Society as a whole also bears some of the costs of labour turnover, as displaced workers are often eligible to unemployment or social assistance payments, job-search assistance and active labour market programmes (see also Chapters 3 and 4). Even when these workers are not eligible for government-funded programmes, their greater financial distress could bring about other social problems, including greater crime rates (e.g. Raphael and Winter-Ebmer, 2001, Machin and Meghir, 2004, Bignon et al., Nevertheless, by restricting labour turnover, EPL also constrains firms’ ability to respond quickly to changes in technology or consumer demand and efficiently reallocate labour resources. Recent research on the labour market impact of employment protection has found that overly strict regulations can reduce job flows, have a negative impact on employment of outsiders, encourage labour market duality and hinder productivity and economic growth (e.g. Martin and Scarpetta, 2012, OECD, 2004,2007a, 2010).