This paper critically examines the approach of India's newly government initiative on pro-employer labour market reform that aims to stimulate economic growth and reduce inequality. Using a constructed Theil Inequality Index on employment and emoluments, the paper provides empirical evidence on...

Somewhat surprisingly, cross-country empirical evidence (at least in the cross section) does not seem to support the predictions of standard models that economies with stricter regulations on hiring and firing should have a lower pace of job reallocation. One problem in exploring these issues...

European Social Survey data on 30 countries, covering years 2004-2009, are used to look into joint institutional [and other macro] determinants of the rates of dependent employment without a contract, informal self-employment, and unemployment (secondary jobs are not accounted for). Consistently...

Introduction to Regulating for Decent Work: New Directions in Labour Market Regulation (Palgrave/ILO 2011). The book is an international and interdisciplinary response to the two most significant accounts of the role and significance of labour market regulation: orthodox economic theory and the...

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...

As regards labour-market reform and employment policies, the European Union currently touts the concept of 'flexicurity', aiming at simultaneously enhancing both flexibility and security in the labour market in view of the globalization of the economy and far-reaching demographic developments...

Why should floors be set under wages and working conditions by labour market regulations? This paper finds that efficiency arguments are questionable, because of the disemployment effects of strict regulation. Regulation is better explained in terms of the choices of the employed semi- and...

Labor regulation and employment relation has been investigated in India in light of the seminal work of Besley and Burgess (2004), considering formal sector manufacturing employment as the explained variable. Empirical findings support, although not very strongly, the institutionalist view,...

How does enforcement of labor regulations shape the labor market effects of trade? To tackle this question, we exploit the Brazilian trade liberalization episode and exogenous variation in the intensity of both the trade shock and enforcement across local labor markets. Regions with stricter...