[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/drm/wpaper/2012-16.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Labour Market Reforms and Outcomes in Estonia

Author

Listed:
  • Zuzana Brixiova
  • Balázs Égert
Abstract
The unemployment rate in Estonia rose sharply in 2010 to one of the highest levels in the EU, after the country entered a severe recession in 2008. While the rate declined relatively rapidly in 2011, it remained high especially for the less educated. In 2009, the Employment Contract Law relaxed employment protection legislation and sought to raise income protection of the unemployed to facilitate transition from less to more productive jobs while mitigating social costs. Utilizing a search model, this paper shows that increasing further labour market flexibility through reducing the tax wedge on labour would facilitate the structural transformation and reduce the long-term unemployment rate. Linking increases in unemployment benefits to participation in job search or training programmes would improve the unemployed workers' incentives to search for jobs or retrain and the medium term labour market outcomes. Social protection schemes for the unemployed should be also strengthened as initially intended to give the unemployed sufficient time to search for adequate jobs or retrain for new opportunities.

Suggested Citation

  • Zuzana Brixiova & Balázs Égert, 2012. "Labour Market Reforms and Outcomes in Estonia," EconomiX Working Papers 2012-16, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    • Handle: RePEc:drm:wpaper:2012-16
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://economix.fr/pdf/dt/2012/WP_EcoX_2012-16.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jan Hanousek & Evžen Kočenda, 2011. "Public Investment and Fiscal Performance in the New EU Member States," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 32(1), pages 43-71, March.
    2. Jan C. van Ours, 2007. "Compulsion in active labour market programmes," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 202(1), pages 67-78, October.
    3. Andrea Bassanini & Romain Duval, 2006. "Employment Patterns in OECD Countries: Reassessing the Role of Policies and Institutions," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 486, OECD Publishing.
    4. Annabelle Mourougane & Lukas Vogel, 2009. "Speed of Adjustment to Selected Labour Market and Tax Reforms," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 51(4), pages 500-519, December.
    5. Nicola Duell & David Grubb & Shruti Singh, 2009. "Activation Policies in Finland," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 98, OECD Publishing.
    6. van Ours, Jan C., 2007. "Compulsion in active labour market programmes," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 202, pages 67-78, October.
    7. Robert Shimer, 2005. "The Cyclical Behavior of Equilibrium Unemployment and Vacancies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 25-49, March.
    8. Jan Babecký, 2008. "Aggregate Wage Flexibility in New EU Member States," Czech Economic Review, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, vol. 2(2), pages 123-145, September.
    9. Eamets, Raul & Masso, Jaan, 2004. "Labour Market Flexibility and Employment Protection Regulation in the Baltic States," IZA Discussion Papers 1147, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. David Grubb & Shruti Singh & Peter Tergeist, 2009. "Activation Policies in Ireland," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 75, OECD Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fidrmuc, Jarko & Klein, Caroline & Price, Robert & Wörgötter, Andreas, 2013. "Slovakia: A Catching Up Euro Area Member In and Out of the Crisis," IZA Policy Papers 55, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Raul Eamets, 2013. "Labour market and labour market policies during great recession: the case of Estonia," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-25, December.
    3. Jeffrey Clemens, 2019. "Cross‐Country Evidence on Labor Market Institutions and Young Adult Employment through the Financial Crisis," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(2), pages 573-612, October.
    4. Lilas Demmou, 2012. "Matching Skills and Jobs in Estonia," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1007, OECD Publishing.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zuzana Brixiova, 2009. "Labour Market Flexibility In Estonia: What More Can Be Done?," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series wp964, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    2. repec:wdi:papers:2011-1027 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Gabriel J. Felbermayr & Mario Larch & Wolfgang Lechthaler, 2013. "Unemployment in an Interdependent World," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 262-301, February.
    4. Berger, Johannes & Strohner, Ludwig, 2020. "Documentation of the PUblic Policy Model for Austria and other European countries (PUMA)," Research Papers 11, EcoAustria – Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Dromel, Nicolas L. & Kolakez, Elie & Lehmann, Etienne, 2010. "Credit constraints and the persistence of unemployment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 823-834, October.
    6. Annabelle Mourougane & Lukas Vogel, 2009. "Speed of Adjustment to Selected Labour Market and Tax Reforms," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 51(4), pages 500-519, December.
    7. Monique Ebell & Christian Haefke, 2009. "Product Market Deregulation and the U.S. Employment Miracle," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 12(3), pages 479-504, July.
    8. Gabriel Felbermayr & Julien Prat, 2011. "Product Market Regulation, Firm Selection, And Unemployment," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 278-317, April.
    9. Arnaud Chéron & Jean-Olivier Hairault & François Langot, 2009. "The Role of Institutions in Transatlantic Employment Differences: A Life-Cycle View," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 95-96, pages 121-138.
    10. Bertinelli, Luisito & Cardi, Olivier & Sen, Partha, 2013. "Deregulation shock in product market and unemployment," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 711-734.
    11. Langot, François & Moreno-Galbis, Eva, 2013. "Does the growth process discriminate against older workers?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 38(PB), pages 286-306.
    12. Dosi, G. & Pereira, M.C. & Roventini, A. & Virgillito, M.E., 2017. "When more flexibility yields more fragility: The microfoundations of Keynesian aggregate unemployment," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 162-186.
    13. repec:cnb:ocpubv:as12 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Jean-Olivier Hairault & Francois Langot & Sophie Osotimehin, 2010. "Matching frictions, unemployment dynamics and the cost of business cycles," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 13(4), pages 759-779, October.
    15. Faccini, Renato & Rosazza Bondibene, Chiara, 2012. "Labour market institutions and unemployment volatility: evidence from OECD countries," Bank of England working papers 461, Bank of England.
    16. García Martínez, José Ramón & Sorolla i Amat, Valeri, 2017. "When is there more employment, with individual or collective wage bargaining?," Economics Discussion Papers 2017-87, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    17. Davide Furceri & Annabelle Mourougane, 2012. "How Do Institutions Affect Structural Unemployment in Times of Crises?," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 59(4), pages 393-419, September.
    18. Coralia A. Quintero Rojas & François Langot, 2016. "Explaining labor wedge trends: An equilibrium search approach," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 13(1), pages 3-35, June.
    19. John Martin, 2015. "Activation and active labour market policies in OECD countries: stylised facts and evidence on their effectiveness," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-29, December.
    20. Anna Zasova, 2011. "Labour market institutions: an obstacle or support to Latvian labour market recovery?," Baltic Journal of Economics, Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies, vol. 11(1), pages 5-24, July.
    21. Sebastian Benz & Erdal Yalcin, 2013. "Quantifying the Economic Effects of an EU-Japan Free Trade Agreement," CESifo Working Paper Series 4319, CESifo.
    22. Povilas Lastauskas & Julius Stakenas, 2016. "Labour Market Institutions in Open Economy," Bank of Lithuania Working Paper Series 33, Bank of Lithuania.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labour market reforms; search model; Estonia; OECD countries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J08 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics Policies
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:drm:wpaper:2012-16. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Valerie Mignon (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/modemfr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.