Does Employment Protection Inhibit Technical Diffusion?

I ask whether differences in labor market performance between the US and Europe can be attributed to an interaction between employment protection legislation (EPL) and an acceleration in the rate of capital-embodied technical change associated with the advent of information technologies. I find that EPL is associated with a slowing in the diffusion of new technologies. I also find that an acceleration in the rate of embodied technical change has a negligible effect on employment in an undistorted economy. In addition, in the presence of EPL, employment decreases in the long run after such a shock