Based on a large employer-employee matched data set, the paper investigates the effects of variable enforcement of German dismissal protection legislation on the employment dynamics in small establishments. Specifically, using a difference-in-differences approach, we study the effect of changes...

Using data for the 1990 ?s,this paper examines the role of sheepskin effects in the returns to education for Japan.Our estimation results indicate that sheepskin effects explain about 50%of the total returns to schooling.We further find that sheepskin effect are only important for workers in...

Even though European labor markets are characterized by high average unemployment, there is a shortage of high-skilled labor, leading many European economists to argue for an immigration policy directed at actively recruiting highly qualified workers from abroad. It has further been argued that...