Formal education, mismatch and wages after transition: Assessing the impact of unobserved heterogeneity using matching estimators

This paper studies the incidence and consequences of the mismatch between formal education and the educational requirements of jobs in Estonia during the years 1997-2003. We find large wage penalties associated with the phenomenon of educational mismatch. Moreover, the incidence and wage penalty of mismatches increase with age. This suggests that structural educational mismatches can occur after fast transition periods. Our results are robust for various methodologies, and more importantly regarding departures from the exogeneity assumptions inherent in the matching estimators used in our analysis. JEL Classification: J0Education mismatch, Matching Estimators, wage determination

- UNEMPLOYMENT IN EUROPE AND REGIONAL LABOR FLUCTUATIONS

This paper studies the relationship between region-specific shocks in the European labor market and unemployment rates in Europe. The existing empirical literature in this topic employs measures hardly useful to analyze the issue at hand. We use a model for non-stationary evolving distributions to identify disaggregate and aggregate disturbances and analyze their joint dynamics. Our main findings are that unemployment is lower the more alike shocks are across regions and the lower mobility of those regional shocks is. Further, the dynamics of regional shocks have substantial predictive power for aggregate unemployment fluctuations.regional fluctuations, geographical region, unemployment, mismatch index, large crosssection.

Public and private sector wages: co-movement and causality

This paper looks at public and private sector wages interactions since the 1960s in the euro area, euro area countries and a number of other OECD countries. The paper reports, first, a strong positive annual contemporaneous correlation of public and private sector wages over the business cycle; this finding is robust across methods and measures of wages and quite general across countries. Second, we show evidence of long-run relationships between public and private sector wages in all countries. Finally, causality analysis suggests that feedback effects between private and public wages occur in a direct manner and, importantly also via prices. While influences from the private sector appear on the whole to be stronger, there are direct and indirect feedback effects from public wage setting in a number of countries as well. We show how country-specific institutional features of labour and product markets contain helpful information to explain the heterogeneity across countries of our results on public/private wage leadership. JEL Classification: C32, J30, J51, J52, E62, E63, H50(partly) government wages, causality, co-movement, private sector wages

The cyclicality of consumption, wages and employment of the public sector in the euro area

This study examines the business cycle behaviour of public consumption and its main components; the public wage bill (including compensation per employee and public employment) and intermediate consumption in the euro area aggregate, euro area countries and a group of selected non-euro area OECD countries (Denmark, Sweden, the UK, Japan and the US). It looks across a large number of variables and methods, using annual data from 1960 to 2005. It finds robust evidence supporting that public consumption, wages and employment co-move with the business cycle in a pro-cyclical manner with 1-2 year lags, notably for the euro area aggregate and euro area countries. The findings reflect mainly the correlation between cyclical developments (automatic stabilizers), but also point to the important role of pro-cyclical discretionary fiscal policies. JEL Classification: E62, E63, H50filtering, Public consumption, public employment, public wages, stylized facts, thick modelling

European women: Why do(n't) they work?

This paper provides an empirical study of the determinants of female participation decisions in the European Union. The analysis is performed by estimating participation equations for different age groups (i.e. young, prime-age and older females), using annual data for a panel of 12 EU-15 countries over the period 1980-2000. Our findings show that the strictness of labour market institutions negatively affects the participation rate. Decisions linked to individual preferences with regards to education or fertility are also found relevant to participation of the youngest and prime-age females respectively. The inclusion of a proxy to capture cohort effects is crucial in order to explain the oldest females’ participation. JEL Classification: J21labour force participation, Labour market institutions

La venta ocasional de saldos en la Ley de Ordenación del Comercio Minorista.

El interés mercantil en la ordenación del comercio minorista ha supuesto centrar el análisis de las ventas resultantes de dichas actividades en el ámbito de la defensa de la competencia. El trabajo busca ampliar dichas perspectivas, incorporando a su estudio otro de los principios de orden público: el de defensa de los consumidores

Apuntes sobre la configuración del derecho a la propia imagen en el ordenamiento español

Depto. de Derecho CivilFac. de DerechoTRUEunpu

Are specific skills an obstacle to labor market adjustment? Theory and an application to the EU enlargement

We argue that the existence of large amounts of specific human capital makes costly and slows down the adjustment in the labor market after large reallocation shocks. To illustrate this point we build a theoretical framework in which young agents’ career is heavily determined by initial education, and analyze the transition to a new steady-state after a sectoral demand shift. An interesting case study is the EU enlargement, which led to modernization of many sectors in eastern countries and to a fast decline of traditional industries. Using labor force data from a large economy with rigid labor markets, Poland, and a small open economy with increased flexibility, Estonia, we document and find support for our claim. Quantitative exercises suggest that the overspecializaton of the labor force in Poland explain to a large extent the much higher and persistent unemployment compared to Estonia during the period of EU enlargement. JEL Classification: J30Enlargement, Labor Reallocation, Matching, Specific Skills, Vocational Education

Aproximación a una perspectiva civil del contrato de franquicia

La escueta regulación que del contrato de franquicia ofrece la vigente Ley de Ordenación del Comercio Minorista exige que su análisis se desarrolle desde la perspectiva de la atipicidad, es decir, desde el conjunto de usos que los comerciantes han desarrollado en la práctica mercantil. El estudio propone una lectura de tales negocios realizada desde la óptica más general del Derecho de las obligaciones y de los contratos, buscando reducir el margen de discrecionalidad que parece resultar inexcusable

¿Qué pasa en Irak?

Es difícil conocer cuál es la situación real en Irak. La mayoría de las informaciones de los medios de comunicación son resultado de una estancia superficial en el país y están sometidas a la lógica de los medios (las buenas noticias no lo son, debe enfatizarse el dramatismo de la noticia y reforzar los prejuicios de la audiencia). Este análisis intenta profundizar en la realidad actual a partir de una serie (insuficiente, pero fiable) de datos objetivos, sabiendo, no obstante, que también estos datos son criticables, la situación es aún extremadamente incierta y todo puede cambiar en pocos días. La situación en Irak parece (pero sólo parece) inflexionar positivamente a partir de una posguerra desastrosamente administrada por los Estados Unidos, y que llevó a una doble sustitución: primero la de Powell por Rumsfeld como responsable máximo del país, y después la del general Gardner por Paul Bremer al frente de la administración de la Coalition Provisional Authority (la CPA). La situación de seguridad parece mejorar muy lentamente a medida que se pone en marcha la policía autóctona, lo mismo que el abastecimiento general (desde alimentos a electricidad, agua y petróleo). Más positivos resultan, sin embargo, los datos de opinión pública. La mayoría de los iraquíes parecen apoyar la intervención y no desean la retirada inmediata de las fuerzas de la ocupación, rechazando los ataques terroristas que consideran intentos foráneos para desestabilizar la situación interna. La duda permanece, sin embargo, sobre si la dinámica política evolucionará hacia una libanización del país o, más bien, hacia un modelo afgano con un control compartido por los “notables” de unas u otras religiones y etnias