Labor Market Institutions : A Review of the Literature

This paper reviews the findings of over 150 studies on the impacts of four types of labor market institutions: minimum wages, employment protection regulation, unions and collective bargaining, and mandated benefits. The review places particular emphasis on results from developing countries. Impacts...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Betcherman, Gordon
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2013
Subjects:	Labor market Minimum wages Employment regulation Unions Collective bargaining Living standards
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12139

id	okr-10986-12139
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-121392021-04-23T14:02:59Z Labor Market Institutions : A Review of the Literature Betcherman, Gordon Labor market Minimum wages Employment regulation Unions Collective bargaining Living standards This paper reviews the findings of over 150 studies on the impacts of four types of labor market institutions: minimum wages, employment protection regulation, unions and collective bargaining, and mandated benefits. The review places particular emphasis on results from developing countries. Impacts studied are on living standards (employment and earnings effects), productivity, and social cohesion, to the extent that this has been analyzed. Strong and opposing views are held on the costs and benefits of labor market institutions. On balance, the results of this review suggest that, in most cases, the impacts of these institutions are smaller than the heat of the debates would suggest. Efficiency effects of labor market regulations and collective bargaining are sometimes found but not always, and the effects can be in either direction and are usually modest. Distributional impacts are clearer, with two effects predominating: an equalizing effect among covered workers but groups such as youth, women, and the less skilled disproportionately outside the coverage and its benefits. While the overall conclusion is one of modest effects in most cases, this does not mean that impacts cannot be more dramatic where regulations are set or institutions operate in ways that exacerbate the labor market imperfections that they were designed to address. 2013-01-18T17:58:11Z 2013-01-18T17:58:11Z 2012-10 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12139 en_US Background Paper for the World Development Report 2013; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Working Paper Publications & Research
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	Labor market Minimum wages Employment regulation Unions Collective bargaining Living standards
spellingShingle	Labor market Minimum wages Employment regulation Unions Collective bargaining Living standards Betcherman, Gordon Labor Market Institutions : A Review of the Literature
relation	Background Paper for the World Development Report 2013;
description	This paper reviews the findings of over 150 studies on the impacts of four types of labor market institutions: minimum wages, employment protection regulation, unions and collective bargaining, and mandated benefits. The review places particular emphasis on results from developing countries. Impacts studied are on living standards (employment and earnings effects), productivity, and social cohesion, to the extent that this has been analyzed. Strong and opposing views are held on the costs and benefits of labor market institutions. On balance, the results of this review suggest that, in most cases, the impacts of these institutions are smaller than the heat of the debates would suggest. Efficiency effects of labor market regulations and collective bargaining are sometimes found but not always, and the effects can be in either direction and are usually modest. Distributional impacts are clearer, with two effects predominating: an equalizing effect among covered workers but groups such as youth, women, and the less skilled disproportionately outside the coverage and its benefits. While the overall conclusion is one of modest effects in most cases, this does not mean that impacts cannot be more dramatic where regulations are set or institutions operate in ways that exacerbate the labor market imperfections that they were designed to address.
format	Publications & Research :: Working Paper
author	Betcherman, Gordon
author_facet	Betcherman, Gordon
author_sort	Betcherman, Gordon
title	Labor Market Institutions : A Review of the Literature
title_short	Labor Market Institutions : A Review of the Literature
title_full	Labor Market Institutions : A Review of the Literature
title_fullStr	Labor Market Institutions : A Review of the Literature
title_full_unstemmed	Labor Market Institutions : A Review of the Literature
title_sort	labor market institutions : a review of the literature
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2013
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12139
_version_	1764419169709719552

Labor Market Institutions : A Review of the Literature

Similar Items