Title: Labour market flexibility, distance to frontier and human capital accumulation: evidence from developing countries

Authors: Deniz Güvercin

Addresses: Department of International Trade and Finance, Istanbul Arel University, Kemal Gözükara Yerleşkesi, Türkoba Mahallesi, Erguvan Sokak, No. 26/K 34537 Tepekent – Büyükçekmece İstanbul, Turkey

Abstract: The present paper aims to explore whether policies enhancing labour market flexibility result in convergence to world technology frontier, and provide proper incentives to increase investment in human capital. Because of the interdependent relations among labour market flexibility, distance to world technology frontier and human capital investment, the Panel VAR methodology which account co-evolutionary relations in dynamic system is used. The data for 31 developing economies over the period 2000-2015 is used for the purpose of the study. Impulse response analysis shows that distance to frontier increases with labour market flexibility shock, while human capital investment decreases with labour market flexibility shock. Additionally, labour market flexibility decreases with the distance to frontier variable shock and distance to frontier decreases with the human capital investment shock. Results suggest that rigid labour market policies should be put in place first in developing countries to provide right incentives to invest in schooling, training, firm-specific skills and innovation resulting in convergence to the world technology frontier.

Keywords: labour market flexibility; distance to frontier; human capital accumulation; Panel VAR.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEPEE.2020.109049

International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies, 2020 Vol.13 No.3, pp.209 - 224

Received: 03 Oct 2018
Accepted: 06 Nov 2019
Published online: 17 Aug 2020 *

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