A Comparative Study of the Portuguese and Spanish Labour Markets

Spain faces the highest unemployment rate among the European Union countries (22.2%), and Portugal the lowest (7.3%). However, superficially, these two countries share common labour market features: they both have the most stringent job security rules in the OECD, the architecture of their bargaining systems appears identical, and the generosity of their unemployment insurance seems, after 1989, roughly comparable. In this paper we address this puzzle by providing a systematic comparison of the Portuguese and Spanish labour markets.