We use a panel of OECD countries to gauge the relevance of the relative size of the youth population, labour market institutions and macroeconomic shocks at explaining observed relative youth unemployment rates. We find that the fluctuations of the youth population size caused by the baby boom...

One of the reasons for persistent high unemployment in Spain has been attributed to a low mobility of workers between regions. We examine workers’ geographical mobility indirectly through migration willingness of unemployed. We focus on two observed patterns in migration willingness, downward...

During the last two decades many EU countries have reformed the set of legal rules that regulate dismissals. And, in contrast with other institutional reforms of the labour market, there seems to be a common strategy of maintaining strict employment protection legislation for workers under the...

This paper surveys the main issues in the debate about pensions. The first part of the paper contains some calculations of the future evolution of the pension burden in Spain. The second part of the paper comments on the effects of policy measures that could either control expenditures on...

Employment protection legislations (EPL) are not enforced uniformly across the board. There are a number of exemptions to the coverage of these provisions: firms below a given threshold scale and workers with temporary contracts are not subject to the most restrictive provisions. This within...

Over the last quarter century, the Spanish unemployment rate has gone from 3.5% to 24% of the labor force, and then back to 13%. In this paper we describe this extraordinary evolution more in detail, discuss the main shocks and institutions behind it, and provide a set of policy implications...

Spain enter the EMU with an unemployment rate roughly ten percentage Points higher than the Euro average - 19% versus 9%. Can it reasonably hope to eliminate this differential and join its Euro partners in further lowering unemployment? If so, how long will it take? And what will it take? The...

This paper provides some evidence on the distributive consequences of economic integration by analyzing the Portuguese and Spanish experiences with EU accession. Despite the coincidence in the moment of accession to EU and other institutional similarities, inequality trends have been different...