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By applying a stochastic production frontier approach, this paper investigates regional inefficiencies of job creation in Spain over the period 2006–2012. This paper represents a first attempt to test whether a more flexible labour market as designed by the 2010 reform reduces regional inefficiencies. Results suggest that the 2010 reform appears to have improved on average the efficiency of the Spanish labour market even if regional differences persisted over time. The paper also investigates the importance of local democracy for the labour market finding that local democracy positively influences regional efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between labour force participation and the business cycle is a common topic in economic literature. However, few studies have examined if the cyclical sensitivity of labour force participation is influenced by social effects. In this paper, we construct a theoretical model defining a relatively new hypothesis, the bandwagon worker effect (BWE). We use spatial econometrics techniques to test the existence of the BWE in the local labour markets in Spain. Our results reveal a positive spatial dependence in the cyclical sensitivity of labour force participation that decreases as we fix a laxer neighbourhood criterion, which verifies the existence of the BWE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the link between the employment structure of local labour markets and the schooling choices of the youth in Spain. We construct a panel of Spanish provinces, and the effect of local labour markets was identified by using the variation in the share of employment by industry and gender across provinces and over time. A model with province fixed‐effects and specific‐slopes is used, which makes it possible to control for both time constant and time‐varying unobserved heterogeneity across provinces. A sizable impact is found for both boys and girls of the industry structure of employment on educational attainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the effect of job accessibility on job-education mismatch in the metropolitan area of Barcelona with regard to both public and private transport. Transit accessibility is defined in terms of the spatial distribution of employment relative to travel time by public transport, whereas accessibility by private transport is approximated by car availability. The results obtained from a joint model for car ownership, employment selectivity and mismatch confirm that car availability matters for job-education mismatch. Moreover, public transport connectivity to job locations favours the matching between schooling and occupation in the urban labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the differences in the levels of accessibility to public employment offices in the Spanish municipalities. Hence the main purpose is to evaluate the role of the public employment services in local labour markets by considering the physical distance to employment offices and the spatial structure of their catchment areas. First, we propose an accessibility measure and, second, we estimate a spatial model and test whether a higher accessibility to employment offices could contribute to reduce local unemployment rates. The results suggest that policy-makers should strive to improve the accessibility to employment offices so that adequate assistance to find suitable employment may be ensured to every jobseeker. Resumen Este artículo se centra en las diferencias en los niveles de accesibilidad a las oficinas públicas de empleo en los municipios españoles. El objetivo principal es por tanto evaluar el papel de los servicios públicos de empleo en los mercados laborales locales, en función de la distancia física a las oficinas de empleo y la estructura espacial de sus zonas de influencia. Primero, se propone una medida de accesibilidad y, a continuación, se estima un modelo espacial y se comprueba si una mayor accesibilidad a las oficinas de empleo podría contribuir a reducir las tasas de desempleo local. Los resultados sugieren que los responsables de formular políticas deberían esforzarse por mejorar la accesibilidad a las oficinas de empleo, a fin de poder asegurar a cada demandante de empleo la ayuda apropiada para que logre encontrar un empleo adecuado. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise in unemployment during the economic recession led to widespread support for active labour market policies (ALMP) from public and private institutions. Among these measures, Spain has developed the so‐called discounted flat rate for self‐employed workers, which consists of a series of reductions and subsidies applied to their social security contributions when they start their activity. The aim of this study is to evaluate this policy in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia (Spain), a region with an unemployment rate of over 20%, comparing the survival of a group of self‐employed workers who benefited from this subsidy with that of another group without the discounted flat rate. The results suggest the survival of the group with the subsidy surpasses that of the group without, although the positive effects of the measure disappear over the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]