The average withdrawal from FGTS is about three to four times as high as one monthly payment of SD. The total value of income support available under SD, e.g. five monthly payments, is about 1.7 times as large as that of the average FGTS withdrawal (see Hijzen, 2011, for further details). It can have adverse consequences for the level of unemployment and employment, the perceived level of worker security and labour market segmentation. Indeed, most previous cross-country studies for developed countries find no significant impact of employment protection on the level on employment or unemployment (Boeri and Van Ours, 2008, for an overview), while its impact on employment in developing countries tends to be negative (Botero et al.,