Statutory firing costs and lay-offs in Canada

Firing costs may deter firms from engaging in both lay-offs and temporary hiring. While the net response of average employment to firing costs is ambiguous, lay-offs will be reduced through both channels and their frequency therefore will unambiguously decline. This paper estimates the effect of Canadian advance notice and severance laws on individual permanent lay-off hazards. Individual notice laws are found to reduce the lay-off hazard, particularly among non-professional, non-union workers, but the effect is small. Neither group notice nor severance laws are statistically significant. These laws do not appear to substantially affect adjustment in the Canadian labour market.