While it remains difficult to isolate the effect of policy reforms from other factors, the incidence of own-account work increased less in the Czech Republic than in the Slovak Republic during this period (OECD, 2008a). In Italy, the legislation introduced in 1997 and 2003 to legalise temporary work agencies (while reforming collaboration agreements) may have led to an increase in self-employed workers who are in fact working for the same company, but as own-account workers. Foremost, instead of the approximate 17% growth in employment recorded in the pre-crisis period (1995-2007), Figure 4.7 (Panel B) reports, on average, a 2% drop in the total number of persons employed in the latter period.