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Real wage responsiveness to unemployment in Spain: asymmetries along the business cycle

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  • Paulino Font
  • Mario Izquierdo
  • Sergio Puente

Abstract

We estimate real wage cyclicality in the period compressed between 1987 and 2013 using a large administrative dataset of workers in Spain. Real wages are weakly procyclical in Spain and focusing on differences in different phases of the business cycle, we find that differences across expansions and recessions are significant, with an even lower real wage cyclicality in recessions. Furthermore, higher levels of unemployment do not translate into additional real wages adjustments when the economy is contracting, while lower levels of unemployment during expansions have incremental effects on wage elasticity. This general result holds after accounting for differences in tenure, type of contract and age categories. Nevertheless, wages of newly-hired workers are the most sensitive to the business cycle and exhibit the lowest asymmetric pattern between expansions and recessions. At the other end, wages of workers with more than six years of tenure can be characterized as the most protected against economic downturns. The same is true for fixed-term vs. permanent workers, as well as for young vs. older workers. JEL classification: e32, j31 Copyright Font et al.; licensee Springer. 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Paulino Font & Mario Izquierdo & Sergio Puente, 2015. "Real wage responsiveness to unemployment in Spain: asymmetries along the business cycle," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:izaels:v:4:y:2015:i:1:p:1-13:10.1186/s40174-015-0038-x
    DOI: 10.1186/s40174-015-0038-x
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wage cyclicality; Downward wage rigidity; Social security data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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