Joint Determination of Product and Labor Market Policies in a Model of Rent Creation and Division

We find that, across OECD countries, there is a strong link between the rate of self employment and the intensity of both product- and labor-market regulations. The sensitivity of the self-employment rate to regulation appears greater in terms of statistical significance and magnitude than the sensitivity of unemployment. We then develop a model of rent creation and division featuring product and labor market policies. The calibrated model accounts broadly for these features of the data. We also use the model to look at the effect of labor market and product market regulations on the different constituencies in the economy.