%P 209-267 %T Uncertainty and the politics of employment protection %I University of Chicago Press %V 33 %D 2015 %L eprints2577 %X This paper investigates social preferences over employment protection regulation in a general equilibrium model of dynamic labor demand and sheds some light on the comparative dynamics of Eurosclerosis. When firing costs are low, a transition to a rigid labor market is favored by all the employed workers with idiosyncratic productivity below some threshold; when their status quo level is high, preserving a rigid labor market is favored only by the employed with intermediate productivity. A more volatile environment and a lower rate of productivity growth increase the political support for labor market rigidity only in high-rents economies. %A Andrea Vindigni %A Simone Scotti %A Cristina Tealdi %K Labor-market flexibility; Equilibrium unemployment; Severance payments; Firing costs; Job security; Turnover; Wage; Economy; Institutions; Persistence %N 1 %J Journal of Labor Economics %R doi:10.1086/678306