Showing papers on "Job security published in 2000"

Racial and Economic Factors in Attitudes to Immigration

Abstract: Hostility towards minorities may sometimes have economic rather than racial motives. Labour market fears, or concerns about the welfare system, are often believed to manifest themselves in hostile attitudes towards population groups that are considered to be competitors for these resources. The question of how attitudes of majority populations towards immigration are determined is of great importance for implementing appropriate policies. We try to separate racial and economic components to such attitudes. Our analysis is based on the British Social Attitudes Survey, which includes questions on attitudes towards immigration from different minority groups, as well as attitudes towards related concerns, like job security and benefit expenditures. We specify and estimate a multiple factor model. The correlation between answers to questions on immigration and on related issues helps us separate different aspects to attitudes. We find that racial attitudes are strongly associated with hostility to immigration from ethnically distinct populations. Furthermore, there is evidence that welfare and labour market concerns are related to attitudes to immigration, but only among skilled and highly educated workers.

The effect of human resource management practices on firm performance in Russia

Abstract: Based on 101 foreign firms operating in Russia, the effect of human resource management (HRM) on firm performance in Russia is investigated. This is accomplished by developing and testing a model including HR outcomes (motivation, retention development) as a mediating variable between HRM practices and firm performance. Our study provides some support for the use of HRM outcomes as a mediating variable between HRM practices and firm performance. The results also indicate that non-technical training and high salaries will have a positive impact on HR outcomes managers while job security is the most important predictor of HR outcomes for employees. Thus, our study provides support for the importance of including both managers and non-managers in the same study, but treating them separately. In addition, results indicate a direct positive relationship between managerial promotions based on merit and firm performance for managers and job security and performance non-managers.

The Cost of Job Security Regulation: Evidence from Latin American Labor Markets

Abstract: This paper documents the high level of job security protection in Latin American labor markets and analyzes its impacts on employment. The authors show that job security policies have a substantial impact on the level and the distribution of employment in Latin America. These policies reduce employment and promote inequality. The institutional organization of the labor market affects both employment and inequality.

Cost-Benefit Analysis And Relative Position

Abstract: Current estimates of regulatory benefits are too low, and likely far too low, because they ignore a central point about valuation - namely, that people care not only about their absolute economic position, but also about their relative economic position. We show that where the government currently pegs the value of a statistical life at about $4 million, it ought to employ a value between $4.7 million and $7 million. A conservative reading of the relevant evidence suggests that when government agencies are unsure how to value regulatory benefits along a reasonable range, they should make choices toward or at the upper end. We begin by showing that the nation is nearing the end of a first-generation debate about whether to do cost-benefit analysis, with a mounting victory for advocates of the cost-benefit approach. The second-generation debate, now underway, involves important issues about how to value costs and benefits. Conventional estimates tell us the amount of income an individual, acting in isolation, would be willing sacrifice in return for, say, an increase in safety on the job. But these estimates rest on the implicit, undefended, and crucial assumption that people's well-being depends only on absolute income. This assumption is false. Considerable evidence suggests that relative income is also an important factor, suggesting that gains or losses in absolute income are of secondary importance unless they alter relative income. When a regulation requires all workers to purchase additional safety, each worker gives up the same amount of other goods, so no worker experiences a decline in relative living standards. The upshot is that an individual will value an across-the-board increase in safety much more highly than an increase in safety that he alone purchases. Regulatory decisions should be based on the former valuation rather than the latter. When the former valuation is used, dollar values should be increased substantially - conservatively, by 25 to 50 percent. Upward revisions of such magnitude clearly have important implications for a broad range of policy debates currently informed by cost-benefit analysis. We also show that an understanding of the importance of relative position suggests a rationale for various nonwaivable contractual terms in employment law, such as health care, parental leave, job security, and leisure. These terms, which have been attacked as welfare-reducing by many economists, give people important benefits with little or no impact on relative economic position. As with regulations that boost workplace safety, such contract terms may therefore be much more attractive when purchased by all than when purchased in isolation.

The changing significance of different stressors after the announcement of bankruptcy: A longitudinal investigation with special emphasis on job insecurity.

Abstract: The author investigates the effect of job insecurity and other job stressors on the mental health of steel workers. Levels of job stress and mental health were measured seven years before and seven months after the company at which they worked had gone into receivership, a method that can be described as a quasi-experimental field study with a sample of blue-collar non-supervisory male workers. Two out of four job stressors were found to be at a lower level when the second wave of research took place. Regression analyses showed that the correlation between these job stressors and psychosomatic complaints is now lower than during the first wave but that they reach the former level when job insecurity is added. Job insecurity was mainly connected to an increase in psychosomatic complaints and in anxiety. Self-esteem, depression, and irascibility showed no important relationship to job insecurity when the variables were controlled for mental health status before the onset of job insecurity. Social support, opportunities in the labor market, and duration of contract in the company are identified as moderating the relation between mental health and job insecurity. One conclusion is that positive health effects due to reduction in the stress level may be offset by acute job insecurity. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Non-pecuniary Advantages Versus Pecuniary Disadvantages; Job Satisfaction Among Male And Female Academics In Scottish Universities

Abstract: This paper considers job satisfaction in the academic labour market drawing upon a particularly detailed data set of 900 academics from five traditional Scottish Universities Recent studies have revealed that in the labour force as a whole women generally express themselves as more satisfied with their jobs than men Our results show that reports of overall job satisfaction do not vary widely by gender This result is explained through the nature of our dataset, limited as it is to a highly educated workforce, in which female workers are likely to have job expectations comparable to their male counterparts Ordered probit analysis is used to analyse the determinants of an academic’s overall satisfaction at work as well as satisfaction with promotion prospects, job security and salary Comparison salary is found to be an important influence on academics’ overall job satisfaction although evidence suggests that academics place a lower emphasis on pecuniary relative to non pecuniary aspects of work than other sectors of the workforce

From Security to Mobility: Generalized Investments in Human Capital and Agent Commitment

Abstract: This paper considers the impacts of different investments in human capital (firm-specific versus generalized investments) on employee commitment to the firm. The resource-based literature has stressed that only firm-specific human capital is likely to generate organizational rents, since those assets are more likely to be inimitable, rare, and therefore a better basis for sustained competitive advantage. Generalized investments in human capital (i.e., investments in capabilities that people can transfer and deploy to other firms or settings) are to be avoided. However, observing lessons from the literature on psychological contracts and organizational commitment, we argue that generalized investments may have value for the firm through their effects on worker commitment to the firm. The gain in worker commitment is valuable to firms given the fragile state of the contemporary employment relation, in which the lack of job security is likely to breed diminished employee commitment. This is particularly a concern for employment relations consisting of externalized labor (i.e., contract work or selfemployed professionals operating as agents of the firm), in which agent commitment is vital but likely to be more scarce. In this paper we focus on the externalized workers (independent agents) of two insurance firms in addressing these issues. A sample of 237 agents shows support for the benefits of generalized investments on agent commitment, questioning conventional wisdom that such investments should be avoided. We also examine the impact of relation-specific investments and other key antecedents on agent commitment, concluding that a mixture of strategic investments in human capital should be considered, taking into account their impacts on the firm-worker psychological contract. We also examine the impact of agent commitment on agent performance in this context, finding committed agents do provide greater value to the insurer.

Is job insecurity changing the psychological contract

Abstract: The paper examines young adults’ perspectives on and experiences of job insecurity, including both objective insecurity and perceived uncertainty, as they emerged in a series of focus groups and interviews. It discusses young adults’ changing notions of security and career, effects of insecurity and uncertainty on planning future work and non work lives for people with different levels of occupational skills and qualifications, the gendered effects of insecurity and the impact of insecure employment on attitudes to employers. The impact of perceptions and experiences of job insecurity on young men and women’s expectations of work are considered in terms of a changing psychological contract.

Nonstandard work : the nature and challenges of changing employment arrangements

Abstract: In recent years, much attention has focused on the growth of nonstandard and contingent employment (including part-time work) which involves up to 30 percent of the total U.S. labor force. There is little agreement on either the causes or the effects of this trend. Some researchers emphasize the advantages: employees may explore the job market and obtain work that does not necessarily involve rigid schedules, while employers enjoy greater flexibility and lower costs. Others point to the disadvantages for employees, such as lack of job security, fewer benefits and chances for promotion, and often lower wages. Drawbacks for employers include a workforce that has little chance to develop firm-specific knowledge or loyalty.Chapters in Nonstandard Work: The Nature and Challenges of Emerging Employment Arrangements carefully analyze the extent and nature of various nonstandard work arrangements; their advantages and disadvantages for employees and employers; the demographic, industrial, and occupational distribution of such positions; and the question of whether standard employment itself is changing. Some contributors consider how innovative labor market intermediaries and unions might expand opportunities for workers while also helping firms to raise their productivity.

Wedded to the job: moderating effects of job involvement on the consequences of job insecurity.

Abstract: Two hundred eighty-three public-sector employees experiencing a workplace reorganization completed surveys assessing the relationships between job involvement and job insecurity on self-report measures of psychological, behavioral, and physical outcomes. Using C. L. Hulin's (1991) job adaptation theory, differential predictions were made regarding the specific outcomes of job insecurity for high job involvement versus low job involvement employees. Results indicate that employees who were highly invested in their jobs were most adversely affected by job insecurity. Specifically, they reported more negative job attitudes, more health problems, and a higher level of psychological distress than their less involved counterparts when they perceived their jobs to be threatened.

Human Behavior and the Law of Work

Abstract: The most fundamental issues in labor and employment law involve the choice among three alternatives: waivable employers' rights, waivable employees' rights, and nonwaivable employees' rights. By combining standard contract analysis with a perspective informed by behavioral economics, it is possible to obtain a much better understanding of the underlying issues. Contrary to the conventional view: workers are especially averse to losses, and not so much concerned with obtaining gains; workers often do not know about legal rules, including key rules denying them rights; workers may well suffer from excessive optimism; workers care a great deal about fairness, and are willing to punish employers who have treated them unfairly, even at workers' own expense; many workers greatly discount the future; and workers often care about relative economic position, not absolute economic position. These points suggest the advantages, in many cases, of relying on waivable employees' rights, an approach designed to inform workers without providing the rigidity and inefficiency associated with nonwaivable terms. At the same time, these points suggest, though more ambiguously, the hazards of allowing workers to waive their rights in accordance with standard contract principles. Procedural constraints (e.g., cooling off periods) and substantive constraints (e.g., "floors") on waiver may be appropriate. Norm change and preference change are also discussed. Applications include job security; parental leave; vacation time; health care; unionization; occupational safety and health; discrimination on the basis of age, race, and sex; waivers by unions; and workers' compensation. The basic conclusion is that waivable employees' rights are a promising and insufficiently explored option in many areas of labor and employment law.

Sex Differences in Job Attribute Preferences among Managers and Business Students

Abstract: Meta-analysis of 31 studies examined whether women and men in management and business schools differ in their job attribute preferences. Findings indicated no significant sex differences for 9 of the 21 job attribute preferences studied. The 12 significant sex differences indicated that men considered earnings and responsibility to be more important than women did, whereas women considered prestige, challenge, task significance, variety, growth, job security, good coworkers, a good supervisor, and the physical work environment to be more important than men did. The significant sex differences were small, nine of them having a magnitude of .10 standard deviation units or less. Students showed larger sex differences than managers did, and changes over time showed that women increased their ratings of the importance of four job attributes relative to men. The findings imply that sex differences in job attribute preferences are not an important determinant of women’s lower status in management.

The Cost of Job Security Regulation: Evidence from Latin American Labor Markets

Abstract: This paper documents the high level of job security protection in Latin American labor markets and analyzes its impact on employment. We show that job security policies have substantial impact on the level and the distribution of employment in Latin America. They reduce employment and promote inequality. The institutional organization of the labor market affects both employment and inequality.

To work or not to work at home‐An empirical investigation of factors affecting attitudes towards teleworking

Abstract: Examines the effects of demographic characteristics (gender and marital status), work‐related attitudes (organizational commitment and job security), support factors, and perceived advantages and disadvantages of teleworking to individuals and organizations on individuals’ attitudes towards teleworking. Respondents consist of information technology (IT) professionals. Results suggest that married individuals and those who perceived more advantages accruing from teleworking either to themselves or to their organizations, reported a more favourable attitude towards teleworking. Individuals with high levels of job insecurity and those who perceived more disadvantages accruing from teleworking to themselves or to their organizations reported a less favourable attitude towards teleworking. Contrary to initial prediction, organizational commitment was found to be negatively associated with attitude towards teleworking as a work option. Findings of this study also revealed that men and women did not differ in their attitude towards teleworking. In addition, support from supervisor and work colleagues did not emerge as a significant predictor of attitude towards teleworking. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Job insecurity, coping resources and personality dispositions in occupational strain

Abstract: This paper presents research on the relationships between the work-related stressor of perceived job insecurity and various indicators of occupational strain, taking into account employees' personality dispositions (trait negative and positive affectivity) and coping resources. Respondents were 222 Australian public servants surveyed during organizational restructuring that involved downsizing and threat to job certainty. The research was formulated within an adaptation of Osipow, Doty, and Spokane's (1985) framework of stress-strain-coping that included the possible direct as well as moderating effects of personality dispositions in reporting occupational strain (Parkes, 1990). Findings from hierarchical regression analyses indicate consistent significant independent effects of personality dispositions, coping resources and perceived job insecurity on various indicators of strain. There was also support for the moderating roles of negative affectivity and self-care in the relation between perceived job i...

Labour market outliers: Lessons from Portugal and Spain

Abstract: Iberian labour markets Why Spain and portugal are OECD outliers Spain has the highest unemployment rate (22.2%) of any European Union country, Portugal one of the lowest (7.3%). Superficially, these countries share many labour market features: the toughest job security rules in the OECD, an apparently similar architecture of wage bargaining, and comparable generosity of their unemployment insurance systems, at least since 1989. We address the puzzle by examining Portuguese and Spanish labour market institutions, in particular job security, unemployment benefits and the system of wage bargaining. We then conduct empirical analysis of Spanish and Portuguese unemployment outflows and wage distributions, using micro data. We find differences in unemployment benefits (non-existent in Portugal until 1985, and less generous nowadays), differences in wage flexibility (wage floors by category established by collective agreements are set at a lower relative level in Portugal), and, in practice, higher firing costs in Spain. A key explanation of the difference in Portuguese and Spanish unemployment rates is the wage adjustment process. Generous benefit levels may have been necessary for the path Spanish unions took, but this was not the sole explanation of different wage setting in Spain and Portugal. — Olympia Bover, Pilar Garcia-Perea and Pedro Portugal

The Cost of Job Security Regulation: Evidence from Latin American Labor Markets

Abstract: This paper documents the high level of job security protection in Latin American labor markets and analyzes its impacts on employment. The authors show that job security policies have a substantial impact on the level and the distribution of employment in Latin America. These policies reduce employment and promote inequality. The institutional organization of the labor market affects both employment and inequality.

Inequality in the social consequences of illness: how well do people with long-term illness fare in the British and Swedish labor markets?

Abstract: The demand for unskilled labor has collapsed across industrialized societies, including Britain and Sweden, and rates of unemployment and economic inactivity have increased. The result is a reduction in total employment, primarily among men. These trends could be expected to hit particularly hard those people with chronic illness. The study tests two opposing hypotheses: (1) the increasingly flexible, deregulated labor market in Britain would result in an increased number of new jobs, and thus better employment opportunities for unskilled workers, including those with chronic illness; (2) the more regulated labor market in Sweden, with the associated health and social policies, would provide greater opportunities for jobs and job security for workers with chronic illness. Analysis of data on men from the British General Household Survey and the Swedish Survey of Living Conditions, 1979-1995, showed that employment rates were higher and rates of unemployment and economic inactivity were lower in Sweden than in Britain, and the differences in these rates across socioeconomic groups and between those with and without chronic illness were smaller in Sweden. The results support the hypothesis that active labor market policies and employment protection may increase the opportunities for people with chronic illness to remain in work.

Examining the Incidence of Downsizing and Its Effect on Establishment Performance

Abstract: The interest in examining job security and job stability has been driven in part by the phenomenon of downsizing. The distinctiveness of downsizing, as opposed to more traditional layoffs, is that the job cuts do not necessarily appear to be driven by shortfalls in demand but instead appear to be driven by the search for operating efficiencies. Despite the interest in downsizing, there has been essentially no serious investigation into its causes. I distinguish downsizing from job cuts associated with shortfalls in demand and find that employment and management practices over which employers have control, such as severance pay and profit sharing, are important predictors of subsequent downsizing and more general job losses. Surprisingly, excess operating capacity is not necessarily related to more general job losses at the establishment level. I also examine the relationship between both job losses associated with shortfalls in demand and downsizing and subsequent financial performance. The results suggest, among other things, that downsizing reduces labor costs per employee but also sales per employee. Job cuts associated with excess capacity appear to be somewhat more successful at improving sales per employee than is downsizing.

Exploring the relationship between psychological contracts and organizational change: a process model and case study evidence

Abstract: The article sets out a process describing the links between the breach of psychological contracts and the resistance to strategic and organizational change. When organizations fail to respect employee interests, the low-trust relationships and levels of cynicism that invariably result severely constrain the potential for effective strategic change. Employee perceptions of breach of their psychological contracts over issues such as pay, communications and development were associated with lower levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Lack of job security was a major influence on the quality of trust relations in the organizations and also became an important factor in influencing employee cynicism. The case study draws on data from a study of a Scottish industrial textiles firm. For practitioners, the principal lesson to be learned is that the frequent introduction of programmes of change, far from signalling to employees an image of an innovative management team, can produce the opposite reaction where managers are viewed as incompetent and disrespectful of employees' talents and intellects. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Labor Market Reforms and Their Impact on Formal Labor Demand and Job Market Turnover: The Case of Peru

Abstract: This paper analyzes the effects of several aspects of labor legislation that were modified through successive waves of reform since 1991 Firing costs diminished sharply through the progressive elimination of job security regulations, the introduction of temporary contracts and changes in the severance payment structure Simultaneously, non-wage labor costs increased This paper assesses the effect of these changes on the level of formal employment, the effect of regulations changes on turnover, and compares employment duration data for the formal and informal sectors using empirical hazards and parametric estimations of hazard functions

Job uncertainty and health status for nurses during restructuring of health care in Alberta.

Abstract: The Alberta health care system experienced dramatic changes after provincial funding cuts to health care from 1993 to 1996. As a result, stressors for nurses increased. The question of whether job uncertainty, working conditions, cognitive appraisal, and coping strategies influence the health of registered nurses in a context of health care restructuring was examined. Lazarus and Folkman's Transactional Model of Stress was used as the conceptual framework. A total of 271 registered nurses employed in a large, urban, acute-care teaching hospital responded to a self-administered survey questionnaire. Using multiple regression analysis, depression and self-reported physical health were analyzed. The data suggest that the threat of being placed on recall, having a coworker bumped or laid off, and perceived job security were adversely related to physical health. High primary appraisal of threat was associated with high levels of depression and poor physical health. In addition, the findings suggest that various coping strategies had both buffering and exacerbating effects on physical health and depression.

Economic Reforms and Labor Markets: Policy Issues and Lessons from Chile

Abstract: This paper deals with the reform to labor market regulation implemented by Chile during the last twenty years We concentrate on the reform to job security, on the decentralization of the wage bargaining process, and on the reduction in payroll taxes Our interest is to understand to what extent these reforms helped reduce Chile's rate of unemployment from European' to US' levels We argue that the reduction of payroll taxes (within the context of the social security reform), and the decentralization of bargaining increased labor market flexibility and contributed to the reduction of unemployment Our analysis suggests that the reform on job security had no significant effect on the aggregate rate of unemployment

Changes in Job Stability and Job Security: A Collective Effort to Untangle, Reconcile, and Interpret the Evidence

Abstract: I synthesize and summarize a set of recent papers on changes in the employment relationship. The authors of these papers present the most up-to-date and accurate assessment of their evidence on changes in job stability and job security, and attempt to reconcile their evidence with the findings of other research, including the other papers discussed herein. Some of papers also begin to explore explanations of changes in the employment relationship. The evidence suggests that the 1990's witnessed some changes in the employment relationship consistent with weakened bonds between workers and firms. But the magnitudes of these changes indicate that while these bonds may have weakened, they have not been broken. Furthermore, the changes that occurred in the 1990's have not persisted very long. It is therefore premature to infer long-term trends towards declines in long-term employment relationships, and even more so to infer anything like the disappearance of long-term, secure jobs. The papers examining sources of changes in job stability and job security in the 1990's point to some potential explanations, including relative wage movements, growth in alternative employment relationships, and downsizing. However, with the possible exception of the first of these, this list does not encompass fundamental' or exogenous changes impacting the employment relationship, but rather to some extent suggests how various changes in the employment relationship may reinforce each other. Understanding the structural changes underlying empirical observations on changes in job stability and job security is likely to be a fruitful frontier for future research on the employment relationship.

The Incidence of Job Security Regulations on Labor Market Flexibility and Compliance in Colombia: Evidence from the 1990 Reform

Abstract: Utilizing differences-in-differences estimates, this paper reviews the impact of reduced firing costs on the dynamism of the Colombian labor market. The effects include raising exit rates into and out of unemployment, increasing compliance with labor legislation by lowering the costs of formal production, and reducing unemployment from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. On the other hand, labor market reform appeared to explain in part increasing unemployment during the late 1990s. In general, greater flexibility in hiring and firing is likely to translate into increased hiring relative to firing during expansions, but increased firing relative to hiring during recessions.

Racial and Economic Factors in Attitudes to Immigration

Abstract: Hostility towards minorities may sometimes have economic rather than racial motives. Labour market fears, or concerns about the welfare system, are often believed to manifest themselves in hostile attitudes towards population groups that are considered to be competitors for these resources. The question of how attitudes of majority populations towards immigration are determined is of great importance for implementing appropriate policies. We try to separate racial and economic components to such attitudes. Our analysis is based on the British Social Attitudes Survey, which includes questions on attitudes towards immigration from different minority groups, as well as attitudes towards related concerns, like job security and benefit expenditures. We specify and estimate a multiple factor model. The correlation between answers to questions on immigration and on related issues helps us separate different aspects to attitudes. We find that racial attitudes are strongly associated with hostility to immigration from ethnically distinct populations. Furthermore, there is evidence that welfare and labour market concerns are related to attitudes towards immigration, but only among skilled and highly educated workers.

Drive out Fear (Unless You Can Drive It in): The Role of Agency and Job Security in Process Improvement

Abstract: Understanding the wide range of outcomes achieved by firms trying to implement Total Quality Management (TQM) and similar process improvement initiatives presents a challenge to management theory: A few firms reap sustained benefits from their programs, but most efforts fail and are abandoned. In this paper I study one dimension of this phenomenon: the role of impending layoffs in determining employee commitment to process improvement. Currently, the literature provides two opposing theories concerning the effect of job security on the ability of firms to implement change initiatives. The "Drive Out Fear" school argues that firms must commit to job security, while the "Drive In Fear" school emphasizes the positive role that insecurity plays in motivating change. In this study a contract theoretic model is developed to analyze the role of agency in process improvement. The main insight of the study is that there are two types of job security, internal and external, that have opposing impacts on the firm's ability to implement improvement initiatives. The distinction is useful in explaining the results of different case studies and can reconcile the two change theories.

Employment insecurity in the public services

Abstract: Job security, until recently, has been seen as a defining characteristic of traditional public sector employment, and the ‘risk-averse’, time-serving bureaucrat is a common, negative stereotype of the public sector worker. As the restructuring of the public sector has gathered pace over the last twenty years, however, the security of employees has come under threat. The primary purpose of this chapter is to review the extent to which public service workers have become more insecure. Using the broad framework for analysing employment security suggested by Heery and Salmon (this volume), we use a range of secondary and official sources to examine ‘objective’ changes in the structure of public service jobs, changes in the institutional and economic environment surrounding those jobs and the ‘subjective’ perceptions of insecurity of public service workers. Along each of these paths our aim is to measure the extent of change in order to reach an overall assessment of the degree and manner in which the employment security of public service workers has been eroded over the past two decades.

Effect of Residential Location and Access to Transportation on Employment Opportunities

Abstract: Women who have been on public assistance need to obtain and maintain steady employment because they stand to lose their public benefits and also because it is the only way out of poverty. Although the socio-demographic and general economic influences on job retention have been examined in the literature, the effects of transportation and of place of residence in a metropolitan area vis-a-vis entry-level job locations have not been studied systematically. Four sets of factors—transportation, location, sociodemographic, and family effects—are examined for their effect on job retention. In particular, it was found that employment security for female welfare clients or former clients does not come from job retention (i.e., tenure with the same employer) but from "employment retention" (i.e., jobs with different employers, possibly with a trend toward upward mobility). The effects of transportation and location on job and employment retention are complex. Although access to a vehicle is important for increasin...

Employment and Output Adjustment in the OECD: A Disaggregate Analysis of the Role of Job Security Provisions

Abstract: Job security provisions are frequently cited as inhibiting the functioning of labour markets in Europe. However, as with many forms of non-price regulation, it is difficult to assess how tightly these regulations bind and influence labour market outcomes. We use an industrycountry panel of OECD countries over 20 years to estimate adjustment paths for employment and output conditional on wages, the capital stock and exchange rates. We find that job security provisions are correlated with the speed of adjustment of employment and output (restrictive legislation slowing adjustment down), and that controlling for industry effects is important in isolating this effect.