Does employment protection help immigrants? Evidence from European labor markets

Filipa Sa ()

Labour Economics, 2011, vol. 18, issue 5, 624-642

Abstract: High levels of employment protection reduce hiring and firing and have a theoretically ambiguous effect on the employment level. Immigrants, being new to the labor market, may be less aware of employment protection regulations and less likely to claim their rights, which may create a gap between the costs for employers of hiring a native relative to hiring an immigrant. This paper tests that hypothesis drawing on evidence for the EU and on two natural experiments for Spain and Italy. The results suggest that strict employment protection legislation (EPL) gives immigrants a comparative advantage relative to natives. Stricter EPL is found to reduce employment and reduce hiring and firing rates for natives. By contrast, stricter EPL has a much smaller effect on immigrants.

Keywords: Immigration; Employment; protection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Working Paper: Does Employment Protection Help Immigrants? Evidence from European Labor Markets (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:labeco:v:18:y:2011:i:5:p:624-642

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