How Do the Skilled and the Unskilled Respond to Regional Shocks? the Case of Spain

May 1, 1998

Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

Are there any differences in how workers of different skill levels respond to regional shocks? This paper addresses that question using the methodology of Blanchard and Katz (1992) and a unique data set on working-age population, labor force, and employment for five educational groups (ranging from the illiterate to the college-educated) over 1964-92 for the 50 Spanish provinces. The paper finds that the high-skilled migrate very promptly in response to a decline in regional labor demand, while the low-skilled drop out of the labor force or stay unemployed.

Subject: Labor, Labor costs, Labor markets, Unemployment, Unemployment rate, Wages

Keywords: adult wage, decentralization of the wage, Europe, Labor costs, Labor markets, real wage, regional unemployment, sectoral wage increase, set wage, skill level, Spain, Unemployment, unemployment difference, unemployment imbalance, Unemployment rate, wage, wage agreement, wage pressure, Wages, wages in high-unemployment, WP

Pages:
29
Volume:
1998
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451956764.001
Issue:
077
Series:
Working Paper No. 1998/077
Stock No:
WPIEA0771998
ISBN:
9781451956764
ISSN:
1018-5941

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Notes

Also published in Staff Papers, Vol. 46, No. 1, March 1999.

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