Arbeitspapier

Employment Protection, Job Insecurity, and Job Mobility

This study leverages the Italian Jobs Act reform as a natural experiment to examine the impact of reduced employment protection on job insecurity and job mobility. The reform significantly lowered protection for open-ended contract workers in large firms hired after March 7, 2015, and introduced a sharp discontinuity in severance pay at 2-year tenure. Treated employees exhibit increased fear of job loss and higher termination rates. The higher job insecurity prompts workers in low-pay sectors and in low-quality firms to actively pursue job mobility, transitioning towards higher-paying positions. Conversely, workers in high-paying sectors respond by intensifying their efforts to secure their existing jobs. Crucially, all effects disappear for workers above the 2-year tenure threshold, when they become entitled to a 50% higher severance pay. These findings emphasize a complex trade-off behind the design of employment protection systems, as addressing early-stage insecurity with tailored social insurance may counteract upward mobility effects.

Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 16647

Classification
Wirtschaft
Time Allocation and Labor Supply
Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy
Labor Contracts
Unemployment Insurance; Severance Pay; Plant Closings
Subject
employment protection
job insecurity
job mobility
on-the-job search

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Bertoni, Marco
Chinetti, Simone
Nistico, Roberto
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
(where)
Bonn
(when)
2023

Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET

Data provider

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Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Bertoni, Marco
  • Chinetti, Simone
  • Nistico, Roberto
  • Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Time of origin

  • 2023

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