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Rigidities in employment protection and exporting

Author

Listed:
  • Seker, Murat

Abstract

A large number of studies have shown that contribution of exporters to economic growth and development is much higher than non-exporting firms. This evidence has lead governments to improve their trade policies in order to increase foreign exposure of firms. However, improvements in trade policies can only be fully effective when they are complemented with other regulatory reforms that improve the investment climate for firms. This study focuses on a particular aspect of investment climate, namely employment protection legislation, and shows how these regulations discourage firms from exporting. Using a rich set of firm level data from 26 countries in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, the author shows that firms that cannot create new jobs due to restrictive labor regulations are less likely to export. Evidence shows that firms that plan to export expand their size before they start to export. However the rigidities in labor markets make this adjustment costly. Higher costs of labor decrease operating profits and lead to a higher threshold value of productivity required for entering export markets. As a result, a smaller fraction of firms chooses to export.

Suggested Citation

  • Seker, Murat, 2010. "Rigidities in employment protection and exporting," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5303, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5303
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    Cited by:

    1. Mehmet Huseyin Bilgin & Giray Gozgor & Chi Keung Marco Lau, 2017. "Institutions and gravity model: the role of political economy and corporate governance," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 7(3), pages 421-436, December.
    2. Selwaness, Irène & Zaki, Chahir, 2019. "On the interaction between exports and labor market regulation: Evidence from the MENA countries," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 24-33.
    3. Ahmed Fayez Abdelgouad, 2016. "Exporting and Workforce Skills-Intensity in the Egyptian Manufacturing Firms: Empirical Evidence Using World Bank Firm-Level Data for Egypt," Working Paper Series in Economics 358, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    4. Zara Liaqat & Jeffrey Nugent, 2015. "Under-provision of private training by MENA firms: what to Do about It?," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-29, December.
    5. Feng Zhang & Jiao Zhang & Wei Xing & Yan Xu, 2025. "Sustainable Regional Development Under Demographic Transition: Labor Market Integration and Export Quality Enhancement in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-29, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand

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