Drivers of Spain’s Export Performance and the Role of the Labor Market Reforms

Jorge Salas ()

No 2018/283, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: Spain’s export performance strengthened after the global financial crisis, and exports now represent more than a third of GDP. This paper argues that several factors contributed to that achievement: external demand, supported by greater diversification of destination markets; enhanced export orientation of Spanish firms, partly as a response to lower domestic demand after the crisis; and competitiveness gains, reflecting in part changes in the labor market following structural reforms adopted in 2010 and 2012. Based on cross-country panel regressions linking real export growth to employment protection indicators, those labor market reforms are estimated to account for nearly one-tenth to above one-quarter of Spain’s total export growth rate from 2010 to 2013.

Keywords: WP; export growth; IMF staff calculation; export quality; goods export; labor market reform; Competitiveness; Labor Market Reforms; Employment Protection; Spain; Advanced Economies; Export performance; Exports; Real exports; Labor market flexibility; Global (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23
Date: 2018-12-13
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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