Carl Magnus Bjuggren accepted for publication in the Journal of Public Economics

For release:  November 20, 2017

Carl Magnus Bjuggren, an economist at the Research Institute of Industrial Economics in Stockholm, Sweden, is currently visiting Fogelman College as a research scholar. His paper entitled, "Employment Protection and Labor Productivity," was recently accepted for publication by the Journal of Public Economics, a top-tier field journal.

The paper examines how employment protections affect the productivity of workers. Current theoretical predictions of how employment protection affects firm productivity are ambiguous. In this paper, he studies the effect of employment protection rules on labor productivity using Swedish register data. A reform of employment protection rules in 2001 enabled small firms with fewer than eleven employees to exempt two workers from the seniority rules. He treats this reform as a natural experiment. The results indicate that increased labor market flexibility increases labor productivity. This increase is explained by total factor productivity and capital intensity rather than the educational level of workers.

"Carl Magnus is a young economist of great potential," said Dr. Bill Smith, chair of the Department of Economics. "His specialties in labor economics, public economics, and entrepreneurship mesh perfectly with the research interests of our Department. We are delighted to have him with us."

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