Unemployment rates in developed countries recently reached levels not seen in a generation, and workers of all ages are facing increasing probabilities of losing their jobs and considerable losses in accumulated assets. These events have increased the reliance that most (older) workers have on...

Fixed-term contracts have low firing costs and can thus help low skilled youth find a first job faster. But do these workers get a more rewarding career? Using Spanish social security data, we compare the careers of native male high-school dropouts who entered the labor market just before and...

The discussion about the need for Social Security reforms has recently resurfaced, and is expected to continue to be part of the political agenda in the near future. Our paper is a step in the direction of providing a framework for policy analysis that accounts for employment uncertainty,...

We analyze the Spanish temporary workers’ transitions into permanent employment and to what extent those who become unemployed are able to achieve a permanent job. Our focus is placed on the role of the individual’s sequence of temporary contracts on the probability of moving from temporary...

This paper evaluates the effect of regional wage subsidies to foster permanent employment for a sample of temporary and unemployed Spanish workers. We study the transition into permanent employment using a new dataset based on administrative Social Security registers named “La Muestra Continua...

In this paper, we explore the links between pension reform, early retirement, and the use of unemployment as an alternative pathway to retirement. We use a dynamic rational expectations model to analyze the search and retirement behaviour of employed and unemployed workers aged 50 or over. The...

This paper evaluates Spain's recent labour market reform concerning the reduction in severance pay from 45 to 33 days of wages per year of seniority and the introduction of a new subsidized permanent contract. We also compare this policy with the introduction of a single open-ended labour...