Reforming an insider-outsider labor market: the Spanish experience Articles uri icon

authors

  • bentolila, samuel
  • DOLADO LOBREGAD, JUAN JOSE
  • JIMENO SERRANO, JUAN FRANCISCO

publication date

  • December 2012

start page

  • 1

end page

  • 29

issue

  • 4

volume

  • 1

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 2193-9004

abstract

  • This paper presents a case study on reforming a very dysfunctional labor market with a deep insider-outsider divide, namely the Spanish case. We show how a dual market, with permanent and temporary employees, makes real reform much harder, and leads to purely marginal changes that do not alter the fundamental features of labour market institutions. While the Great Recession and the start of the sovereign debt crisis have lately triggered two labor reforms, the political economy equilibrium has not allowed them to be transformational enough