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Riccardo Tilli and Enrico Saltari
 
''Do labor market conditions affect the strictness of employment protection legislation?''
( 2008, Vol. 10 No.4 )
 
 
We provide a theoretical microfoundation for the negative relationship between firing costs and labor market tightness and its effects on labor market performance. The optimal level of firing costs is chosen by the employed worker i.e. the insider by maximizing her human capital. Performing a comparative statics exercise, we analyze the effects of labor market tightness on the optimal choice of firing costs. The results are clear cut and allow to obtain a decreasing firing costs function in the labor market tightness. Moreover, we show that this negative relationship can give rise to a labor market configuration characterized by multiple equilibria: prolonged average duration of unemployment will produce a labor market with low flows and high strictness of employment protection, and vice versa.
 
 
Keywords: Matching Models
JEL: J6 - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies: General
J6 - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies: General
 
Manuscript Received : Mar 13 2008 Manuscript Accepted : Mar 13 2008

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