We examine a number of personnel practices, laws and regulations that lower the supply of labor in the Japanese economy. Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of impediments, those that restrict the movement of labor between firms, and those that discourage women from participating to a greater...

Based on direct information on hires and separations for 11.000 establishments during 11 years, we report new evidence that around half of job and worker flows stem from temporary contracts which account for only around 10 percent of employment. The share of temporary contracts is positively...

This paper investigates the relative labor productivity level for total manufacturing in Germany, Sweden and the US for the period 1980-2001. The paper also presents estimates of labor productivity levels for 18 different manufacturing industries for the period 1993-2000. The results show that...