IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/mhr/jinste/urnsici0932-4569(201012)1664_715spaacd_2.0.tx_2-h.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Severance Payments as a Commitment Device

Author

Listed:
  • Florian Baumann

Abstract

The present paper analyzes the role of severance payments in optimal labor contracts, employing an efficiency-wage model with two-sided moral hazard. We show how employers commit to job security for their workers by using severance payments, but that in general, employees are not fully compensated for the loss in income in the event of a layoff. By extending the analysis we establish a positive relation between investment in firm-specific training and the probability that a worker dismissed for behavioral reasons receives severance payments, and suggest that a mandatory increase in severance payments may yield a Pareto improvement.

Suggested Citation

  • Florian Baumann, 2010. "Severance Payments as a Commitment Device," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 166(4), pages 715-734, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:mhr:jinste:urn:sici:0932-4569(201012)166:4_715:spaacd_2.0.tx_2-h
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/article/severance-payments-as-a-commitment-device-101628093245610793524929
    Download Restriction: Fulltext access is included for subscribers to the printed version.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kaplow, Louis & Shavell, Steven, 1994. "Accuracy in the Determination of Liability," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(1), pages 1-15, April.
    2. repec:bla:econom:v:56:y:1989:i:224:p:505-21 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Kenji Azetsu & Taro Kumagai, 2006. "Severance pay and the accuracy of judgment," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 10(1), pages 1-7.
    4. Burguet, Roberto & Caminal, Ramon, 2008. "Does the market provide sufficient employment protection?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 406-422, June.
    5. Ichino, Andrea & Polo, Michele & Rettore, Enrico, 2003. "Are judges biased by labor market conditions?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(5), pages 913-944, October.
    6. Brander, James A & Spencer, Barbara J, 1989. "Moral Hazard and Limited Liability: Implications for the Theory of the Firm," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 30(4), pages 833-849, November.
    7. Goerke, Laszlo, 2002. "On dismissal pay," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 497-512, September.
    8. Richard Martin & Steeve Mongrain & Sean Parkinson, 2004. "Severance Payments and Unemployment Insurance: A Commitment Issue," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 6(4), pages 593-606, October.
    9. Fella, Giulio, 2000. "Efficiency wage and efficient redundancy pay," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(8), pages 1473-1490, August.
    10. Martin Abraham & Bernhard Prosch, 2000. "Long-Term Employment Relationships By Credible Commitments," Rationality and Society, , vol. 12(3), pages 283-306, August.
    11. Edward P. Lazear, 1990. "Job Security Provisions and Employment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(3), pages 699-726.
    12. repec:ces:ifodic:v:4:y:2006:i:4:p:14567440 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Margarita Katsimi, 2008. "Training, Job Security And Incentive Wages," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 55(1), pages 67-78, February.
    14. Giorgio Brunello, 2006. "Workplace Training and Labour Market Institutions in Europe," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 4(04), pages 33-41, February.
    15. Giorgio Brunello, 2006. "Workplace Training and Labour Market Institutions in Europe," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 4(4), pages 33-41, 02.
    16. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:10:y:2006:i:1:p:1-7 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/7hh2up94ii8d2rg9pa9vg9eh3t is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Ashok Thomas & Luca Spataro, 2013. "Pension funds and Market Efficiency: A review," Discussion Papers 2013/164, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    3. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/7hh2up94ii8d2rg9pa9vg9eh3t is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Boeri, Tito & Garibaldi, Pietro & Moen, Espen R., 2017. "Inside severance pay," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 211-225.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stähler, Nikolai, 2008. "Firing costs, severance payments, judicial mistakes and unemployment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 1162-1178, December.
    2. Goerke, Laszlo & Neugart, Michael, 2015. "Lobbying and dismissal dispute resolution systems," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 50-62.
    3. Boeri, Tito & Garibaldi, Pietro & Moen, Espen R., 2017. "Inside severance pay," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 211-225.
    4. Huang, Chun-chieh & Chang, Juin-jen & Lai, Ching-chong, 2009. "Employment effect of dismissal pay in the presence of judicial mistakes," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 38-45, March.
    5. Eguchi Kyota, 2008. "Damages or Reinstatement: Incentives and Remedies for Unjust Dismissal," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 443-474, December.
    6. Baumann, Florian & Friehe, Tim, 2012. "On the evasion of employment protection legislation," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 9-17.
    7. Laszlo Goerke, 2006. "Earnings‐related Severance Pay," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 20(4), pages 651-672, December.
    8. Jahn, Elke J. & Wagner, Thomas, 2005. "Contractual Employment Protection and the Scarring Risk of Unemployment," IZA Discussion Papers 1813, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Bert Minne & Marc van der Steeg & Dinand Webbink, 2008. "Skill gaps in the EU: role for education and training policies," CPB Document 162, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    10. Etienne Lale, 2019. "Labor-market Frictions, Incomplete Insurance and Severance Payments," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 31, pages 411-435, January.
    11. Fella Giulio, 2012. "Matching, Wage Rigidities and Efficient Severance Pay," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-35, December.
    12. Fella, Giulio, 2007. "When do firing taxes matter?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 24-31, October.
    13. Mariya Aleksynska & Sandrine Cazes, 2016. "Composite indicators of labour market regulations in a comparative perspective," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-33, December.
    14. Berton, Fabio & Migheli Matteo, 2015. "Estimating the marginal rate of substitution between wage and employment protection," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201529, University of Turin.
    15. John T. Addison & Paulino Teixeira, 2003. "The Economics of Employment Protection," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 24(1), pages 85-129, January.
    16. Tito Boeri & J. Ignacio Conde-Ruiz & Vincenzo Galasso, 2012. "The Political Economy Of Flexicurity," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 684-715, August.
    17. Cozzi, Marco & Fella, Giulio, 2016. "Job displacement risk and severance pay," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 166-181.
    18. Laszlo Goerke, 2002. "Redundancy Pay and Collective Dismissals," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 59(1), pages 68-90, February.
    19. Wolfgang Pointner, 2006. "Employment Protection Regulations and Their Impact on Employment," Monetary Policy & the Economy, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 3, pages 44-57.
    20. repec:ilo:ilowps:485452 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Gyeongjoon Yoo & Changhui Kang, 2012. "The Effect of Protection of Temporary Workers on Employment Levels: Evidence from the 2007 Reform of South Korea," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 65(3), pages 578-606, July.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J41 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Labor Contracts
    • J65 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mhr:jinste:urn:sici:0932-4569(201012)166:4_715:spaacd_2.0.tx_2-h. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Thomas Wolpert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/jite .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.