Costly Labor Adjustment: General Equilibrium Effects of China's Employment Regulations

This paper studies the employment and productivity implications of new labor regulations in China. These new policies were intended to protect workers' employment conditions by, among other things, increasing firing costs and increasing compensation. We estimate a model of costly labor adjustment from data prior to the policy. We use the estimated model to simulate the effects of the policy. We find that increases in severance payments lead to sizable job creation, a significant reduction in labor reallocation and an increase in the exit rate. A policy of credit market liberalization will reduce employment, increase labor reallocation and increase wages. The estimated elasticity of labor demand implies that an increase in the base wage leads to sizable job losses.