劳动力市场监管与企业技能需求调整

中文摘要

我们研究劳动力市场监管的变化如何引发企业对技能需求的调整。利用意大利丰富的行政数据，我们考察了一项旨在提高就业稳定性的改革所产生的影响；该改革降低了正式员工的解雇成本，并收紧了对固定期限合同的监管。采用双重差分（DID）设计，我们发现该改革产生了非预期效应，促使企业增加对低技能（LS）正式员工的解雇，并减少通过固定期限合同雇用低技能（LS）劳动者。然而，该改革对高技能劳动者或正式员工招聘均无影响。一个包含异质性技能和合同期限的理论搜寻与匹配模型能够解释我们的主要发现。

Abstract

We study how changes in labor market regulations may trigger firm adjustments in skill demand. Leveraging rich administrative data from Italy, we investigate the effects of a reform that, to increase job stability, reduced the firing costs for permanent employees and tightened the regulation of fixed-term contracts. Using a difference-in-differences (DID) design, we document that the reform had unintended effects, inducing firms to increase layoffs of low-skilled (LS) permanent employees and reduce hires of LS workers on fixed-term contracts. However, the reform had no effect on high-skilled workers or permanent hires. A theoretical search and matching model with heterogeneous skills and contract durations makes sense of our main findings.