Modulation of employer contributions to unemployment insurance, employment protection and labor market performance.

Summary The modulation of employer contributions to unemployment insurance or experience-rating is an original feature of the American unemployment benefit system. Recommended by the OECD, and proposed on several occasions as an additional tool to fight unemployment, this system remains absent in most OECD countries where unemployment benefits are financed by payroll taxes and government contributions. The objective of this thesis is to evaluate the effects of the introduction of a system of modulation of employer contributions to unemployment insurance, adapted from the American experience-rating system, on a European type of labor market and in the light of the institutional and legislative specificities inherent to these markets. The scope of the study is restricted to the specific dimension of experience-rating relating to employment protection. This research is carried out within a unified theoretical framework, that of equilibrium models of the labor market, and is composed of six chapters. The results of our analyses suggest that modulation of employer contributions is likely to increase labor market performance in continental Europe.