The potentially adverse labor market effects of severance pay mandates are a continuingsource of policy concern. In a seminal study, Lazear (1990) found that contract avoidance ofseverance pay firing costs was theoretically simple – a bonding scheme would do – but thatempirically the labor...

In order to con¯ne excessive levels of temporary layo®s, US ¯rms are taxed - albeit incom-pletely - according to the unemployment insurance bene¯ts claimed by their laid o® workers.In contrast, German construction ¯rms are not charged according to their layo® historyand should thus have...

With the purpose to reduce winter unemployment and to promote all-season employment in the constructions sector, Germany maintains an extensive bad weather allowance system. Since the mid 1990s, these regulations have been subject to several reforms that resemble the range of approaches for...