Dismissal costs and their impact on employment: Evidence from Australian small and medium enterprises

Benoit Freyens*, Paul Oslington

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    11 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The influence of labour market regulation on employment is intensely debated across the OECD. In Australia, the focus is currently on the employment impact of recent changes to unfair dismissal provisions. There is surprisingly little research on the magnitude and structure of dismissal costs, and this paper presents new data from a major survey of small- and medium-sized Australian enterprises. Dismissal costs are compared for different types of separations, including redundancy, uncontested fires and complex fires. Using the data and a simple labour demand model, we estimate the direct employment impact of Australia's changes to unfair dismissal protection. The impact is found to be modest.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1-15
    Number of pages15
    JournalEconomic Record
    Volume83
    Issue number260
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Mar 2007

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