We investigate the impact of local social pressure on firms' firing decisions. Using linked employer-employee data, we show that secondary establishments located further away from headquarters have higher dismissal rates than those located closer. The effect of distance on dismissals is stronger, the greater the visibility of the firm in the local community of its headquarters and the larger the degree of selfishness of that community. We show that these findings can be explained by the social

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... ressure exerted by the communities where firms' headquarters are located, which induces CEOs to refrain from dismissing at short distance from their headquarters. 429 The views expressed here are those of the authors and cannot be attributed to the OECD or its member countries. We are indebted to IFOP (Institut Français d'Opinion Publique) for generously sharing their data on Catholicism in France with us. We are grateful to