Stringent labor laws can provide firms a commitment device to not punish short-run failures and thereby spur their employees to pursue value-enhancing innovative activities. Using patents and citations as proxies for innovation, we identify this effect by exploiting the time-series variation...

We show that wrongful discharge laws - laws that inhibit the common-law doctrine of "employment-at-will" - spur innovation. In our model, wrongful discharge laws make it costly for firms to arbitrarily discharge employees. This enables firms to commit to not punish short-run failures of...

Is privatization in a country related to the stringency of its employment protection laws (EPL) – and, if so, how? We address this question using privatization deals in fourteen European countries over three decades and all the changes in EPL within a country. Using traditional...

We show that wrongful discharge laws - laws that protect employees against unjust dismissal - spur innovation and new firm creation. Wrongful discharge laws, particularly those that prohibit employers from acting in bad faith ex post, limit employers' ability to hold up innovating employees...

We provide empirical evidence that strong dismissal laws appear to have a positive effect on the innovative pursuits of firms and their employees. Stringent labor laws provide firms a commitment device to not punish short-run failures and thereby spur their employees to pursue value-enhancing...

Do employment protection laws hinder privatization? Using privatization deals in fourteen European countries from 1977-2003 and within-country variation in employment protection laws, we find that stringent employment protection laws significantly deter privatization. The fear of job cuts...