Another thought on Beecroft

[miss_s_b]

According to Demos:

Britain already has ...the least employment protection of any OECD nation [and] relatively low productivity. It strikes me as a difficult case to make that all that is required for growth is a further stripping away of employment protection – that fewer unfair dismissal tribunals will render Britain prosperous.

Indeed. In fact, it strikes me that if there is a causative relationship between job insecurity and low productivity, it makes sense that it runs the other way - that if your job is made more insecure, that is likely to make you less productive because you're not going to care whether the business fails or not. There are many studies which back up this correlation*, and while I am sure we are all aware that correlation is not necessarily causation, it's a dead set fact that if something correlates with the opposite of a thing, then there's no way on Cthulhu's green earth it can cause it.

---

* see here, here, or here for examples of studies which cover this correlation among other matters

Comments

[lizw]

Quite. Also, job insecurity presumably encourages people to save their wages rather than spending them, which is exactly what the economy doesn't need right now.

[miss_s_b]

... assuming they have enough to save, but yes.

[bagpuss]

Surely that statement can't be true, the US is also an OECD country and many people there can be fired on the spot with no notice period and no warning can't they mostly down to many contracts being down to employement at will http://employeeissues.com/at_will_employment.htm

Though your assertion about low productivity and job security possibly matches some of what is said in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc
a very good talk about what motivates people