Severance pay, a fixed-sum payment to workers at job separation, has been the focus of intense policy concern for the last several decades, but much of this concern is unearned. The design of the ideal separation package is outlined and severance pay emerges as a natural component of job...

Theory predicts that the wage effects of government-mandated severance payments depend on workers' and firms' relative bargaining power. This paper estimates the effect of employment protection legislation (EPL) on workers' individual wages in a quasi-experimental setting, exploiting a reform...

In many countries, the termination of employment contracts has to be either on employer initiative or on employee initiative. In 2008, the French government introduced a change in doctrine: it became possible to terminate employment contracts by mutual consent at a lower cost. We show that the...

Renewable fixed-term contracts are widespread in executive compensation. This paper shows why these contracts are optimal and how they affect managers' and boards' behavior. When managers' match-quality changes over time, offering severance pay for premature dismissal can discourage window...