Rosario Sánchez

Temporary workers and productivity: the case of Spain

The primary focus of this paper is on efficiency wages and their testable implications. In particular the nature of the relationship between efficiency wages, productivity and the make up of the labour force is analysed, modelled and subjected to an empirical test. This theory is consistent with the views of many managers and personal administrators, who tend to ascribe primary importance in wage setting to indirect control of the firms workforce. Here we test a labour augmenting production function where effort depends not only on wages but also on the proportion of temporary workers.

Temporary employment and technical efficiency in Spain

Analyses how the high proportion of temporary employment affects the firms technical efficiency. Uses the stochastic frontier approach to measure the technical efficiency of the Spanish manufacturing firms during the period 1990‐2001. A negative relation between technical efficiency and the proportion of temporary jobs has been obtained. Also, shows that permanent employment makes an important contribution to output while temporary does not.

Unemployment Determinants for Women in Spain

Spain has one of the highest rates of unemployment among OECD countries. Some explanations for this stress the importance of unemployment duration compared with entry rates to the unemployment pool. Long-term unemployment rates are particularly high among women in Spain. The object of this paper is to investigate the determinants of unemployment duration among women. It will consider personal characteristics (education and age), family background, socio-economic variables (the number of household earners and household income) and the effect of unemployment benefits, using data from the Household Expenditure Survey 1990-91.

Gender and Potential Wage in Europe: A Stochastic Frontier Approach

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence concerning wage differentials and the existence of gender pay discrimination in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. Design/methodology/approach - The authors used the stochastic frontier approach as an alternative method to measure the relevance of gender discrimination. This methodology allows them to explain the differences between the potential and the observed wage that an individual could obtain, given his or her human capital endowment. Findings - The authors found support for wage discrimination against women. The results show that a significant part of the gender wage gap in all the countries analysed is not attributable to differences in human capital endowment or personal and job-related characteristics. Research limitations/implications - The definition of education in the data set is modest and broadly defined. Originality/value - This paper contributes to the debate on gender discrimination by analysing the determinants of the gender gap using an innovative methodology in the gender gap literature: the stochastic frontier approach.

Paid employment and unpaid caring work in Spain

The objective of this paper is to investigate the determinants of unpaid time in caring activities, with a special emphasis on the gender dimension. Data from the Household Panel Survey for Spain is used to estimate an ordered probit model for the hours interval in care of children and adult people in need of care. The results show that gender is one of the key determinants of the distribution of time in caring. Being in paid employment is also an important factor in the time devoted to caring. Demographic variables like age, marital status and education are also relevant, particularly in the case of women. Finally, cultural habits and customs are also important.

Women's Labour Force Participation and Part Time Work in Spain

Spain is one of the southern countries where the percentage of women working part-time is relatively low in comparison to other European countries, together with a low female activity rate. Some important obstacles to increasing female activity rates have already been removed, as younger cohorts of women show a more permanent attachment to the labour force than older women, meeting even high unemployment, which is especially acute for women and young people. Under the recent labour market reform, it is hoped that part-time contracts, which were first regulated in 1984, would be a way of facilitating flexibility and an incentive for employers to create jobs, as the experience of other countries has shown. The relative novelty of part-time work in Spain is the reason why this typically female employment regime has not been much explored in Spain yet, in spite of its important role in the reorganisation of the employment system. Copyright Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1997.

Temporary contracts and young women in Spain

In this article we analyse the determinants of temporary employment through a balanced panel of workers from 1995 to 2000. First, we estimate a panel with 1267 individuals with ages ranging from 16 to 65 years. We obtain that the probability of having a temporary contract increases for people younger than 46 years old. Secondly, we estimate separately the sample of people younger than 46 years old and we obtain that the probability of temporality increases for young people with university level of education. More interestedly, the probability of being in a temporary contract is smaller for young women that for young men in Spain.

Unemployment and consumption patterns

In this paper we obtain empirical evidence about the effect of female and male unemployment on household demand of a selection of goods and services. We analyse the percentage of the family income expenditure on a particular group of goods concerning education, domestic services, leisure goods, hotels etc. The impact of several determinants on each group of commodities is estimated using a Tobit specification. The data used for estimation have been taken from The Household Expenditure Survey (1990–91). Our main result is that male and female unemployment has a different impact on the household consumption.

Work Incentive and Productivity in Spain

Work incentives are closely related to production performance. This paper presents evidence that the value added of a firm increases when relative labor costs rise, or the level of unemployment increases. Both circumstances imply evidence in favor of the efficiency wage model. This theory is consistent with the views of many managers and personal administrators, who tend to ascribe primary importance to wage setting as an incentive to increase effort. We use a micro panel data set of Spanish manufacturing firms, during the period 2004–2009, to simultaneously estimate a stochastic frontier of a firm’s value added and the inefficiency determinants. The data source is published in the Spanish Industrial Survey on Business Strategies (Encuesta sobre Estrategias Empresariales, ESEE), collected by the Fundacion SEPI.