Are worker flows in France and the US so different? Revisiting French empirical evidence

This paper revisits empirical evidence on worker flows in France. We use much more recent and complete data than previous studies, and we innovate by estimating hires and separations separately for open-ended contract workers. Focusing on open-ended contracts for France yields a picture strikingly close to the US labor market. Our results downplay the hypothesis, previously stated in the literature, that downsizing French firms would adjust through reduction in hiring because of the rigidity of employment protection legislation. Such results call for more work to be done on the impact of employment protection legislation on labor flows.