This paper explores microdata from Argentine household surveys to analyze how changes in the enforcement of labor regulations affect the compliance level and other labor outcomes among men and women. Using information of the highly decentralized labor inspection system in Argentina, I construct...

Employment tribunals or labor courts are responsible for enforcing employment protection legislation and adjudicating rights-based disputes between employers and employees. Claim numbers are high and, in Great Britain, have been rising, affecting both administrative costs and economic...

Using longitudinal data on labour law in France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, the UK and the USA for the four decades after 1970, we estimate the impact of labour regulation on unemployment and equality, using labour’s share of national income as a proxy for the latter. We employ a dynamic panel...

The U.S. minimum wage declined in real terms since the late 1970s. In the same time, the wage of the least skilled workers fell in real terms, while the wage of the highest skilled workers increased. To shed light on these issues, I use a simple model of routinization. High-ability workers,...

Debate over regulation of dismissals has been intense in recent years, and renewed in the lead-up to the 2012 review of the operation of the Fair Work Act. This paper reviews the economically relevant aspects of the legislative changes from the Workplace Relations Act which operated from...

In this article, we analyze the determinants of annual number of grievance procedures, mainly individual complaints against unfair dismissals. Econometric analyses using two balanced panels from the 11 West German states (1964-2006) and the 17 autonomous regions of Spain (1987-2006) show that...

In this paper we analyze the worker's behavior when faced with job offers which include possible temporary layoff spells of varying (known) durations. We show that of the three strategies which can be optimal, two involve search in all or part of the layoffs. We also show that the duration of...

We collect rich establishment-level data about advance layoff notices filed under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act since January 1990. We present in-sample evidence that the number of workers affected by WARN notices leads state-level initial unemployment insurance...

Although an inverse relationship between sickness absence and unemployment has been documented in a number of studies using either quarterly or annual data from different countries with varying institutional frameworks, it is not yet clear whether this empirical regularity is due to changes in...

While proponents argue that minimum wage laws are essential in improving social welfare and economic well-being, implementation of minimum wage laws can also be associated with increased unemployment and the movement of workers into the informal sector where worker protection and workplace...