Employment protection legislation and wages

"In a perfect labor market severance payments can have no real effects as they can be undone by a properly designed labor contract (Lazear 1990). We give empirical content to this proposition by estimating the effects of EPL on entry wages and on the tenure-wage profile in a quasi-experimental...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Leonardi, Marco, Pica, Giovanni
Institution:ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
Format: TEXT
Language:English
Published: Bonn 2007
IZA
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19133428124919516009-employment-protection-legislat.htm
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author Leonardi, Marco
Pica, Giovanni
author_facet Leonardi, Marco
Pica, Giovanni
collection Library items
description "In a perfect labor market severance payments can have no real effects as they can be undone by a properly designed labor contract (Lazear 1990). We give empirical content to this proposition by estimating the effects of EPL on entry wages and on the tenure-wage profile in a quasi-experimental setting. We consider a reform that introduced unjust-dismissal costs in Italy for firms below 15 employees, leaving firing costs unchanged for bigger firms. Estimates which account for the endogeneity of the treatment status due to workers and firms sorting around the 15 employees threshold show no effect of the reform on entry wages and a decrease of the returns to tenure by around 20% in the first year and by 8% over the first two years. We interpret these findings as broadly consistent with Lazear’s (1990) prediction that firms make workers prepay the severance cost. "
format TEXT
geographic Italy
id 19133428124919516009_393e4a00704e48ac8f6ca1d2992d74ea
institution ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
is_hierarchy_id 19133428124919516009_393e4a00704e48ac8f6ca1d2992d74ea
is_hierarchy_title Employment protection legislation and wages
language English
physical 27 p.
Digital
publishDate 2007
publisher Bonn
IZA
spellingShingle Leonardi, Marco
Pica, Giovanni
dismissal
employment security
legislation
severance pay
statistics
wages
Employment protection legislation and wages
thumbnail https://www.labourline.org/Image_prev.jpg?Archive=111775793995
title Employment protection legislation and wages
topic dismissal
employment security
legislation
severance pay
statistics
wages
url https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19133428124919516009-employment-protection-legislat.htm