Unemployment duration and workers' wage aspirations in Spain

This paper examines unemployed workers' declared willingness to work for a wage lower than the one warranted by their qualification. We analyze which personal and economic characteristics determine this willingness and how it changes as unemployment spells lengthen. Moreover, we also study the influence of this willingness on unemployment duration. The main results are: (i) Young workers, those less educated and those living in regions with high unemployment show a more positive attitude towards accepting lower wages while married women with a working husband show more negative attitudes; (ii) The exhaustion of unemployment benefits has positive effects in the transition probability of the attitude from negative to positive; (iii) The effect of this attitude on the unemployment hazard rate is positive but only marginally significant which may be showing that this willingness is not only reflecting the worker's reservation wage but also some unobserved heterogeneity; (iv) The negative duration dependence of the unemployment hazard rate is substantially reduced when unobserved heterogeneity is controlled for.Willingness to work for lower wages, reservation wage, unemployment duration, unobserved heterogeneity

The Impact of Unemployment on Individual Well-Being in the EU. CEPS ENEPRI Working Papers No. 29, 1 July 2004

Among the working-age population, one of the most damaging individual experiences is unemployment. Many previous studies have confirmed the devastating effects of unemployment on individual well-being, both pecuniary and non-pecuniary. Using the data from the European Community Household Panel survey, this paper examines the factors that affect unemployed workers’ well-being with respect to their situations in their main vocational activity, income, housing, leisure time and health in Europe. The research finds that unemployment substantially reduces an individual’s satisfaction levels with his or her main vocational activity and finance, while it greatly increases his or her satisfaction levels with leisure time. With respect to health, it has a small negative effect. Unemployment duration also has a small, negative impact on individual well-being, suggesting that unemployment has a lasting and aggravating effect throughout the spells of unemployment, contradicting the theory of adaptation

La felicidad de los jóvenes

El bienestar subjetivo de los jóvenes es diferente del de otros colectivos debido a las distintas circunstancias que se dan a lo largo del ciclo vital. Este trabajo contribuye a dar a conocer cuáles son las dimensiones específicas y objetivas del grado subjetivo de satisfacción de los jóvenes españoles. Su finalidad es analizar los factores que inciden en ello. Los resultados obtenidos indican que los jóvenes casados son más felices que los solteros o los que viven en pareja. El joven que estudia es más feliz que el que trabaja y, dentro del grupo de jóvenes trabajadores, son más infelices los que tienen contratos temporales. La felicidad aumenta con la renta. A diferencia de lo obtenido para el conjunto de la sociedad española, la religión no parece influir en el grado de satisfacción por la vida de los jóvenes. Expectativas positivas aumentan la felicidad de los jóvenes, aunque en menor medida de lo que éstas afectan al conjunto de los españoles. Los jóvenes que viven independientes son más felices que los que viven con sus padres.The subjective well-being of young people is different from other groups due to various circumstances that occur throughout the life cycle. This work contributes to the knowledge of specific and objective dimensions of subjective satisfaction of Spanish youth. Its aim is to analyze the factors affecting such satisfaction. The results indicate that young married people are happier than single people or those living with a partner. Young students are happier than those that work, and within the group of young workers, those who have temporary contracts are the least happy. Happiness increases with income. Unlike the findings obtained for the whole of Spanish society, religion does not seem to influence the degree of life satisfaction among young people. Positive expectations increase the happiness of youth to a lesser extent than they affect the whole of the Spanish population. Young people who live on their own are happier than those who live with their parents

La felicidad de los españoles: factores explicativos

This paper analyses determinants of happiness among Spanish people. The results are consistent with previous findings in the literature. The divorced and the widowed are much less happy than married people and the same thing happens with the unemployed with respect to the employed. Happiness increases with income (at a decreasing rate) and is positively related with good health. Positive expectations tend to make people happier, as well as optimism and economic progress. With respect to social capital, we find that those who say they trust others, in general, are significantly happier than those with less trust. Similar positive effects are shown with respect to the trust in some institutions. In particular, trust in large firms seems to increase individuals’ happiness substantially. Personal ethics also show some effects. Specifically, those who reject dishonest behaviour, such as tax evasion or bribery, appear to be happier than others

Youth happiness

RESUMEN: El bienestar subjetivo de los jóvenes es diferente del de otros colectivos debido a las distintas circunstancias que se dan a lo largo del ciclo vital. Este trabajo contribuye a dar a conocer cuáles son las dimensiones específicas y objetivas del grado subjetivo de satisfacción de los jóvenes españoles. Su finalidad es analizar los factores que inciden en ello. Los resultados obtenidos indican que los jóvenes casados son más felices que los solteros o los que viven en pareja. El joven que estudia es más feliz que el que trabaja y, dentro del grupo de jóvenes trabajadores, son más infelices los que tienen contratos temporales. La felicidad aumenta con la renta. A diferencia de lo obtenido para el conjunto de la sociedad española, la religión no parece influir en el grado de satisfacción por la vida de los jóvenes. Expectativas positivas aumentan la felicidad de los jóvenes, aunque en menor medida de lo que éstas afectan al conjunto de los españoles. Los jóvenes que viven independientes son más felices que los que viven con sus padres.ABSTRACT: The subjective well-being of young people is different from other groups due to various circumstances that occur throughout the life cycle. This work contributes to the knowledge of specific and objective dimensions of subjective satisfaction of Spanish youth. Its aim is to analyze the factors affecting such satisfaction. The results indicate that young married people are happier than single people or those living with a partner. Young students are happier than those that work, and within the group of young workers, those who have temporary contracts are the least happy. Happiness increases with income. Unlike the findings obtained for the whole of Spanish society, religion does not seem to influence the degree of life satisfaction among young people. Positive expectations increase the happiness of youth to a lesser extent than they affect the whole of the Spanish population. Young people who live on their own are happier than those who live with their parents

Emancipation under the great recession in Spain.

ABSTRACT: In this paper we document the behavior of emancipation over one of the biggest boom–bust cycles experienced by the Spanish economy. In principle, the economic difficulties faced by the Spanish youth during the last recession would have hampered a normal emancipation pace. However, we find that the proportion living away from parents among those aged 18–40 has not decreased but increased from 44 % during the boom (2005–2008) to 46 % during the bust (2009–2013). A simple decomposition reveals that this is mainly driven by the substantial rise in the emancipation rate among the full-time employed workers during the bust. To explain this change we discuss several factors such as macroeconomic conditions, rental subsidy policy, higher labor mobility, selection bias, reverse causation, timelag in adjustment and secular trend.MEC(IP: María Paz Espinosa Alejos, UPV

Financial Consequences of Widowhood in Europe: Cross-Country and Gender Differences. CEPS ENEPRI Working Papers No. 32, 1 March 2005

This paper documents the financial consequences of widowhood using both cross-section and panel data from the European Community Household Panel. The research reveals that there are large differences across countries. For example, widowed persons in Greece and Portugal have the lowest income – less than a half that of those widowed in Austria. Cross-country differences decrease somewhat if we consider household income net of housing costs, owing to the higher share of home ownership in low-income countries. Further, the income reduction upon widowhood is generally larger for widows than it is for widowers. The difference in income between the genders is largest in Denmark, Spain, Austria and Finland, where widowers enjoy an income that is more than 30% higher that of widows. The main culprit of the differences in income between widows and widowers lies in pension regulations. As today’s elderly women and those approaching old age spent their working years in an era where women worked at home, raised children and did not participate in the labour market, many depend mostly on survivorship pensions as their main source of income. Yet in most countries this kind of pension tends to be much lower than the applicable old-age pension, owing to the prevailing pension laws. Consequently, the financial situation of widows is unlikely to improve in the medium term unless pension regulations change