In this article, we evaluate the virtues of an employment protection reform which is based on a simplification of the red tape and legal costs associated with layoffs and on the introduction of a U.S.-style experience-rating system. To this end, we use a search and matching model à la Mortensen...

Experience rating which is often treated as a simple adjustment cost is an original feature of the US unemployment benefit system. This Paper extensively addresses the effect of experience rating as an alternative to standard job protection. We provide a simple matching model of unemployment...

This paper provides a simple model which explains the choice between permanent and temporary jobs. This model, which incorporates important features of actual employment protection legislations neglected by the economic literature so far, reproduces the main stylized facts about entries into...

In this article, we propose a simple model aimed at explaining the extremely short duration of most temporary contracts. This model takes into account an important characteristic of EPL in Continental Europe that has been neglected by the literature so far. We show that a stringent EPL raises...

This paper proposes a unified theoretical framework where formal and informal firms coexist and face the same type of product and labor market imperfections: they have monopoly power in the goods market, they are subject to matching frictions in the labor market, and wages are determined by...

<OL><LI>This report provides an overview of the limited empirical and theoretical research on take-up of welfare benefits, <I>i.e.</I> the extent to which people eligible for various types of benefits actually receive them. Focus is mainly on entitlement programmes, where take-up reflects both decisions of...</i></li></ol>

The systematic use of experience rating is an original feature of the US unemployment benefit system. In most states, unemployment benefits are financed by taxing firms in proportion to their separations. Experience rating is a way to require employers to contribute to the payment of...

This article studies the impact of experience rating on unemployment for skilled and unskilled workers. In this purpose, we build a dual matching model with endogenous job creation, job rejection, job destruction and endogeneous taxes aimed at financing the UI system. In this framework, the...

The design of employment protection legislation (EPL) is of particular importance in the European debate on the contours of labor-market reform. In this article we appeal to an equilibrium unemployment model to investigate the virtues of EPL reform which reduces the red tape and legal costs...