Self-employment and Okun’s Law relationship: the Spanish case

María Porras and Ángel Martín-Román (almartin@uva.es)

No 157, GLO Discussion Paper Series from Global Labor Organization (GLO)

Abstract: The present research provides evidence on the determinants driving the differences in the unemployment-output relationship in Spanish regions. We followed a two-step approach. First, we estimated a set of time-varying Okun’s coefficients (rolling-window) for the autonomous communities in Spain (1981-2013) showing significant regional differences as well as important changes over time. At the second step, we estimated FMOLS and DOLS models to explain regional differences in Okun’s law. The results obtained lead to the conclusion that differences in the weight of self-employment and its variations over time prove relevant when accounting for differences in Okun’s law between Spanish regions, and its effect (in standard deviations) is greater than that of variations in labour productivity per worker, which so far had been considered the main driver of regional discrepancies. The economic policy implications of this outcome are huge due to the fact that Spanish regional and national authorities are promoting self-employment.

Keywords: Okun’s Law; self-employment; unemployment; GDP; Spanish regions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 E24 J64 R11 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-geo, nep-lab and nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Working Paper: Self-employment and Okun’s Law relationship: the Spanish case (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:glodps:157

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