more generally they keep prices artificially high and therefore depress average real wages for the economy as a whole by restricting output they tend to reduce employment levels in the affected sectors except when a protected environment allows overstaffing to be maintained and labour demand may be further reduced if wages in these sectors contain an element of productmarket rents combining pmr indicators with measures of labour market regulations boeri et al using timevarying indicators of pmr nicoletti and scarpetta find that product market reforms contribute to increasing nonagricultural employment rates