"Reforms of employment protection in Europe have eased the recourse to temporary forms of employment while not reducing the strictness of employment protection of permanent jobs (with the exception of Spain). Since 1990, such two-tier reforms have been implemented in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. The paper seeks to show why two-tier reforms of employment protection have taken place in some countries and have failed in other cases. This is done by taking a closer look at the history of national reform processes. In addition the paper seeks to determine whether two-tier reforms have subsequently led to employment protection reforms for permanent jobs."

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