Employment Protection Legislation and Cooperation

I argue how cooperative behaviors are influenced by employment protection legislation ( EPL ), which is viewed in terms of two types of firing costs: administrative costs (such as notification procedures) and monetary transfers (such as severance pay). I focus on the minimum discount factor for mutual cooperation under trigger strategies in a relational contract model, where a firm has two payment options: a formal wage and an informal bonus. It will be shown that administrative costs enhance cooperation when they are low, whereas monetary transfers dampen cooperation when they are high. In addition, I show under what wage scheme cooperation is most likely self‐enforced.