Studies of changes in EPL for Chile and Colombia do find that weaker EPL is associated with declines in job tenure, higher separation rates, and increased hiring in the formal sector (Freeman, 2009). Using a firm-level dataset for a set of 16 industrialised and developing countries, Haltiwanger et al. ( If labour legislation reduces the ability of firms to adjust their workforce accordingly, particularly in downturns, it may have effects on aggregate performance.