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Employment protection legislation: its economic impact and the case for reform

Author(s): David Young (Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs)

Employment protection legislation: its economic impact and the case for reform pdf (713 kB) Choose translations of the previous link 

Despite the large volume of economic literature on employment protection legislation (EPL), there remain remarkable disagreements among economists and policy-makers on the subject. Many highlight the risks associated with stringent EPL, both for labour market performance and for productivity growth. Others think that worrying about EPL is largely a waste of time, since the impact is ambiguous according to economic theory and rarely of high significance in cross-country empirical studies.

This paper reviews some of the recent theory and empirical evidence.
(European Economy. Economic Papers 186. July 2003. Brussels. 52pp. Tab. Free.)

KC-AI-03-007-EN-C (online)
ISBN 92-894-5834-8 (online)
ISSN 1016-8060 (online)

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