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Evolution of Employment Protection Legislation in the USSR, CIS and Baltic States, 1985-2009

Author

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  • Muravyev, Alexander

    (Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg Branch)

Abstract

This paper presents and discusses new data on employment protection legislation (EPL) in the successor states of the former USSR – the CIS and Baltic states – over 25 years from 1985 to 2009. We use the OECD methodology (OECD EPL, version II) for assessing the strictness of national labor laws with respect to employers’ firing costs. In addition to the overall OECD EPL index, we present detailed statistics for 18(22) sub-indicators used for its computation. The new data allow us to make several important observations. In particular, the data do not support the widely held view that labor regulations in the former USSR with respect to firing costs were extremely rigid and were subsequently liberalized by the 15 successor states over the course of transition to a market economy. Rather, the dynamics of the EPL index in the region resembles an inverted U-shaped pattern with the peak of labor market rigidity occurring in the mid-1990s in the CIS countries and a decade later in the Baltic States. In terms of major sub-indicators, we observe a rather unusual pattern: gradual liberalization of permanent contracts on the background of increasing regulation of temporary contracts and collective dismissals. This is in sharp contrast with the OECD economies, where liberalization of temporary contracts has been the major trend in the recent decades. By now, the ex-USSR states as a group do not differ that much from the EU-15 and OECD countries in terms of the overall EPL index, although they differ considerably in terms of contributions to the overall EPL of its thee major components, namely, regulation of permanent contracts, temporary contracts, and collective dismissals. We also show that our EPL data are correlated with a number of variables characterizing economic development, progress in market-oriented reforms, and political regimes prevailing in the countries studied, which suggests potential of using the new dataset in further politico-economic research.

Suggested Citation

  • Muravyev, Alexander, 2010. "Evolution of Employment Protection Legislation in the USSR, CIS and Baltic States, 1985-2009," IZA Discussion Papers 5365, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5365
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    Cited by:

    1. Ronald Bachmann & Peggy Bechara & Anica Kramer & Sylvi Rzepka, 2015. "Labour market dynamics and worker heterogeneity during the Great Recession – Evidence from Europe," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-29, December.
    2. H. Lehmann & A. Muravyev, 2011. "Labor markets and labor market institutions in transition economies," Working Papers wp783, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    3. Campos, Nauro F. & Nugent, Jeffrey B., 2012. "The Dynamics of the Regulation of Labor in Developing and Developed Countries since 1960," IZA Discussion Papers 6881, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Athina Zervoyianni & Athanasios Anastasiou & Andreas Anastasiou, 2014. "Does central bank independence really matter? Re-assessing the role of the independence of monetary policy-makers in macroeconomic outcomes," International Journal of Economics and Business Research, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 8(4), pages 427-473.
    5. Alexander Muravyev & Aleksey Oshchepkov, 2016. "The effect of doubling the minimum wage on employment: evidence from Russia," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-20, December.
    6. Hazans, Mihails, 2011. "What explains prevalence of informal employment in European countries : the role of labor institutions, governance, immigrants, and growth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5917, The World Bank.
    7. Hazans, Mihails, 2011. "Informal Workers across Europe: Evidence from 30 Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 5871, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Lehmann, Hartmut & Muravyev, Alexander & Razzolini, Tiziano & Zaiceva, Anzelika, 2010. "The Costs of Job Loss in Russia," IZA Discussion Papers 5415, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Johannes Koettl & Olga Kupets & Anna Olefir & Indhira Santos, 2014. "In search of opportunities? The barriers to more efficient internal labor mobility in Ukraine," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-28, December.
    10. Daniel Arnold, 2013. "Benefit Morale and Cross-Country Diversity in Sick Pay Entitlements," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(1), pages 27-45, February.
    11. Alexander Muravyev, 2014. "Employment protection legislation in transition and emerging markets," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-63, September.
    12. H. Lehmann & A. Muravyev & T. Razzolini & A. Zaiceva, 2011. "The Wage and Non-wage Costs of Displacement: Evidence from Russia," Working Papers wp734, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    13. Vladimir Gimpelson & Aleksey Oshchepkov, 2012. "Does more unemployment cause more fear of unemployment?," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-26, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    transition countries; labor market institutions; employment protection;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy
    • K31 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Labor Law
    • P20 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - General

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