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The Evidence-Based Case for Labour Regulation

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Regulating for Decent Work

Part of the book series: Advances in Labour Studies ((AILS))

Abstract

There have been empirical studies of the effects of labour and employment laws since the inception of modern social legislation. However, until relatively recently, little attention was paid to the role of the legal system as a causal variable, with the potential to shape social and economic outcomes in its own right. Certain regulatory initiatives, such as minimum wages and employment protection laws, were studied intensively with a view to assessing their impacts on output variables such as unemployment and productivity, but without close regard to their legal form. For the purposes of economic modelling, laws were generally assumed to be self-executing, and issues concerning the incompleteness and imperfect operation of legal rules were left unexplored. As a result, notwithstanding the existence of a large body of literature employing increasingly complex statistical methods, issues of concern to legal researchers and policy makers were only marginally addressed.

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Authors
  1. Simon Deakin
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Law, University of Manchester, UK

    Deirdre McCann (Senior Lecturer in the School of Law) (Senior Lecturer in the School of Law)

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© 2011 International Labour Organization

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Deakin, S. (2011). The Evidence-Based Case for Labour Regulation. In: Lee, S., McCann, D. (eds) Regulating for Decent Work. Advances in Labour Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230307834_2

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