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Let's roll back! The challenging task of regulating temporary contracts

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  • Davide Fiaschi
  • Cristina Tealdi

Abstract

In this paper, we evaluate the impact of a reform introduced in Italy in 2018 (Decreto Dignit\`a), which increased the rigidity of employment protection legislation (EPL) of temporary contracts, rolling back previous policies, to reduce job instability. We use longitudinal labour force data from 2016 to 2019 and adopt a time-series technique within a Rubin Casual Model (RCM) framework to estimate the causal effect of the reform. We find that the reform was successful in reducing persistence into temporary employment and increasing the flow from temporary to permanent employment, in particular among women and young workers in the North of Italy, with significant effects on the stocks of permanent employment (+), temporary employment (-) and unemployment (-). However, this positive outcome came at the cost of higher persistence into inactivity, lower outflows from unemployment to temporary employment and higher outflows from unemployment to inactivity among males and low-educated workers.

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  • Davide Fiaschi & Cristina Tealdi, 2024. "Let's roll back! The challenging task of regulating temporary contracts," Papers 2401.17971, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2401.17971
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C18 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Methodolical Issues: General
    • C53 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Forecasting and Prediction Models; Simulation Methods
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers

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