§ Ms QuinTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment, pursuant to her oral answer of 10 January, Official Report, column 7, if she will list the international evidence that more regulated economies are less successful in creating jobs.
§ Mr. OppenheimThere is a growing body of work—much of it through international comparisons—on the
Estimated numbers of full and part-time employees (in thousands rounded to the nearest 10,000). Estimated number with gross hourly earnings: Region Less than 1.50 £1.50—£2.00 £2.00—£2.50 £2.50—£3.00 £3.00—£3.50 £3.50—£4.00 South East region 20 30 40 110 300 400 East Anglia region — — 10 30 60 70 South West region 10 10 10 50 160 150 West Midlands region 10 10 20 50 170 180 East Midlands region 10 10 20 50 140 150 Yorkshire and Humberside region 10 10 20 50 160 180 North West region — 10 30 60 180 200 North region — — 20 30 100 110 Wales 10 — 10 30 80 100 Scotland 10 10 20 40 160 190 Note:
—denotes estimates less than 5,000.
Source:
1994 New Earning Survey and Employees in Employment for june 1994.
474Weffect of regulation on labour markets. This work was recently summarised in the OECD jobs study, "Evidence and Explanations Part II: The Adjustment Potential of the Labour Market", Chapter 6, pages 63–100. Among its conclusions are
the employment/population ratio … tends to be lower in countries with high levels of job securitymeasured by the strictness of statutory employment security provisions. The OECD jobs study drew heavily on recent work including:
D. Grubb and W. Wells, "Employment Regulation and Patterns of Work in EC Countries", OECD Economic Studies No 21, winter 1993;
W. Wells, "Does the Structure of Employment Legislation Affect the Structure of Employment and Unemployment?", paper at United Kingdom EC Presidency Labour Market Conference, Glasgow, November 1992;
Other studies of the effects of labour market regulation include: S. Bentolila and G. Bertola, "Firing Costs and Labour Demand: How Bad is Eurosclerosis?" Review of Economic Studies, 1990;
S. Bentolila and G. Saint-Paul, "The Macroeconomic Impact of Flexible Labour Contracts, with an Application to Spain", European Economic Review, 1990;
G. Bertola, "Job Security, Employment and Wages", European Economic Review, 1990;
M. Emerson, "Regulation or Deregulation of the Labour Market: Policy Regimes for the Recruitment and Dismissal of Employees in the Industrialised Countries", European Economic Review, 1988;
E. Lazear, "Job Security Provisions and Employment", Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1990;
OECD Employment Outlook, 1993, chapter 3, section D;
OECD Employment Outlook, 1994, chapter 4, section D.