This study examines the association between firm-level investments in automation technologies and employment outcomes, drawing on a panel dataset of approximately 10,450 Italian firms. We focus on the proliferation of non-standard labour contracts introduced by labour market reforms in the...

Compared to permanent employment contracts, fixed-term contracts are less attractive. However, a recent IAB study shows that fixed-term contracts are not necessarily disadvantageous, even if permanent contracts are preferable from the employees' point of view. The decisive factors are less...

Flexible work arrangements (FWAs) are often promoted as a means to regularise informal labour. Utilising unique Italian administrative data that links employer-employee records, daily voucher usage by firms, and randomly timed labour inspections (2014-2017), we demonstrate that FWAs can also...

For workers facing uncertain output, fixed-wage contracts provide implicit insurance compared to self-employment or performance-based pay. But like any insurance product, these contracts are prone to market distortions through moral hazard and adverse selection. Using a model of wage contracts...

The rising incidence of alternative work arrangements, such as outsourcing, raises important questions about worker outcomes in such non-standard labor contracts. We study this question in the Netherlands, a country with a rapid rise in flexible labor contracts, using administrative...

People's engagement and success at work depend heavily on the psychological contract. Professionals must design strategies to manage employee expectations effectively. This study examined how employee work engagement is influenced by transactional and relational psychological contract...

This paper is the first to examine whether and how overeducation and overskilling, considered separately and in interaction, influence workers' job satisfaction at European level. It also investigates the moderating role of employment contracts. Our results, based on a unique pan-European...

The economic literature has remarked on the stability of the German labor market, despite the severe impact of the pandemic induced recession. So, what factors contributed to this stability? The literature stresses the use of internal flexibility on firm level - reducing working hours and...

This paper is the first to examine whether and how overeducation and overskilling, considered separately and in interaction, influence workers' job satisfaction at European level. It also investigates the moderating role of employment contracts. Our results, based on a unique pan-European...

This study examines the association between investments in automation technologies and employment outcomes at the firm level, utilizing a panel dataset of about 10,450 Italian firms. Focusing on the proliferation of non-standard, flexible labor contracts introduced by labor market reforms in the...

Naidu and Yuchtman (2013) find that labor demand shocks in 19th-century Britain had an impact on master and servant prosecutions, as breaking an employee contract was a criminal offense until 1875. We first reproduce all regression tables in Naidu and Yuchtman (2013) and then test for robustness...

We investigate how the incompleteness of an employment contract - discretionary and non-contractible effort - can affect an employer's decision about cutting nominal wages. Using matched employer-employee payroll data from Great Britain, linked to a survey of managers, we find support for the...

Do labour institutions influence how wages respond to the business cycle? Such responsiveness can then shape several economic outcomes, including unemployment. In this paper, we examine the role of two key labour market institutions - collective bargaining and temporary contracts - upon wage...

While previous research on head coach dismissals finds that team performance and managerial characteristics impact employment survival, these studies ignore the impact of contract modifications. Using an accelerated failure time survival model with hand-collected college head football coach...

We develop a Dynamic-Stochastic-General-Equilibrium model to study the macro welfare effects of flexible labor contracts. Capturing the empirical properties observed in the data, we incorporate two labor sectors in our DSGE framework: a fixed sector and a flexible sector. The fixed sector offers...

We develop a theoretically grounded extension of the two-way fixed effects model of Abowd et al. (1999) that allows firms to differ both in the wages they offer new hires and the wages required to poach their employees. Expected hiring wages are modeled as the sum of a worker fixed effect, a...

Contract law is stuck in a loop of path dependency and stale precedent. Its metaphors, like “the meeting of the minds,” are today laughably implausible. Its values, like “consent,” have been stripped of any real meaning. No one reads or understands the overwhelming majority of contracts...

Outsourcing public services to private providers is heralded for increasing government efficiency. Yet, outsourcing also offers opportunities to circumvent employment regulations in the public sector. The praised flexibility that private contractors have to hire employees can also be used to...

China’s new Labor Contract Law (LCL), which came into force in 2008, has greatly improved the protection of workers and increased the cost of labor. This study investigates its effect on firms’ risk-taking behavior and industrial upgrading. The analysis finds strong and robust evidence that...

Consumers are at a disadvantage when it comes to standard-form contracts – information gaps, weak bargaining power, and behavioral biases all work against them. Moreover, in the digital age, consumers do not even try to read the lengthy contracts they instantaneously approve. Manipulation by...

Racial residential segregation is a crucial aspect of the persisting racial inequality in the United States. We reexamine this enduring problem from a novel perspective, exposing the relationship between segregation and contract duration. In the housing context, the main contract duration...

Transparency is a promising means for enhancing democratic values, countering corruption, and reducing power abuse. Nonetheless, the potential of transparency in the domain of consumer contracts is untapped. This Article suggests utilizing the power of transparency to increase consumer access to...

Previous literature on the effect of tenured and tenure-track vs. non-tenure-track professors on students' performance at university finds contrasting results. Our paper is the first to test whether tenured/tenure-track and non-tenure-track teachers differently affect students' performance at...

The nationwide implementation of the minimum wage system in 1993 was followed by the “Minimum Wage Regulations” in 2004 with an attempt to enhance regulatory stringency of the system. The article constructs a theoretical model to establish testable propositions and conducts empirical...

With the increasing complexity and dynamism of the modern work experience, the importance of the psychological contract has become increasingly clear. Organizations and researchers alike have recognized the implications of this contract for employee performance, satisfaction and well-being....