IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/hwwadp/26177.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Firing Costs: Eurosclerosis or Eurosuccesses?

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Yu-Fu
  • Snower, Dennis J.
  • Gylfi, Zoega

Abstract

In this paper we analyse the employment implications of firing restrictions. We find that when a recession is expected and the trend rate of productivity growth is small, a rise in firing costs affects mainly the hiring decision. Thus there is a negative effect on average employment. When, on the other hand, a boom is expected and the rate of productivity growth is large, firing costs affect mainly the firing decision. Then, as a result, average employment is increased. Our analysis suggests that while firing restrictions might have stimulated employment and reduced unemployment in Europe in the first two decades following World War II - when large supply shocks were absent and the average rate of growth was high - these same restrictions may have had the opposite effects in the 1970s and 1980s, when significant negative supply shocks occured.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Yu-Fu & Snower, Dennis J. & Gylfi, Zoega, 1999. "Firing Costs: Eurosclerosis or Eurosuccesses?," HWWA Discussion Papers 78, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWA).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:hwwadp:26177
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/2309/1/78.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Díaz-Vázquez, María del Pilar & Snower, Dennis J., 1996. "Employment, Macroeconomic Fluctuations and Job Security," CEPR Discussion Papers 1430, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. 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.
    3. Samuel Bentolila & Giuseppe Bertola, 1990. "Firing Costs and Labour Demand: How Bad is Eurosclerosis?," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 57(3), pages 381-402.
    4. M. Pilar Diaz & Dennis Snower, 1996. "Employment, Macroeconomic Fluctuations and Job Security. Employment, Macroeconomic Fluctuations and Job Security," Archive Discussion Papers 9611, Birkbeck, Department of Economics, Mathematics & Statistics.
    5. Daniel Cohen & Arnaud Lefrance & Gilles Saint-Paul, 1997. "French unemployment: a transatlantic perspective," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 12(25), pages 266-291.
    6. Avinash K. Dixit & Robert S. Pindyck, 1994. "Investment under Uncertainty," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 5474.
    7. Maddison, Angus, 1987. "Growth and Slowdown in Advanced Capitalist Economies: Techniques of Quantitative Assessment," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 25(2), pages 649-698, June.
    8. Bentolila, Samuel & Saint-Paul, Gilles, 1992. "The macroeconomic impact of flexible labor contracts, with an application to Spain," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 1013-1047, 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. Assar Lindbeck & Dennis J. Snower, 2001. "Insiders versus Outsiders," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 165-188, Winter.
    2. Yu-Fu Chen & Gylfi Zoega, 2007. "Aging and Job Security," Dundee Discussion Papers in Economics 206, Economic Studies, University of Dundee.
    3. Chen, Yu-Fu & Zoega, Gylfi, 2010. "An essay on the generational effect of employment protection," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 349-359, May.
    4. Yu-Fu Chen & Gylfi Zoega, 1999. "Firing The Young Or The Old: A Non-perpetual Real Options Analysis," Dundee Discussion Papers in Economics 096, Economic Studies, University of Dundee.

    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. repec:dun:dpaper:94 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Yu‐Fu Chen & Dennis Snower & Gylfi Zoega, 2003. "Labour‐market Institutions and Macroeconomic Shocks," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 17(2), pages 247-270, June.
    3. Strand, Jon, 2002. "Wage bargaining and turnover costs with heterogenous labor and perfect history screening," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(7), pages 1209-1227, July.
    4. E. Galdon-Sanchez, Jose & Guell, Maia, 2003. "Dismissal conflicts and unemployment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 323-335, April.
    5. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pc:p:2985-3028 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Amable, Bruno & Gatti, Donatella, 2001. "The Impact of Product Market Competition on Employment and Wages," IZA Discussion Papers 276, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Alonso-Borrego, César & Fernández-Villaverde, Jesús & Galdon-Sanchez, Jose Enrique, 2004. "Evaluating Labor Market Reforms: A General Equilibrium Approach," IZA Discussion Papers 1129, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Victoria Osuna & Jose-Ignacio García-Pérez, 2012. "The effects of introducing a single open-ended contract in Spain," EcoMod2012 3825, EcoMod.
    9. Chen, Yu-Fu & Zoega, Gylfi, 2010. "An essay on the generational effect of employment protection," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 349-359, May.
    10. Nadav Ben Zeev & Tomer Ifergane, 2022. "Firing Restrictions and Economic Resilience: Protect and Survive?," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 43, pages 93-124, January.
    11. Diego Daruich & Sabrina Di Addario & Raffaele Saggio, 2023. "The Effects of Partial Employment Protection Reforms: Evidence from Italy," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(6), pages 2880-2942.
    12. Bentolila, Samuel & Dolado, Juan J. & Jimeno, Juan F., 2019. "Dual Labour Markets Revisited," IZA Discussion Papers 12126, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Chen, Yu-Fu & Zoega, Gylfi, 1999. "On the effectiveness of firing costs1," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 335-354, September.
    14. repec:pri:indrel:dsp011j92g746j is not listed on IDEAS
    15. John T. Addison & Paulino Teixeira, 2003. "The Economics of Employment Protection," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 24(1), pages 85-129, January.
    16. 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.
    17. Martínez Matute, Marta & Perez Dominguez, Carlos, 2012. "El impacto de los costes de despido sobre el empleo en España: Una estimación con datos de panel/Impact Of Firing Costs On The Spanish Employment: A Panel Data Estimation," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 30, pages 137-162, Abril.
    18. Victor Aguirregabiria & Cesar Alonso-Borrego, 2014. "Labor Contracts And Flexibility: Evidence From A Labor Market Reform In Spain," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(2), pages 930-957, April.
    19. 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;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 6(3), pages 389-410, August.
    20. Alison L. Booth & Yu-Fu Chen & Gylfi Zoega, 2002. "Hiring and Firing: A Tale of Two Thresholds," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 20(2), pages 217-248, Part.
    21. Robert Krol & Shirley Svorny, 2007. "Unions and Employment Growth: Evidence from State Economic Recoveries," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 525-535, July.
    22. Nadav Ben Zeev & Tomer Ifergane, 2019. "Employment Protection Legislation and Economic Resilience: Protect and Survive?," Working Papers 1910, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Economics.
    23. Dräger, Vanessa & Marx, Paul, 2012. "Do Firms Demand Temporary Workers When They Face Workload Fluctuation? Cross-Country Firm-Level Evidence on the Conditioning Effect of Employment Protection," IZA Discussion Papers 6894, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    stochastic demand; hiring and firing; real options; firing restrictions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J54 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Producer Cooperatives; Labor Managed Firms
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand

    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:zbw:hwwadp:26177. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/hwwaade.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.