & Guido Tortorella Esposito, 2016. "The Employment Protection Controversy in the Years of Labour Market Reforms (1990-2014)," History of Economic Ideas, Fabrizio Serra Editore, Pisa - Roma, vol. 24(2), pages 165-196.
    5. Daniel Weimar & Katrin Scharfenkamp, 2019. "Effort reduction of employer‐to‐employer changers: Empirical evidence from football," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(3), pages 277-291, April.
    6. Michael Jones, 2015. "How do teachers respond to tenure?," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-19, December.
    7. Cristini, Annalisa & Origo, Federica & Pinoli, Sara, 2017. "The healthy fright of losing a good one for a bad one," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 129-144.
    8. Leila Baghdadi & Rihab Bellakhal & Marc-Arthur Diaye, 2016. "Financial Participation: Does the Risk Transfer Story Hold in France?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 54(1), pages 3-29, March.
    9. Caroline Flammer & Jiao Luo, 2017. "Corporate social responsibility as an employee governance tool: Evidence from a quasi-experiment," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 163-183, February.
    10. Dräger, Vanessa, 2015. "Do Employment Protection Reforms Affect Well-Being?," IZA Discussion Papers 9114, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Steve Bradley & Colin Green & Gareth Leeves, 2014. "Employment Protection, Threat and Incentive Effects on Worker Absence," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 52(2), pages 333-358, June.
    12. Inmaculada Garcia & Colin Green & Maria Navarro Paniagua, 2012. "New Estimates of the Effect of Temporary Employment on Absenteeism," Working Papers 24151321, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    13. Sergei Hoxha & Alfred Kleinknecht, 2024. "When structural reforms of labor markets harm productivity. Evidence from the German IAB panel," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 33(3), pages 541-554.
    14. Gürtzgen, Nicole & Hiesinger, Karolin, 2020. "Dismissal Protection and Long-term Sickness Absence - First Evidence from Germany," IAB-Discussion Paper 202022, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    15. Maria De Paola & Valeria Pupo & Vincenzo Scoppa, 2009. "Absenteeism In The Italian Public Sector: The Effects Of Changes In Sick Leave Compensation," Working Papers 200916, Università della Calabria, Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica e Finanza "Giovanni Anania" - DESF.
    16. Gürtzgen, Nicole & Hiesinger, Karolin, 2020. "Dismissal protection and long-term sickness absence: First evidence from Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-040, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Absenteeism; Shirking; Employment Protection Legislation; Difference-in-differences.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions
    • J50 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - General

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