Labor market institutions : a review of the literature, Vol. 1 of 1

About

Countries

Data & Research

Learning

News

Projects & Operations

Publications

Topics

Home > Data & Research > Document Search > Report Details

Labor market institutions : a review of the literature

Author:	Betcherman, Gordon;	Collection Title:	Policy Research working paper ; no. WPS 6276Paper is funded by the Knowledge for Change Program (KCP)
Country:	World;	Date Stored:	2012/11/26
Document Date:	2012/11/01	Document Type:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English	Major Sector:	Education; Public Administration, Law, and Justice
Rel. Proj ID:	1W-Wdr 2013 -- -- P127136;	Region:	The World Region
Report Number:	WPS6276	Sub Sectors:	General education sector; Public administration- Industry and trade; Compulsory pension and unemployment insurance; Public administration- Other social services; General public administration sector
SubTopics:	Markets and Market Access; Labor Management and Relations; Labor Markets; Labor Policies; Population Policies	TF No/Name:	TF010228-KCPII; TF011042-The
Volume No:	1 of 1

Summary: This paper reviews the findings of more than 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.


Official Documents Official, scanned versions of documents (may include signatures, etc.)
File Type		Description	File Size (mb)

	PDF 57 pages	Official version*	3.99 (approx.)
	Text	Text version**

	See documents related to this project

* The official version is derived from scanning the final, paper copy of the document and is the official,
archived version including all signatures, charts, etc.

** The text version is the OCR text of the final scanned version and is not an accurate representation of the final text.
It is provided solely to benefit users with slow connectivity.

Permanent URL for this page: http://go.worldbank.org/BD2WRBV430