Can Hiring Quotas Work? The Effect of the Nitaqat Program on the Saudi Private Sector

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Peck, Jennifer R.
• 署名单位: Swarthmore College
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20150271
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 316-347
• 关键词: regression; inference; IMPACT

摘要

This paper studies the effects of quota-based labor regulations on firms in the context of Saudi Arabia's Nitaqat program, which imposed quotas for Saudi hiring at private firms. I use a comprehensive firm-level administrative dataset and exploit kinks in hiring incentives generated by the quotas to estimate the effects of this policy. I find that the program increased native employment at substantial cost to firms, as demonstrated by increasing exit rates and decreasing total employment at surviving firms. Firms without any Saudi employees at the onset of the program appear to bear most of these costs.