Employment protection legislation, multinational firms and innovation

The theoretical effects of labour regulations such as employment protection legislation (EPL) on innovation is ambiguous, and empirical evidence has thus far been inconclusive. EPL increases job security and the greater enforceability of job contracts may increase worker investment in innovative activity. On the other hand EPL increases adjustment costs faced by firms, and this may lead to under-investment in activities that are likely to require adjustment, including technologically advanced innovation. In this paper we find empirical evidence that both effects are at work - multinational enterprises locate more innovative activity in countries with high EPL, however they locate more technologically advanced innovation in countries with low EPL.Innovation, employment protection, multinational firm location

Product market reforms, labour market institutions and unemployment

We analyze the impact of product market competition on unemployment and wages, and how this depends on labour market institutions. We use differential changes in regulations across OECD countries over the 1980s and 1990s to identify the effects of competition. We find that increased product market competition reduces unemployment, and that it does so more in countries with labour market institutions that increase worker bargaining power. The theoretical intuition is that both firms with market power and unions with bargaining power are constrained in their behaviour by the elasticity of demand in the product market. We also find that the effect of increased competition on real wages is beneficial to workers, but less so when they have high bargaining power. Intuitively, real wages increase through a drop in the general price level, but workers with bargaining power lose out somewhat from a reduction in the rents that they had previously captured.Product market regulation; competition; wage bargaining; unemployment.

The location of innovative activity in Europe

In this paper we use new data to describe how firms from 15 European countries organise their innovative activities. The data matches firm level accounting data with information on the patents that those firms and their subsidiaries have applied for at the European Patents Office. We describe the data in detail.International investment and multinational firms; technological change and research and development; fiscal policies and behaviour of economic agents

The development and validation of a scoring tool to predict the operative duration of elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background: The ability to accurately predict operative duration has the potential to optimise theatre efficiency and utilisation, thus reducing costs and increasing staff and patient satisfaction. With laparoscopic cholecystectomy being one of the most commonly performed procedures worldwide, a tool to predict operative duration could be extremely beneficial to healthcare organisations. Methods: Data collected from the CholeS study on patients undergoing cholecystectomy in UK and Irish hospitals between 04/2014 and 05/2014 were used to study operative duration. A multivariable binary logistic regression model was produced in order to identify significant independent predictors of long (> 90 min) operations. The resulting model was converted to a risk score, which was subsequently validated on second cohort of patients using ROC curves. Results: After exclusions, data were available for 7227 patients in the derivation (CholeS) cohort. The median operative duration was 60 min (interquartile range 45–85), with 17.7% of operations lasting longer than 90 min. Ten factors were found to be significant independent predictors of operative durations > 90 min, including ASA, age, previous surgical admissions, BMI, gallbladder wall thickness and CBD diameter. A risk score was then produced from these factors, and applied to a cohort of 2405 patients from a tertiary centre for external validation. This returned an area under the ROC curve of 0.708 (SE = 0.013, p  90 min increasing more than eightfold from 5.1 to 41.8% in the extremes of the score. Conclusion: The scoring tool produced in this study was found to be significantly predictive of long operative durations on validation in an external cohort. As such, the tool may have the potential to enable organisations to better organise theatre lists and deliver greater efficiencies in care

Employment Protection Legislation, Multinational Firms and Innovation

The theoretical effects of labour regulations such as employment protection legislation (EPL) on innovation is ambiguous, and empirical evidence has thus far been inconclusive. EPL increases job security and the greater enforceability of job contracts may increase worker investment in innovative activity. On the other hand EPL increases adjustment costs faced by firms, and this may lead to under-investment in activities that are likely to require adjustment, including technologically advanced innovation. In this paper we find empirical evidence that both effects are at work - multinational enterprises locate more innovative activity in countries with high EPL, however they locate more technologically advanced innovation in countries with low EPL.employment protection; Innovation; multinational firm location

Replication data for: Employment Protection Legislation, Multinational Firms and Innovation

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Product market reforms, labour market institutions and unemployment

We analyze the impact of product market competition on unemployment and wages, and howthis depends on labour market institutions. We use differential changes in regulations acrossOECD countries over the 1980s and 1990s to identify the effects of competition. We find thatincreased product market competition reduces unemployment, and that it does so more incountries with labour market institutions that increase worker bargaining power. The theoreticalintuition is that both firms with market power and unions with bargaining power are constrainedin their behaviour by the elasticity of demand in the product market. We also find that the effectof increased competition on real wages is beneficial to workers, but less so when they have highbargaining power. Intuitively, real wages increase through a drop in the general price level, butworkers with bargaining power lose out somewhat from a reduction in the rents that they hadpreviously captured. We analyze the impact of product market competition on unemployment and wages, and howthis depends on labour market institutions. We use differential changes in regulations acrossOECD countries over the 1980s and 1990s to identify the effects of competition. We find thatincreased product market competition reduces unemployment, and that it does so more incountries with labour market institutions that increase worker bargaining power. The theoreticalintuition is that both firms with market power and unions with bargaining power are constrainedin their behaviour by the elasticity of demand in the product market. We also find that the effectof increased competition on real wages is beneficial to workers, but less so when they have highbargaining power. Intuitively, real wages increase through a drop in the general price level, butworkers with bargaining power lose out somewhat from a reduction in the rents that they hadpreviously captured