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Real Wage Responsiveness To Unemployment In Spain: Asymmetries Along The Business Cycle

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Listed:
  • Paulino Font

    (Banco de España)

  • Mario Izquierdo

    (Banco de España)

  • Sergio Puente

    (Banco de España)

Abstract

We estimate real wage cyclicality in the period between 1987 and 2013 using a large administrative dataset of workers in Spain. Real wages are weakly procyclical in Spain and, focusing on different phases of the business cycle, we find significant differences between expansions and recessions, with even lower real wage cyclicality in recessions. Furthermore, higher levels of unemployment do not translate into additional real wage 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. 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 of the scale, wages of workers with more than six years’ tenure provide the most protection against economic downturns. The same is true for fixed-term vs. permanent workers and for young vs. older workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Paulino Font & Mario Izquierdo & Sergio Puente, 2015. "Real Wage Responsiveness To Unemployment In Spain: Asymmetries Along The Business Cycle," Working Papers 1504, Banco de España.
    • Handle: RePEc:bde:wpaper:1504
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    3. Schaefer, Daniel & Singleton, Carl, 2019. "Cyclical labor costs within jobs," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    4. Bjorn Dapi, 2020. "Wage Cyclicality and Composition Bias in the Norwegian Economy," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 122(4), pages 1403-1430, October.
    5. Samuel Bentolila & J. Ignacio García-Pérez & Marcel Jansen, 2017. "Are the Spanish long-term unemployed unemployable?," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 1-41, March.
    6. De Palma Francesco & Ligonnière Samuel & Saadaoui Jamel & Thommen Yann, 2022. "The role of wage bargaining institutions in the Phillips curve flattening;," Working Papers of BETA 2022-21, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    7. Paulino Font & Mario Izquierdo & Sergio Puente, 2021. "The Effect of Subsidies to Mature-Age Employment: a Quasi-Experimental Analysis," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 123-147, June.
    8. Samuel Bentolila & J. Ignacio García-Pérez & Marcel Jansen, 2017. "Are the Spanish Long-Term Unemployed Unemployable?," Working Papers wp2018_1707, CEMFI.
    9. Pereira, João & Ramos, Raul & Martins, Pedro S., 2024. "Wage cyclicality and labour market institutions," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1469, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    10. Verdugo, Gregory, 2016. "Real wage cyclicality in the Eurozone before and during the Great Recession: Evidence from micro data," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 46-69.
    11. Ana-Isabel Guerra & Laura Varela-Candamio & Jesús López-Rodríguez, 2016. "Evaluating Macroeconomic And Distributional Impacts Of Current And Alternative Tax Reforms In Spain: An Applied General Equilibrium Approach," EcoMod2016 9322, EcoMod.
    12. Sacht, Stephen, 2015. "On the efficiency of labor market reforms: How to solve the Spanish puzzle?," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 9, pages 1-30.
    13. Guido Bulligan & Eliana Viviano, 2017. "Has the wage Phillips curve changed in the euro area?," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-22, December.
    14. Gálvez-Iniesta Ismael, 2022. "The Cyclicality of Immigrant Wages and Labour Market Flows: Evidence from Spain," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 90-122, January.
    15. Juan A. Sanchis-llopis & Antonio Cutanda, 2020. "The Spanish cyclicality of the user cost of labour," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(3), pages 1893-1899.
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    17. Fernández-Kranz, Daniel & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria, 2017. "The Perfect Storm: Graduating in a Recession in a Segmented Labor Market," IZA Discussion Papers 10597, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
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    20. Yolanda F. Rebollo-Sanz, 2017. "Decomposing the structure of wages into firm and worker effects: some insights from a high unemployment economy," Working Papers 17.10, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.

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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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