I analyze the effects of introducing fixed-term contracts, leaving existing labor market regulations unchanged, on unemployment and labor market segmentation. I use an efficiency wage model in which the firm's choice of contracts and the renewal rate of fixed-term contracts into permanent ones...

In the mid-1980s,most accessions to permanent employment in several European countries have been through fixed-term contracts. This paper studies the duration pattern of fixed-term contracts and the determinants of their conversion into permanent ones in Spain, where the share of fixed-term...

There is an enormous literature on gender gaps in pay and labour market participation but virtually no literature on gender gaps in unemployment rates. Although there are some countries in which there is essentially no gender gap in unemployment, there are others in which the female unemployment...

This paper was presented at the launch of SIRE, November 2007 and has also been published as CEPR Discussion Paper Number 810

During the 1980s, many European countries introduced fixed-term contracts to fight high and persistent levels of unemployment. Although these contracts have been widely used, unemployment remains about the same after fifteen years. This paper builds a theoretical model to reconcile these facts....

Firing costs are often blamed for unemployment. This paper investigates this widespread belief theoretically. The main points are two. First, firing costs are introduced in an efficiency wage model to capture their effects on employment though wages. Second, dismissal conflicts are modeled...