Employment Protection Policies Research Articles

Has the digital economy improved income inequality for ethnic minorities? The case of China

This paper examines how China's ethnic minorities' income equality has changed due to the digital economy's development. The study focuses on the critical analysis of the legal system by juridical analysis combined with doctrinal and textual analysis. Furthermore, the article makes the argument convictive by developing econometric models and heterogeneity analysis. Through a dialectical discussion, this paper shows a shared understanding of what the term “digital economy” means in Chinese society, and that income equality for ethnic minorities in the digital economy has both positive and negative effects. On the one hand, the digital economy is conducive to raising income levels and reducing the income gap between Han Chinese and ethnic minorities; however, on the other hand, the digital economy exacerbates the income gap between Han Chinese and ethnic minorities among low-income groups. As a result, disputes over income equality for ethnic minorities in the digital economy are more pronounced among low-income groups. The institutional causes of these problems include the inadequacy of China's digital economy policies for ethnic minorities and the shortcomings of China's legal system for labor protection. The Chinese government should renew the Chinese Constitution, labor law, and employment protection policies to improve the present situation. Based on China's experience, other countries should have pragmatic attitudes to revise the laws and regulations and explore some target measures, such as the digital services tax, to help ethnic minorities.

A pathway to a sustainable future: Investigating the contribution of technological innovations, clean energy, and Women's empowerment in mitigating global environmental challenges

This study aims to provide insights into the pathway toward a sustainable future by investigating the factors contributing to environmental sustainability. In this pursuit, the current study empirically analyzes the role of economic growth, technological innovation, clean energy consumption, and women empowerment toward global environmental quality from 1991 to 2015. For empirical analysis, autoregressive distributive lag and fourier frequency domain causality models are employed to test the long-medium and short-run association between the selected variables. Fully modified ordinary least squares and canonical cointegration regression estimations are also applied for robustness. The empirics of this study reveal that economic growth deteriorates the environmental quality in the long and short run. However, technological innovation, clean energy consumption, and women's empowerment help improve environmental quality in the long and short run. In addition, the robust analysis also authenticates the long-run outcomes of the study. This study suggests policy recommendations aimed at a sustainable future by establishing strong regulatory policy instruments, enforcing environmental laws, promoting energy-efficient technologies in industries and households, implementing women's employment protection policies, and strong regulatory policy instruments to achieve emission reduction in the global perspective.

Heterogeneity in labor mobility and unemployment flows across countries

Empirical studies of labor-market flows suggest cross-country differences in long-run aggregate unemployment inflows and outflows of a strikingly large magnitude. The canonical search-and-matching framework of Mortensen and Pissarides (1994, 1999b; the MP model) features small elasticities of steady-state unemployment flows with respect to firing costs, at odds with the idea that labor-market institutions such as employment protection policies are a primary driver of this variation. This paper shows that introducing permanent match-quality heterogeneity in the standard MP model substantially amplifies these elasticities. It then develops a quantitative search model with worker and job heterogeneity consistent with U.S. worker-flow data. This model implies that employment protection differences plausibly account for most of the long-run unemployment-flow variation across high-income countries. In sharp contrast, shutting down heterogeneity implies that large changes in matching efficiency are required to explain the same cross-country variation.

Os governos estaduais no enfrentamento da Covid-19: um novo protagonismo no federalismo brasileiro?

ABSTRACT The Federal Constitution of 1988 established a model of cooperative federalism seeking to create institutional bases to functionally articulate the performance of the federal government, states, and cities in the construction of such strategies, especially in critical situations that demand a response from the expressive mobilization of resources, actors, and institutions. The objective of this article is to present an analysis of the evolution of the actions developed by the governors of eleven Brazilian states to face the Covid-19 pandemic, seeking to identify the tendency of their actions in face of the pressures generated in the dynamics of intergovernmental relations. A total of 701 decrees published from February to October 2020, considered the first wave of the pandemic, were organised and analysed based on three axes: measures to improve health policies and services; employment and income protection policies; administrative and social regulation measures and territorial management. The results show the existence of a leading role of governors in face of the lack of coordination of the federal government, with emphasis on the exercise of constitutional competences through measures of horizontal cooperation, regional and associative learning practice, and organisation of social intervention measures that played an important role in the fight against the pandemic.

Interaction between agricultural production, female employment, renewable energy, and environmental quality: Policy directions in context of developing economies

The current study empirically explores the interaction between agricultural production, female employment, consumption of renewable energy, and carbon dioxide emissions in Pakistan. We have used annual data from 1991 to 2015, extracted from the World Bank database. The findings of this study establish an inverse and significant connection between agricultural production, female employment, consumption of renewable energy, and CO2 emissions during empirical estimations through the ARDL model and robust analysis. This negative connection indicates that adding value in agricultural production, increasing level of female employment and increasing share of renewable energy consumption help reduce CO2 emissions in Pakistan. Additionally, the residual outcomes confirm no serial correlation, no heteroskedasticity, and no stability problem. Furthermore, this study proposes important policy recommendations to mitigate environmental CO2 emissions. For instance, the government should encourage and incentivize farmers to use advanced types of machinery during the agriculture production process. The wage difference between men and women should be minimized, and employment protection policies for women should be introduced by the government to provide a sense of work security to women. The government should provide a special reward system for those farmers who use renewable energy sources instead of using conventional energy sources.

Intercooperation, flexicurity and their impact on workers: The case of Fagor Electrodomésticos

AbstractMondragon cooperatives have used flexible employment, training and labour protection policies to deal with economic crises since the 1970s. These policies were also used in 2013 to alleviate the social consequences of the demise of their biggest industrial cooperative, Fagor Electrodomésticos. This article aims to analyze—through 40 interviews with different stakeholders—the advantages and limitations of wage, working time and functional flexibility policies by framing them under the flexicurity concept. In contrast with previous research on Mondragon cooperatives, this study has found a strong worker‐owner resistance to flexicurity policies, mainly before the firm's bankruptcy. The study has also found the main reasons for worker resistance and for some successful Mondragon cooperatives’ reluctance to offer permanent relocations to redundant Fagor Electrodomésticos’ members. This research will help cooperatives to maintain and improve their flexicurity policies and their resilience. Some findings can be extrapolated to the growing number of firms that aim to implement flexicurity policies without harming their workers’ social welfare.

Precariousness in Norway and Sweden: a comparative register-based study of longstanding precarious attachment to the labour market 1996–2015

ABSTRACT Precariousness in working life is a rising concern in Europe, but scant statistical evidence exists as to the prevalence and development of longstanding precarious employment. Using high-quality individual-level population-wide register data across several decades, this study addresses this issue in Norway and Sweden. Longstanding precarious attachment to the labour market was defined as low/marginal work income during eight years, with frequent substantial income drops and/or reliance on income maintenance schemes. In the core working-age population, 15.3 percent in Norway and 20.0 percent in Sweden had this employment attachment during 1996–2003. Women, low educated, and foreign-born were at higher risk. Contrary to expectations, in 2008–2015, longstanding precarious attachment had declined to 12.7 percent in Norway and 14.5 percent in Sweden. Women in particular, but also immigrants, had attained stronger labour market attachment in the latter period. These results could indicate that key welfare state elements such as trade union strength, strong employment protection and active labour market policies have been successful in shielding workers from negative labour market developments. However, certain population categories with particularly high risk of precarious employment, such as young adults and short-term and undocumented immigrants, have not been analysed by this study.

Mandatory Advance Notice of Layoff: Evidence and Efficiency Considerations

We investigate a prevalent, but understudied, employment protection policy: mandatory advance notice (MN), requiring employers to notify employees of forthcoming layoffs. MN increases future production, as notified workers search on the job, but reduces current production as they supply less effort. Our theoretical model captures this trade-off and predicts that MN improves production efficiency by increasing information sharing, whereas large production losses can be avoided by worker-firm agreements on side-payments â?? severance pay â?? in lieu of MN. We provide evidence of such severance increases in response to an extension of MN using novel Swedish administrative data. We then estimate the production gain of MN: extending the MN period leads to shorter non-employment duration and higher reemployment wages, plausibly driven by on-the-job search. Using variation in notice duration across firms, we estimate the productivity loss of notice. The estimates of benefits and costs suggest that MN has a positive net impact on production, offering an empirically-grounded efficiency argument for mandating notice.

Mandatory Advance Notice of Layoff: Evidence and Efficiency Considerations

We investigate a prevalent, but understudied, employment protection policy: mandatory advance notice (MN), requiring employers to notify employees of forthcoming layoffs. MN increases future production, as notified workers search on the job, but reduces current production as they supply less effort. Our theoretical model captures this trade-off and predicts that MN improves production efficiency by increasing information sharing, whereas large production losses can be avoided by worker-firm agreements on side-payments – severance pay – in lieu of MN. We provide evidence of such severance increases in response to an extension of MN using novel Swedish administrative data. We then estimate the production gain of MN: extending the MN period leads to shorter non-employment duration and higher reemployment wages, plausibly driven by on-the-job search. Using variation in notice duration across firms, we estimate the productivity loss of notice. The estimates of benefits and costs suggest that MN has a positive net impact on production, offering an empirically-grounded efficiency argument for mandating notice.

Working after cancer: in-depth perspectives from a setting with limited employment protection policies.

A considerable proportion of individuals who are diagnosed with cancer are at a working age. We aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of the challenges, and arising needs related to working after cancer in a setting with limited employment protection policies. Focus group discussions were conducted with cancer patients who were diagnosed at least 1 year prior to recruitment, and either had paid work, were self-employed, currently unemployed, or currently retired (N = 66). Three main themes were identified: (1) loss of income: While some participants were entitled for a 1-year cancer-specific sick leave, many other participants recounted having insufficient paid sick leave, forcing them to take prolonged unpaid leave to complete treatment; (2) dealing with side effects of cancer and its treatment: The need for workplace accommodations was highlighted including flexible working hours, lighter workloads, and dedicated rest areas to enable patients to cope better; (3) Discrimination and stigma at workplace: Some participants mentioned being passed over on a promotion, getting demoted, or being forced to resign once their cancer diagnosis was disclosed, highlighting an urgent need to destigmatize cancer in the workplace. In settings with limited employment protection policies, a cancer diagnosis severely impacts the working experiences of patients, leading to financial loss. Urgent interventions and legislative reforms are needed in these settings to address the unmet employment needs of cancer survivors. This study may facilitate planning of local solutions to fulfill the unmet employment needs following cancer, such as return-to-work navigation services.

Employment status, gender and hazardous alcohol use: National Health Survey, 2013

Unemployment is associated with binge drinking (BD) as a means to combat psychological suffering. Also, the context of employment, working conditions and occupational stress have been associated with the consumption of alcoholic beverages. This article examines the role of employment status and gender differences in BD in Brazilian adults at least 18 years of age. Logistic regression models were used to analyse data from 33,632 participants (54.5% women) in the National Health Survey (Pesquisa Nacional de Saude, PNS, 2013) who were part of the workforce and who answered questions about BD. The sample was stratified by gender, with each group being classified into two subgroups according to employment status (ES), namely, employed (workers paid in cash by one or more employers) and unemployed (people without work in the reference period of the PNS). The final model by gender was fit according to ES-related exposure and the explanatory variables, with only those significant at a 5% level remaining in the model. The prevalence of BD was 15.2%. A higher chance of BD was observed in the employed group compared to the unemployed group, and in men compared to women. Younger age, living without a partner, not practising physical activity and smoking were associated with the outcome, regardless of gender. For women, interactions with income affected the association between ES and the outcome. Gender differences and high prevalence and overlapping of harmful behaviours provide clues for the evaluation of the future needs of health services, as well as guidance for employment protection policies.

Towards a Socialization of the EU's New Economic Governance Regime? EU Labour Policy Interventions in Germany, Ireland, Italy and Romania (2009-2019).

In response to the last recession, the European Union (EU) adopted a new economic governance (NEG) regime. An influential stream of EU social policy literature argues that there has been more emphasis on social objectives in the NEG regime in more recent years. This article shows that this is not the case. It does so through an in‐depth analysis of NEG prescriptions on wage, employment protection and collective bargaining policy in Germany, Italy, Ireland and Romania between 2009 and 2019. Our main conclusion is that the EU's interventions in these three industrial relations policy areas continue to be dominated by a liberalization agenda that is commodifying labour, albeit to a different degree across the uneven but nonetheless integrated European political economy. This finding is important, as countervailing transnational trade union action is the more likely, the more there is a common threat. Even so, our contextualized analysis also enables us to detect contradictions that could provide European labour movements opportunities to pursue countervailing action.

The Institutional Development of Employment Protection and the Perception of Western Concepts and Values in China

This research addresses a challenging issue, employment protection in China, including unemployment insurance, work accident insurance and the concept of co-determination. Although the ideology of Sino-communism seems to share some elective affinity with the comprehensive arrangements of labor protection in modern welfare capitalism, in reality, the mainstream economic elites of post-Mao China enthusiastically embraced neoliberal ideology in the 1980s and 1990s, maintaining a critical attitude towards employment protection policies through the lens of economic efficiency and productivity. However, since the millennium, the ruling elites of China have started to promote a certain version of an inclusive and social market economy, and Western ideas and discourses on employment protection have become prevalent. This paper outlines the institutional reforms, dynamics, mechanisms and constraints in the development of employment protection arrangements in China since the millennium. Further, emphasis is placed on the ideational level, with a special focus on domestic discussions, debates, discourses and interpretations of “co-determination” from several major Western nations including Germany, the Nordic countries, the Anglo-Saxon nations and Japan. Through the academic “barometer,” the future development of employment protection in China is discussed.

Unemployment and suicide in Italy: evidence of a long-run association mitigated by public unemployment spending.

From the mid-1990s on, the suicide rate in Italy declined steadily, then apparently rose again after the onset of the Great Recession, along with a sharp increase in unemployment. The aim of this study is to test the association between the suicide rate and unemployment (i.e., the unemployment rate for males and females in the period 1977-2015, and the long-term unemployment rate in the period 1983-2012) in Italy, by means of cointegration techniques. The analysis was adjusted for public unemployment spending (referring to the period 1980-2012). The study identified a long-run relationship between the suicide rate and long-term unemployment. On the other hand, an association between suicide and unemployment rate emerged, though statistically weaker. A 1% increase in long-term unemployment increases the suicide rate by 0.83%, with a long-term effect lasting up to 18 years. Public unemployment spending (as percentage of the Italian gross domestic product) may mitigate this association: when its annual growth rate is higher than 0.18%, no impact of unemployment on suicide in detectable. A decrease in the suicide rate is expected for higher amounts of social spending, which may be able to compensate for the reduced level of social integration resulting from unemployment, helping the individual to continue to integrate into society. A corollary of this is that austerity in times of economic recession may exacerbate the impact of the economic downturn on mental health. However, a specific "flexicurity" system (intended as a combination of high employment protection, job satisfaction and labour-market policies) may have a positive impact on health.

Employment Protection and Payout Policy

This paper examines the relationship between employment protection legislation (EPL) and corporate payouts. Employees are corporate claimants who compete with shareholders to extract economic rents generated by the firm, so management is influenced by workforce power via the EPL framework in setting its corporate payout policy. For a large international sample of 21 OECD countries for the period 1985-2013, we find that a one standard deviation increase in labor protection leads to a 5.07% (12.17%) lower dividend (total) payout. Consistent with the flexibility hypothesis, we find that EPL has a greater impact on payout in firms that are more resource-constrained such as labor-intensive firms, firms that face financial constraints and firms with higher operating leverage. The effects of tightening and loosening EPL are not symmetrical. Firms increase dividend payouts after employment protection is softened but are reluctant to cut dividends when employment protection is tightened. Our results provide important insights in the dynamics between labor law regulations and corporate financing decisions.

Measuring the effects of employment protection policies: Theory and evidence from the Americans with Disabilities Act

Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is an employment protection policy for disabled workers. By exploiting cross-state variation in pre-ADA legislation, we measure the effects of the law on transition rates of disabled workers. We find a decline in employment-to-non-employment transitions after the ADA, with an insignificant change in flow into employment. We use a model to disentangle the costs of firing and hiring imposed by the ADA. Our findings suggest that the ADA induces firms to fire less frequently but become more selective with new hires, impacting the aggregate productivity of the workforce and output of the economy.

Employment Protection and Payout Policy

Cet article analyse la relation entre la législation sur la protection de l’emploi (LPE) et la politique de distribution des entreprises. Les employés ont des droits sur l’entreprise et sont en concurrence avec les actionnaires pour l’attribution des rentes économiques générées. Ainsi, les dirigeants sont influencés par le pouvoir des employés, exprimé à travers la LPE, lorsqu’ils décident de la politique de distribution. Dans un grand échantillon d’entreprises internationales de 21 pays de l’OCDE entre 1985 et 2013, nous trouvons que si l’écart type de la LPE augmente d’une unité, il y a une diminution de 5.07% (12.17%) dans la distribution de dividendes (distribution totale). Dans des résultats cohérents avec l’hypothèse de la flexibilité, nous trouvons un effet plus important sur la distribution dans les entreprises qui ont des ressources plus contraintes, telles que celles qui ont recours à la main d’œuvre de façon plus intensive, celles qui ont plus de contraintes financières et un levier d’exploitation plus élevé. Les effets d’un renforcement ou d’un assouplissement de la LPE ne sont pas symétriques. Les entreprises augmentent la distribution de dividendes après un assouplissement de la LPE, mais sont réticentes à diminuer les dividendes lorsque la LPE est renforcée. Nos résultats apportent des éclairages utiles sur la dynamique entre la législation sur la protection de l’emploi et des décisions de financement des entreprises.

Measuring the Effects of Employment Protection Policies for the Disabled: Theory and Evidence from the Americans with Disabilities Act

We evaluate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) using a directed search model in which firms post health-contingent wage contracts. We theoretically show that the ADA benefits disabled workers at the expense of non-disabled workers if firms face a high penalty for preferentially hiring non-disabled, whereas the disabled are worse off if the expected cost from terminating a disabled employee is high. Our estimation results imply that disabled job-finding and job-separation rates decreased, suggesting that for firms, the cost of hiring discrimination is lower than disabled-worker termination. Overall, the ADA caused a 2.2 percentage point decline in disabled employment rates.

Labor Activity Dynamics of Older Persons in the Far East of Russia

The necessity to study the labor activity of older persons in the Far East of Russia is being actualised ever more acutely due to the decrease in the ratio of the economically active population in the region, as well as due to the increase in the number of elderly people. The analysis of the older group labor activity has been presented together with the factors acting thereupon in the Far East of Russia. The labor activity of the older persons groups is definitely dependent on the outer conditions and on the factors of this social group labor potential formation and implementation, including the social/economic conditions on the whole, the social and economic policy, employment and social protection policies, etc. Keywords: Labor Activity, Labor Potential, Life Standards, Older Persons

Studies in Convergence? Post‐Crisis Effects on Corporate Rescue and the Influence of Social Policy: The EU and the USA

AbstractThe financial crisis and the sovereign debt crisis that it precipitated in a number of peripheral EU Member States heralded massive changes in insolvency, corporate rescue and employment protection policies. The US and the EU both suffered greatly in the wake of the crisis, but their recoveries have occurred along very different tracks. The US has managed to regain much of its position in terms of relative growth and the UK has outpaced the recoveries of those European countries that are members of the European Monetary Union. The purpose of this treatise is to explore the context of the 2007–2008 financial crisis in the US and in the EU and its impact on legal reform in corporate rescue and restructuring as well as those aspects of social policy implicated within insolvency systems (notably collective redundancy and transfers of undertakings). It will also consider whether or not the corporate rescue and employee protection systems can be seen to be converging, and whether, in view of the different socio‐economic, political and cultural aspects of the US and the EU, such convergence might be beneficial. Copyright © 2015 INSOL International and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.