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...

Job insecurity can have wide-ranging consequences outside of the labour market. We here argue that it reduces fertility amongst the employed. The 1999 rise in the French Delalande tax, paid by large private firms when they laid off workers aged over 50, produced an exogenous rise in job...

We investigate the effect of employment protection legislation (EPL) on the propensity to hire workers from unemployment and active labor market programs (ALMPs), utilizing a reform that decreased dismissal costs for small firms only. Using administrative data from Sweden, we find that less...

Dismissal protection has experienced many statutory changes in Germany in the past decades. This paper estimates the effects of dismissal protection on the hazard of leaving the establishment using as identification that workers employed before the legal amendment maintained their previous...

An account of layoffs in America, their questionable necessity, their overuse, and their devastating impact on individuals at all income levels. Economics journalist Uchitelle explains how, in the mid-1970s, the first major layoffs, a limited response to the inroads of foreign competition,...