A methodological approach to estimating the money demand in pre-industrial economies: probate inventories and Spain in the 18th century

The study of monetary phenomena and the understanding of price determination in Modern Europe are too often limited by the scarcity of good-quality data sets on the evolution across time of variables like money holdings, income, or wealth. In this paper we show that the information contained in probate inventories can be extremely useful to circumvent that problem. In particular, combining a data set of 114 inventories from Palencia (North of Spain) between 1750 and 1770 with census information (Catastro de Ensenada) we make a cross-section estimation of a money demand which is the first one ever produced for any period before the 19th century. The results provide meaningful insights about the relation between money demand and wealth, urbanization and structural change in a pre-industrial economy and highlight the potential of probate inventories to improve our knowledge of the monetary history of Modern Europe

Local human capital and productivity: an analysis for the Spanish regions

In the last decade, different studies have empirically tested the existence or not of a positive relationship between local human capital stock and regional productivity. The most usual finding has been a positive correlation among them. However, different authors do not agree when explaining this result. On one hand, a first group of authors argue that this relationship is related to the presence of external economies associated to human capital. On the other hand, a second group believe that the reason to find this positive relationship is the complementarity between human and physical capital. The objective of this paper is to analyse the possible existence of a positive relationship between the human capital stock of the Spanish provinces (NUTS III regions) and their productivity and, next, to test if this relationship can be explained by the presence of external economies. This is done using data from the Family Budget Survey (EPF) on individual wages, education and experience for the 50 considered Spanish provinces.

Overeducation and local labour markets in Spain

One aspect that has not been widely considered by the literature on the topic is differential overeducation, the existence of differences among men and women in terms of overeducation as a result of the geographical restrictions of married woman when searching for job. In this context, Büchel y Van Ham (2002) have highlighted the relevance of spatial mobility in regional labour markets (basically commuting) as an explanatory factor of women differential overeducation, but also of global overeducation.The objective is this paper is to test the influence of individual variables and some characteristics of regional labour markets related with spatial mobility on overducation in the Spanish Economy. With this aim, we use microdata from the Encuesta de Presupuesto Familiares 1990-91 (Budget Family Survey). The results permits us to conclude that the size of local labour markets and the possibility of increasing the job search to other labour markets through commuting are relevant factors to explain overducation in the Spanish labour market.

Regional structure of wages and external economies in Spain

Regional data on wages for the Spanish Economy show that workers who live in developed regions earn more than workers in other regions. For example, the average wage in Madrid or in Catalonia -two of the most developed regions- is about a 50% higher than in Murcia -a region specialised in agriculture with low levels of per capita income-. New Economic Geography models, such as Krugman (1991), provide a possible explanation of why firms do not move from these regions to others where wages were lower. These kind of models describe how firms concentrate their production in one location due to the existence of increasing returns to scale and low transport costs in the presence of pecuniary external economies. Previous studies for the Spanish Economy use aggregate data to explain why average wages in the same sector are different across regions. The original contribution of this paper consists of using individual data on wages from the Encuesta de Presupuestos Familiares -carried out by the Instituto Nacional de Estadistica with reference to the years 1990-1991- to detect the existence and the nature of external economies. This information permits to control the influence of individual (gender, age, level of studies) and job (occupation, industry, full or part-time work) characteristics on wages to, first, detect the existence of external economies and, second, test alternative explanations of their presence: for example, the size of the labour market, the accumulation of the same kind of qualified workers or the geographical specialisation in a dominant manufacturing activity.

Overeducation and Local Labour Markets in Spain

The objective of this paper is to analyze the influence of individual variables and some characteristics related to spatial mobility in regional labour markets on overeducation in Spain. With this aim, we use microdata from the Spanish Budget Family Survey to estimate a logit model for overeducation probability taking into account the problem of selection bias and the presence of data of different levels (individuals and territory). The obtained results permit us to conclude that the size of local labour markets and the possibility of extending the job search to other labour markets through commuting are relevant factors to explain overeducation in the Spanish labour market. In spite of the differences in terms of labour market institutions, our results are very similar to the ones obtained for other countries.educational mismatch, Spain, multilevel, commuting, job mismatch, differential overeducation

A Methodological approach to estimating the Money Demand in Pre-Industrial Economies: Probate Inventories and Spain in the 18th century

The study of monetary phenomena and the understanding of price determination in Modern Europe are too often limited by the scarcity of good-quality data sets on the evolution across time of variables like money holdings, income, or wealth. In this paper we show that the information contained in probate inventories can be extremely useful to circumvent that problem. In particular, combining a data set of 114 inventories from Palencia (North of Spain) between 1750 and 1770 with census information (Catastro de Ensenada) we make a cross-section estimation of a money demand which is the first one ever produced for any period before the 19th century. The results provide meaningful insights about the relation between money demand and wealth, urbanization and structural change in a pre-industrial economy and highlight the potential of probate inventories to improve our knowledge of the monetary history of Modern Europe.

Occupational Mobility of Immigrants in a Low Skilled Economy: The Spanish Case

We analyze the occupational mobility of immigrants between their origin countries and Spain and its determinants. We use microdata from the Encuesta Nacional de Inmigrantes to compute an internationally harmonized occupational status index (ISEI) that permits to quantify and properly analyze this kind of mobility. The obtained evidence shows that, in general, immigrants experience a strong occupational downgrading in Spain when compared to their origin countries. This fact is due to the strong downgrading they experience when entering the Spanish labour market and their low improvement in the following years.immigration, occupational mobility, Spain

Regional structure of wages and external economies in Spain

Regional data on wages for the Spanish economy show that workers who live in developed regions earn more than workers in other regions. Literature on external economies provides a possible explanation of why firms do not move from these regions to others where wages are lower. Previous studies for the Spanish case use aggregated sectoral data to explain in terms of external economies why average wages are different across regions. The original contribution of this paper consists of using individual data to detect the existence and nature of external economies as an explanatory cause of territorial wage differences. With this aim, we have used individual data from the EPF 1990-91 (INE). This information permits us to control the influence of individual and job characteristics on wages to, first, detect the existence of external economies and, second, to test alternative explanations of their presence. The empirical evidence obtained confirms the relevance of territorial external economies and their influence on wages, as a result of improvements in the productive efficiency of the firm. In concrete terms, the more relevant external economies are associated with the regional human capital stock and geographical productive specialisation.regional labour markets, wages, human capital, external economies

Wage curves for Spain. Evidence from the family budget survey

This study explores the existence of a wage curve for Spain. To quantify this relationship for the Spanish economy, we used individual data from the EPF 1990-1991. The results show the presence of a wage curve with an elasticity of 0.13. The availability of very detailed information on wages and unemployment has also shown that less protected labour market groups young workers, manual workers and building sector workers- have a higher elasticity of wages to local unemployment. These results could be interpreted as a greater facility of firms in these segments to settle wages as a function of the unemployment rate.regional labour markets, unemployment rate, wage curve