The Unequal Consequences of Job Loss across Countries
"The Unequal Consequences of Job Loss across Countries" by Antoine Berteau (with Edoardo Acabbi, Cristina Barcelo, Andreas Gulyas, Stefano Lombardi and Raffaele Saggio) has been published in American Economic Review: Insights in September 2023.
ABSTRACT
We document the consequences of losing a job across countries using a harmonized research design applied to seven matched employer-employee datasets. Workers in Denmark and Sweden experience the lowest earnings declines following job displacement, while workers in Italy, Spain, and Portugal experience losses three times as high. French and Austrian workers face earnings losses somewhere in between. Key to these differences is that southern European workers are less likely to find employment following displacement. Loss of employer-specific wage premiums explains a substantial portion of wage losses in all countries.