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On the persistence of Spanish unemployment rates

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  • Diego Romero-Ávila
  • Carlos Usabiaga

Abstract

This paper tests the hysteresis hypothesis for the unemployment rate of the Spanish regions over the period 1976–2004. For that purpose, we employ a large battery of recently developed panel tests which explicitly control for cross-sectional correlation in addition to the panel stationarity test of Carrión-i-Silvestre et al. (Econom J 8:159–175, 2005) which allows for multiple structural breaks and cross-sectional dependence. Overall, our confirmatory analysis with three different proxies for the excess of labour supply renders strong support for the hysteresis hypothesis in regional Spanish unemployment. The results are robust across panel techniques and datasets and accord well with the common belief among scholars that attaches a high degree of persistence to Spanish unemployment due to labour market malfunctioning. We provide a detailed description of the clusters of breaks identified in the analysis, which appear to be closely associated with some macroeconomic shocks and institutional arrangements. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2008

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  • Diego Romero-Ávila & Carlos Usabiaga, 2008. "On the persistence of Spanish unemployment rates," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 77-99, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:empeco:v:35:y:2008:i:1:p:77-99
    DOI: 10.1007/s00181-007-0144-3
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    3. Franchi, Massimo & Ordóñez, Javier, 2011. "Multiple equilibria in Spanish unemployment," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 71-80, February.
    4. Ángel L. Martín‐Román & Jaime Cuéllar‐Martín & Alfonso Moral, 2023. "Natural and cyclical unemployment: A stochastic frontier decomposition and economic policy implications," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(1), pages 5-39, January.
    5. Giorgio Canarella & Rangan Gupta & Stephen M. Miller & Stephen K. Pollard, 2019. "Unemployment rate hysteresis and the great recession: exploring the metropolitan evidence," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 61-79, January.
    6. Tolga Omay & Muhammad Shahbaz & Chris Stewart, 2021. "Is there really hysteresis in the OECD unemployment rates? New evidence using a Fourier panel unit root test," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 48(4), pages 875-901, November.
    7. Carlos Usabiaga & Diego Romero-Ávila, 2012. "New Disaggregate Evidence on Spanish Inflation Persistence," EcoMod2012 3800, EcoMod.
    8. Fumitaka Furuoka, 2017. "Unemployment Dynamics In The Asia-Pacific Region: A Preliminary Investigation," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 62(05), pages 983-1016, December.
    9. Diego Romero-Ávila & Carlos Usabiaga, 2012. "Disaggregate evidence on Spanish inflation persistence," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(23), pages 3029-3046, August.
    10. DO ANGO, Simplicio & AMBA OYON, Claude Marius, 2016. "A PANIC Attack on Inflation and Unemployment in Africa: Analysis of Persistence and Convergence," MPRA Paper 79685, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Ana Karina Alfaro Moreno & José Javier Núñez Velázquez, 2019. "Utilization of Mixed Distributions in the Calculation of Polarization: The Case of Spain," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(3), pages 911-946, April.
    12. García-Cintado, Alejandro & Romero-Ávila, Diego & Usabiaga, Carlos, 2015. "Can the hysteresis hypothesis in Spanish regional unemployment be beaten? New evidence from unit root tests with breaks," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 244-252.
    13. Cuéllar Martín, Jaime & Martín-Román, Ángel L. & Moral, Alfonso, 2017. "A composed error model decomposition and spatial analysis of local unemployment," MPRA Paper 79783, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Antonio Rodriguez-Gil, 2018. "Hysteresis and labour market institutions. Evidence from the UK and the Netherlands," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 55(4), pages 1985-2025, December.

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