Formal employer-provided severance pay plans became common during the first years of the Great Depression, an apparent reaction to the large-scale layoffs of long-service workers under difficult market conditions. Reasonably consistent series are constructed for severance plan coverage and...

Economists have concerns about the firing cost implications of mandated severance plans. Analysis reveals that predicted severance plan consequences depend critically on the precise structure of the plan. Whether governments mandate (i) severance insurance plans or (ii) severance savings plans...

Severance pay mandates are an appealing job displacement insurance strategy in developing countries, which have only modest government administrative capacities, but they carry the threat of adverse indirect effects. A critical review of the empirical literature reveals that severance benefit...