2nd OECD IZA WoL Seminar on The Political Economy of Employment Protection Reforms

Over the past few years, a number of, mainly European, countries have undertaken in depth reforms of their employment protection legislation. While the timing and characteristics of these reforms varies from one country to another, they generally shared the common objective to reduce the gap in employment protection across contracts – in particular between open-ended and atypical contracts – clarify conditions for termination of a contract for economic reason and reduce the dismissal costs.

This seminar will review country experience and evidence on implementing employment protection reforms, with a specific focus on the political economy of the reform process.
It will also address the issues on how their initial effects were assessed and communicated as well as whether complementary policy measures were envisaged to limit the possible short-run effects on the workers affected by the enhanced mobility.

Panelists
NN, State Secretary Spain (Alvaro Pereira, OECD)
Tito Boeri, Professor of Economics at Bocconi University (Pietro Icchino)
Stefano Scarpetta, Director for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, OECD
Jean Triole, Scientific Director of IDEI, Toulouse; Nobel Laureate in Economics
Klaus F. Zimmermann, Director of IZA, Editor-in-Chief of IZA WoL, Professor of Bonn University (Werner Eichhorst)