Firms may underinvest in local environmental protection even from the private viewpoint of its owners and employees, but works councils may help mitigate this problem. We show that increases in environmental investments when councils are present could be employee-led, firm-led, or jointly-led....

This paper studies the potential impact on consumers of regulatory arbitrage based on financing of employment-based health insurance plans in the United States. Consumers enrolled in self-insured health plans, for which employers are financially responsible for medical claims, make up a majority...

In many European countries, a majority of employees are hired under very protective labor contracts that restrict the ability of the employer to dismiss them. In particular, employees can take to courts the firm's layoff motive. This paper analyses the interaction between firms, employees and...

This contribution investigates severance payments for dismissed employees in Germany. Particularly, it responds to the following questions: Who receives severance payments? By which characteristics is the level of severance payments determined? Is overcompensation to be considered a relevant...

Evidence from a survey of 1800 small and medium sized businesses is assembled to provide estimates of the effect on employment of unfair dismissal laws. The report also provides a discussion of the evidence on the welfare effects of unfair dismissal laws.

In this article, we explain that, in Spain, a relatively minor reform in unemployment benefits regulation has introduced a system to dismiss at will. Therefore, the fairness of the dismissal is not important in practice, although the whole legal system requiring a fair cause for dismissals...

This contribution investigates severance payments for dismissed employees in Germany. Subsequent to an overview about the legal framework, we respond to the following questions: Who receives severance payments? By which characteristics is the level of severance payments determined? Is...

Using a data set of individual labor disputes brought to court over the years 1990 to 2003 in France, we examine the impact of the enforcement of Employment Protection Legislation on labor market outcomes. First, we present a simple theoretical model showing that judicial case outcomes cannot be...

This paper analyses events that trigger the establishment of a works council and the actor or agent who triggers it. The paper extends previous research in two dimensions. First, we examine specific events that motivate workers to establish a works council, such as a change of owner, founding a...