{"title":"Strengthening worker benefits or destroying jobs: Effect of the 2008 Labor Contract Law in China","authors":"Chih-Hai Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.irle.2022.106121","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study examines the effect of strict enforcement of the 2008 Labor Contract Law (LCL) on firm employment in China. Although the LCL caused a substantial increase in labor cost<span>, there are no negative repercussions on employment. By contrast, surviving firms continue to increase employment driven by the strong labor demand of the fast-growing Chinese economy. However, compared with non-exposed firms, exposed firms suffered negative repercussions on employment after the enforcement of LCL. Exposed firms exhibited reduced wages after the LCL relative to non-exposed firms, suggesting that wage has a mediation effect on reducing the insurance expenditures of both employers and employees; they also raised productivity considerably after the LCL to absorb the incremental labor costs and survive in the market. However, there are heterogeneous effects of wage and productivity among firms of various ownerships and exporting behaviors.</span></p></div>","PeriodicalId":47202,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Law and Economics","volume":"73 ","pages":"Article 106121"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Review of Law and Economics","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0144818822000771","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
This study examines the effect of strict enforcement of the 2008 Labor Contract Law (LCL) on firm employment in China. Although the LCL caused a substantial increase in labor cost, there are no negative repercussions on employment. By contrast, surviving firms continue to increase employment driven by the strong labor demand of the fast-growing Chinese economy. However, compared with non-exposed firms, exposed firms suffered negative repercussions on employment after the enforcement of LCL. Exposed firms exhibited reduced wages after the LCL relative to non-exposed firms, suggesting that wage has a mediation effect on reducing the insurance expenditures of both employers and employees; they also raised productivity considerably after the LCL to absorb the incremental labor costs and survive in the market. However, there are heterogeneous effects of wage and productivity among firms of various ownerships and exporting behaviors.
期刊介绍：
The International Review of Law and Economics provides a forum for interdisciplinary research at the interface of law and economics. IRLE is international in scope and audience and particularly welcomes both theoretical and empirical papers on comparative law and economics, globalization and legal harmonization, and the endogenous emergence of legal institutions, in addition to more traditional legal topics.
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