Employment Protection Legislation Impacts on Capital and Skills Composition

Gilbert Cette, Jimmy Lopez () and Jacques Mairesse

Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, 2018, issue 503-504, 109-122

Abstract: [eng] The article investigates the effects of Employment Protection Legislation (EPL) on capital and skills according to the intensity of international competition. Grounded on a panel data sample for 14 OECD countries and 18 industries from 1988 to 2007, and a difference-in-difference approach, we find that strengthening EPL: (i) leads to a capital-labour substitution in favour of non ICT non R&D capital to the detriment of employment, this effect being mitigated in industries highly exposed to international competition; (ii) lowers ICT capital and, even more severely, R&D capital relatively to other capital components; and (iii) works at the relative disadvantage of low-skilled workers. Strengthening EPL can therefore be an impediment to organizational and so technological change and risk taking on globalized markets. An illustrative simulation suggests that structural reforms weakening EPL could have a significant favorable impact on firms’ ICT and R&D investment and on hiring low-skilled workers.

JEL-codes: C23 E22 E24 L50 O30 O43 O47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://insee.fr/en/statistiques/fichier/3652307/5 ... opez-Mairesse-EN.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Employment Protection Legislation Impacts on Capital and Skills Composition (2018)
Working Paper: Employment protection legislation impacts on capital and skill composition (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nse:ecosta:ecostat_2018_503-504_7

DOI: 10.24187/ecostat.2018.503d.1960

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