Have Labour Market Reforms at the Turn of the Millennium Changed Job Durations of the New Entrants? A Comparative Study for Germany and Italy

Gianna Claudia Giannelli (), Ursula Jaenichen () and Claudia Villosio
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Ursula Jaenichen: Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg

No 4591, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: According to the aims of the labour market reforms of the 90s implemented in many European countries, workers may stay at their first job for a shorter time, but should be able to switch jobs easily. This would generate a trade-off between job opportunities and job stability. This paper addresses this issue using administrative longitudinal data for Germany and Italy, taken as representative examples of continuous and isolated reforms, respectively. The estimated piecewise constant job and employment duration models show that changes in the durations of the first job and employment – measured as the sum of multiple consecutive jobs – are observed in periods of labour market reforms. However, the existence of a trade-off is not confirmed by the results. In Germany, men have experienced an increase in employment stability over time, mated with somewhat longer job durations, while women have not benefitted from an increase in employment durations as a compensation for the marked decrease in their first job durations. In Italy, employment stability of the new entrants of both sexes has not improved after the reforms. The reduction in the duration of the first job has not been counterbalanced by an increase in the opportunity to find rapidly another job. These results suggest that the objective of increasing job opportunities by means of labour market deregulation has not been fully achieved.

Keywords: precarious jobs; tenure; work career; mixed proportional hazard; employment duration; labour market reforms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C41 J62 J64 J68 K31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2009-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published in: Journal of Labor Research , 2012, 33, 143 - 172

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Related works:
Working Paper: Have labour market reforms at the turn of the millennium changed job durations of the new entrants? A comparative study for Germany and Italy (2010)
Working Paper: Have labour market reforms at the turn of the millennium changed job durations of the new entrants? A comparative study for Germany and Italy (2009)
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