IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/udc/esteco/v30y2003i1p5-20.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Labor market institutions and employment policies: the international experience

Author

Listed:
  • Richard B.Freeman

Abstract

This paper presents evidence that legal protection of property rights is indeed an important contributor to economic success but that institutional and legal protection of the rights of labor is also associated with economic success, particularly in developing countries. Cross-country analyses show that measures of labor protections have the same relation to economic efficiency, measured by GDP per capita, as measures of protection of property, and that both protection of property rights and protection of labor rights reduce economic inequality. The results suggest that as legal protection of property gives investors the right message about economic activity: invest in productive undertakings and you will gain the fruits of your investments; legal protection of labor gives workers the right message about economic activity: work and you will gain the fruits of your labor.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard B.Freeman, 2003. "Labor market institutions and employment policies: the international experience," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 30(1 Year 20), pages 5-20, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:udc:esteco:v:30:y:2003:i:1:p:5-20
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.uchile.cl/uploads/publicacion/c0582373-4807-4af8-8c8a-20e120bbfcdb.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard B. Freeman, 1994. "Working Under Different Rules," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number free94-1, May.
    2. Rebecca M. Blank, 1994. "Introduction to "Social Protection versus Economic Flexibility: Is There a Trade-Off?"," NBER Chapters, in: Social Protection versus Economic Flexibility: Is There a Trade-Off?, pages 1-20, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Rebecca M. Blank, 1994. "Social Protection versus Economic Flexibility: Is There a Trade-Off?," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number blan94-1, May.
    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. Boniface Ngah Epo & Gabriel Nnana Ahanda & Esther Arrah Enow & Jean-Baptise Achille Nsoe, 2024. "Economic competitiveness and labour market regulation in developing economies," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 4(11), pages 1-23, November.
    2. Lawrence King & Osvaldo Gómez Martínez, 2010. "Property Rights Reform and Development: A Critique of the Cross-National Regression Literature," Working Papers wp216, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

    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. Machiel van Dijk & Machiel Mulder, 2005. "Regulation of telecommunication and deployment of broadband," CPB Memorandum 131.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    2. Coen N. Teulings & Nikolay Zubanov, 2014. "Is Economic Recovery A Myth? Robust Estimation Of Impulse Responses," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(3), pages 497-514, April.
    3. Rebecca M. Blank, "undated". "Is There a Trade-off between Unemployment and Inequality? No Easy Answers: Labor Market Problems in the United States versus Europe," Economics Public Policy Brief Archive ppb_33, Levy Economics Institute.
    4. Luis Ayala & Rosa Martinez & Jesus Ruiz-Huerta, 2002. "Institutional determinants of the unemployment-earnings inequality trade-off," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(2), pages 179-195.
    5. David Kucera, 1998. "Unemployment and External and Internal Labor Market Flexibility: A Comparative View of Europe, Japan, and the United States," SCEPA working paper series. 1998-21, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    6. Asma Hyder & Barry Reilly, 2005. "The Public and Private Sector Pay Gap in Pakistan: A Quantile Regression Analysis," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 44(3), pages 271-306.
    7. Siv Gustafsson & Eiko Kenjoh & Cecile Wetzels, 2001. "Employment Choices and Pay Differences between Non-Standard and Standard Work in Britain, Germany, Netherlands and Sweden," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 01-086/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    8. Beuselinck, Christof & Markarian, Garen & Verriest, Arnt, 2021. "Employee protection shocks and corporate cash holdings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    9. MacLeod, W. Bentley, 2011. "Great Expectations: Law, Employment Contracts, and Labor Market Performance," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 18, pages 1591-1696, Elsevier.
    10. Rebecca M. Blank, 1997. "No Easy Answers: Comparative Labor Market Problems in the United States versus Europe," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_188, Levy Economics Institute.
    11. Adeola F. Adenikinju & Olugboyega Oyeranti, 1999. "Characteristics and Behaviour of African Factor Markets and Market Institutions and Their Consequences for Economic Growth," CID Working Papers 31A, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    12. Fischer, Justina A.V., 2012. "The choice of domestic policies in a globalized economy," Papers 306, World Trade Institute.
    13. Horst Feldmann, 2003. "Labor Market Regulation and Labor Market Performance: Evidence Based on Surveys among Senior Business Executives," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(4), pages 509-540, November.
    14. Fischer, Justina A.V., 2012. "Globalization and Political Trust," Papers 285, World Trade Institute.
    15. Richard B. Freeman & Lawrence F. Katz, 1995. "Introduction and Summary," NBER Chapters, in: Differences and Changes in Wage Structures, pages 1-22, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Štěpán Jurajda & Janet Mitchell, 2003. "Markets and Growth," International Economic Association Series, in: Gary McMahon & Lyn Squire (ed.), Explaining Growth, chapter 4, pages 117-158, Palgrave Macmillan.
    17. Osmanovic Armin, 2004. "Wirtschaftswachstum und „neuer Arbeitsmarkt“ in Deutschland," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 48(1), pages 49-62, October.
    18. Sapir, André, 2000. "Who is Afraid of Globalization? The Challenge of Domestic Adjustment in Europe and America," CEPR Discussion Papers 2595, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Gösta Esping-Andersen, 1996. "Equality or employment? The interaction of wages, welfare states and family change," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 2(4), pages 615-634, November.
    20. Asma Hyder, 2007. "Wage Differentials, Rate of Return to Education, and Occupational Wage Share in the Labour Market of Pakistan," Labor Economics Working Papers 22197, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic Freedom; Labor Regulation; Property Protection; Employment Protection.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • J81 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Working Conditions
    • J83 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Workers' Rights
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development

    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:udc:esteco:v:30:y:2003:i:1:p:5-20. 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: Verónica Kunze (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deuclcl.html .

    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.