Excess worker turnover and fixed-term contracts: Causal evidence in a two-tier system

B-Tier
Journal: Labour Economics
Year: 2012
Volume: 19
Issue: 3
Pages: 320-328

Authors (2)

Centeno, Mário (Universidade de Lisboa) Novo, Álvaro A. (not in RePEc)

Score contribution per author:

1.009 = (α=2.02 / 2 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Portuguese firms engage in intense reallocation, most employers simultaneously hire and separate from workers, resulting in high excess worker turnover flows. These flows are constrained by the employment protection gap between open-ended and fixed-term contracts. We explore a reform that increased the employment protection of open-ended contracts and generated a quasi-experiment. The causal evidence points to an increase in the share and in the excess turnover of fixed-term contracts in treated firms. The excess turnover of open-ended contracts remained unchanged. This result is consistent with a high degree of substitution between open-ended and fixed-term contracts. At the firm level, we also show that excess turnover is quite heterogeneous and quantify its association with firm, match, and worker characteristics.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:labeco:v:19:y:2012:i:3:p:320-328
Journal Field
Labor
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25