Economic Analysis of Labour Boards: Issues and Perspectives.

Summary Industrial tribunals have long been the subject of much debate and controversy, but they are nevertheless a key element of effective employment protection legislation. However, few research works in economics have analyzed this institution. Starting from this observation, the objective of this article is to propose a synthesis of the functioning of industrial tribunals, based on quantitative data. We are interested here in the industrial tribunal procedure, i.e. the rules of operation of the industrial tribunals, and not in the content of the legal rules. This synthesis will be guided by the following questions: Why reform industrial tribunals? How to reform them? To answer these questions, we gather in this article essentially quantitative elements on industrial tribunals. We rely on data provided by the Ministry of Justice from 2004 to 2015. We first present the difficulties that industrial tribunals face and that call for reforming this institution. We then use the tools of legal economic analysis to analyze the recent reforms of this institution, as well as some future avenues for reform. Finally, we discuss in conclusion the stakes, the difficulties and the perspectives of research on this theme.