Labor Market Institutions Around the World

Richard B. Freeman ()

No 13242, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The paper documents the large cross-country differences in labor institutions that make them a candidate explanatory factor for the divergent economic performance of countries and reviews what economists have learned about the effects of these institutions on economic outcomes. It identifies three ways in which institutions affect economic performance: by altering incentives, by facilitating efficient bargaining, and by increasing information, communication, and trust. The evidence shows that labor institutions reduce the dispersion of earnings and income inequality, which alters incentives, but finds equivocal effects on other aggregate outcomes, such as employment and unemployment. Given weaknesses in the cross-country data on which most studies focus, the paper argues for increased use of micro-data, simulations, and experiments to illuminate how labor institutions operate and affect outcomes.

JEL-codes: J01 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-lab and nep-ltv
Date: 2007-07
Note: LS
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Working Paper: Labor Market Institutions Around the World (2008)
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