When unemployment insurance is publicly provided, firms' layoff decisions can be distorted. Unemployment insurance reduces the cost of laying off workers, thereby encouraging layoffs and leading to more unemployment. To dampen this increase in unemployment, it has been suggested that...

We investigate how discretionary investments in general and specific human capital are affected by the possibility of layoffs. After investments are made, firms may have to lay off workers, and will do so in inverse order of the profit that each worker generates. Greater skill investments,...

The new institutional economics regards the firm as a set of incomplete contracts among input suppliers. The theory of the firm must therefore explain how decision-making powers are allocated. Two leading candidates for such control rights are capital suppliers and labor suppliers. Most large...