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

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.

Job losses, outsourcing and relocation, empirical evidence using microdata.

Using microdata, we analyse the determinants of firm relocation and conventional outsourcing decisions as a way to reduce employment. The results for a sample of 32 countries show the relevance of factors not considered previously in the literature. Firms that are below average in quality or innovation have a higher propensity to externalise part of their production through outsourcing, while lower relative profitability and longer time to market for new products each imply a higher probability of relocation.Job losses, outsourcing and relocation

Regional Economic Growth And Human Capital: The Role Of Overeducation

The paper analyses the link between human capital and regional economic growth in the European Union. Using different indicators of human capital calculated from census microdata, we conclude that the recent economic performance of European regions is associated to an increase in overeducation. In fact, measures of educational mismatch seem to have a stronger connection to regional economic performance than other traditional measures of human capital stocks.Regional economic growth, human capital, educational mismatch, overeducation

Human capital spillovers, productivity and regional convergence in Spain

This paper analyses the differential impact of human capital, in terms of different levels of schooling, on regional productivity and convergence. The potential existence of geographical spillovers of human capital is also considered by applying spatial panel data techniques. The empirical analysis of Spanish provinces between 1980 and 2007 confirms the positive impact of human capital on regional productivity and convergence, but reveals no evidence of any positive geographical spillovers of human capital. In fact, in some specifications the spatial lag presented by tertiary studies has a negative effect on the variables under consideration.Regional convergence, productivity, human capital composition, geographical spillovers.

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

The Portability of Human Capital and Immigrant Assimilation: Evidence for Spain

The existing literature on immigrant assimilation has highlighted the imperfect portability of human capital acquired by immigrants in their country of origin (Chiswick, 1978; Friedberg, 2000). This would explain the low levels of assimilation upon arrival in the new country, as well as the wide initial earnings gap. Recent studies (Chiswick and Miller, 2007 or Green, Kler and Leeves, 2007, among others) have dealt with this issue from the perspective of over-education. This study analyses the portability of immigrants’ human capital into the Spanish job market according to their geographic origin. It also aims to compare the most notable empirical regularities found in the aforementioned studies with the situation in Spain. The results obtained indicate differing degrees of the transferability of human capital depending on geographic origin, as transferability is greater for countries that are highly developed or have a similar culture or language and lower for developing countries and those with more distant cultures. The evidence is relatively disparate for the two components of human capital as although it is particularly clear for schooling, it is less so for experience. The results also confirm that in Spain immigrants suffer from over-education, in both incidence and intensity, implying a higher relative wage penalty and a greater negative impact on immigrants from the second group of countries. As an immigrant’s stay in Spain advances, a process of assimilation does exist, except for Asians and, in some circumstances, those from Sub-Saharan Africa, though the pace is very slow.immigration, over-education, wages, assimilation