IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ecb/ecbwps/20161970.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Firm responses to employment subsidies: a regression discontinuity approach to the 2012 Spanish labour market reform

Author

Listed:
  • Gamberoni, Elisa
  • Gradeva, Katerina
  • Weber, Sebastian

Abstract

This study focuses on the employment effect of a hiring subsidy available to firms with less than 50 employees, granted in the context of the 2012 Spanish labour market reform. Exploiting the arbitrary firm size threshold using regression discontinuity design, estimates show on average 2 percentage points higher employment growth for firms that became eligible for the scheme. However, tests and complementary regressions suggest that the higher employment growth for smaller firms in 2013 is driven by a 2010 reform, which imposes more stringent reporting requirements on larger firms. Accounting for this using difference-in-discontinuity regressions, we fail to find any significant effect of the subsidy on increasing employment of eligible firms. While our study suggests several pitfalls arising from size-contingent regulations, more data are needed to test for benecial long-term effects from the hiring subsidy in addressing duality of the Spanish labour market. JEL Classification: C21, D22, E24, H25

Suggested Citation

  • Gamberoni, Elisa & Gradeva, Katerina & Weber, Sebastian, 2016. "Firm responses to employment subsidies: a regression discontinuity approach to the 2012 Spanish labour market reform," Working Paper Series 1970, European Central Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20161970
    Note: 2648083
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ecb.europa.eu//pub/pdf/scpwps/ecbwp1970.en.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lorenzo Cappellari & Carlo Dell’Aringa & Marco Leonardi, 2012. "Temporary Employment, Job Flows and Productivity: A Tale of Two Reforms," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 122(562), pages 188-215, August.
    2. Jens Ludwig & Douglas L. Miller, 2007. "Does Head Start Improve Children's Life Chances? Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(1), pages 159-208.
    3. Tito Boeri & Pietro Garibaldi, 2007. "Two Tier Reforms of Employment Protection: a Honeymoon Effect?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(521), pages 357-385, June.
    4. Bibek Adhikari & Romain Duval & Bingjie Hu & Prakash Loungani, 2018. "Can Reform Waves Turn the Tide? Some Case Studies using the Synthetic Control Method," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 879-910, September.
    5. Marco Leonardi & Giovanni Pica, 2013. "Who Pays for it? The Heterogeneous Wage Effects of Employment Protection Legislation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 123(12), pages 1236-1278, December.
    6. Imbens, Guido W. & Lemieux, Thomas, 2008. "Regression discontinuity designs: A guide to practice," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 615-635, February.
    7. Lee, David S. & Card, David, 2008. "Regression discontinuity inference with specification error," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 655-674, February.
    8. Şebnem Kalemli- Özcan & Bent E. Sørensen & Carolina Villegas-Sanchez & Vadym Volosovych & Sevcan Yeşiltaş, 2024. "How to Construct Nationally Representative Firm-Level Data from the Orbis Global Database: New Facts on SMEs and Aggregate Implications for Industry Concentration," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 353-374, April.
    9. Andrew C. Eggers & Ronny Freier & Veronica Grembi & Tommaso Nannicini, 2018. "Regression Discontinuity Designs Based on Population Thresholds: Pitfalls and Solutions," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 62(1), pages 210-229, January.
    10. Juan J Dolado & Carlos Garcia--Serrano & Juan F. Jimeno, 2002. "Drawing Lessons From The Boom Of Temporary Jobs In Spain," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(721), pages 270-295, June.
    11. Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan & Bent Sorensen & Carolina Villegas-Sanchez & Vadym Volosovych & Sevcan Yesiltas, 2015. "How to Construct Nationally Representative Firm Level Data from the Orbis Global Database: New Facts and Aggregate Implications," NBER Working Papers 21558, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Guido Imbens & Karthik Kalyanaraman, 2012. "Optimal Bandwidth Choice for the Regression Discontinuity Estimator," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(3), pages 933-959.
    13. Peter N. Gal, 2013. "Measuring Total Factor Productivity at the Firm Level using OECD-ORBIS," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1049, OECD Publishing.
    14. CompNet Task Force, 2014. "Micro-based evidence of EU competitiveness: The CompNet database," Working Paper Research 253, National Bank of Belgium.
    15. Samuel Bentolila & Pierre Cahuc & Juan J. Dolado & Thomas Le Barbanchon, 2012. "Two‐Tier Labour Markets in the Great Recession: France Versus Spain-super-," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 122(562), pages 155-187, August.
    16. David S. Lee & Thomas Lemieux, 2010. "Regression Discontinuity Designs in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(2), pages 281-355, June.
    17. Alan I. Barreca & Melanie Guldi & Jason M. Lindo & Glen R. Waddell, 2011. "Saving Babies? Revisiting the effect of very low birth weight classification," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(4), pages 2117-2123.
    18. Miss Anna R Bordon & Mr. Christian H Ebeke & Ms. Kazuko Shirono, 2016. "When Do Structural Reforms Work? On the Role of the Business Cycle and Macroeconomic Policies," IMF Working Papers 2016/062, International Monetary Fund.
    19. Groh, Matthew & Krishnan, Nandini & McKenzie, David & Vishwanath, Tara, 2012. "Soft skills or hard cash ? the impact of training and wage subsidy programs on female youth employment in Jordan," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6141, The World Bank.
    20. Lee, David S., 2008. "Randomized experiments from non-random selection in U.S. House elections," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 675-697, February.
    21. Guido W. Imbens, 2004. "Nonparametric Estimation of Average Treatment Effects Under Exogeneity: A Review," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(1), pages 4-29, February.
    22. Leonardi, Marco & Pica, Giovanni, 2007. "Employment protection legislation and wages," Working Paper Series 778, European Central Bank.
    23. Sørensen, Bent E & Kalemli-Özcan, Sebnem & Volosovych, Vadym & Villegas-Sanchez, Carolina & Yesiltas, Sevcan, 2015. "How to construct nationally representative firm level data from the ORBIS global database," CEPR Discussion Papers 10829, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    24. McCrary, Justin, 2008. "Manipulation of the running variable in the regression discontinuity design: A density test," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 698-714, February.
    25. Jesus Ferreiro & Felipe Serrano, 2001. "The Spanish Labour Market: Reforms and consequences," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 31-53.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Laeven, Luc & McAdam, Peter & Popov, Alexander, 2023. "Credit shocks, employment protection, and growth:firm-level evidence from spain," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    2. García-Vega, María & Kneller, Richard & Stiebale, Joel, 2021. "Labor market reform and innovation: Evidence from Spain," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(5).
    3. Paulino Font & Mario Izquierdo & Sergio Puente, 2021. "The Effect of Subsidies to Mature-Age Employment: a Quasi-Experimental Analysis," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 123-147, June.
    4. Lalinsky, Tibor & Pál, Rozália, 2022. "Distribution of COVID-19 government support and its consequences for firm liquidity and solvency," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 305-335.
    5. José Ignacio García-Pérez & Josep Mestres Domènech, 2019. "The Impact of the 2012 Spanish Labour Market Reform on Unemployment Inflows and Outflows: a Regression Discontinuity Analysis using Duration Models," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 231(4), pages 157-200, December.
    6. Kim, Mee Jung, 2023. "Impact of the Community Reinvestment Act on small business employment in lower income neighborhoods," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    7. Giulia Bovini & Eliana Viviano, 2018. "The Italian "employment-rich" recovery: a closer look," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 461, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    8. Lalinsky, Tibor & Pál, Rozália, 2021. "Efficiency and effectiveness of the COVID-19 government support: Evidence from firm-level data," EIB Working Papers 2021/06, European Investment Bank (EIB).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mauricio Villamizar‐Villegas & Freddy A. Pinzon‐Puerto & Maria Alejandra Ruiz‐Sanchez, 2022. "A comprehensive history of regression discontinuity designs: An empirical survey of the last 60 years," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 1130-1178, September.
    2. Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2009. "Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 5-86, March.
    3. Markus Frölich & Martin Huber, 2019. "Including Covariates in the Regression Discontinuity Design," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(4), pages 736-748, October.
    4. Huber, Martin, 2019. "An introduction to flexible methods for policy evaluation," FSES Working Papers 504, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Freiburg/Fribourg Switzerland.
    5. Bartalotti Otávio, 2019. "Regression Discontinuity and Heteroskedasticity Robust Standard Errors: Evidence from a Fixed-Bandwidth Approximation," Journal of Econometric Methods, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-26, January.
    6. Jin-young Choi & Myoung-jae Lee, 2017. "Regression discontinuity: review with extensions," Statistical Papers, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 1217-1246, December.
    7. Matias D. Cattaneo & Rocío Titiunik, 2022. "Regression Discontinuity Designs," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 821-851, August.
    8. Sanz, Carlos, 2020. "Direct democracy and government size: evidence from Spain," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(4), pages 630-645, October.
    9. Li, Han & Li, Jiangyi & Lu, Yi & Xie, Huihua, 2020. "Housing wealth and labor supply: Evidence from a regression discontinuity design," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    10. Guido Imbens & Stefan Wager, 2019. "Optimized Regression Discontinuity Designs," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(2), pages 264-278, May.
    11. Pietro Santoleri & Andrea Mina & Alberto Di Minin & Irene Martelli, 2020. "The causal effects of R&D grants: evidence from a regression discontinuity," LEM Papers Series 2020/18, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    12. Dong, Yingying, 2010. "Jumpy or Kinky? Regression Discontinuity without the Discontinuity," MPRA Paper 25461, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Adam C. Sales & Ben B. Hansen, 2020. "Limitless Regression Discontinuity," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 45(2), pages 143-174, April.
    14. Otávio Bartalotti, 2013. "Theory and Practice of Inference in Regression Discontinuity: A Fixed-Bandwidth Asymptotics Approach," Working Papers 1302, Tulane University, Department of Economics, revised Nov 2013.
    15. David S. Lee & Thomas Lemieux, 2010. "Regression Discontinuity Designs in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(2), pages 281-355, June.
    16. Joaquín Artés & Ignacio Jurado, 2018. "Government fragmentation and fiscal deficits: a regression discontinuity approach," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 175(3), pages 367-391, June.
    17. Ari Hyytinen & Jaakko Meriläinen & Tuukka Saarimaa & Otto Toivanen & Janne Tukiainen, 2018. "When does regression discontinuity design work? Evidence from random election outcomes," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 9(2), pages 1019-1051, July.
    18. Carta, Francesca & Rizzica, Lucia, 2018. "Early kindergarten, maternal labor supply and children's outcomes: Evidence from Italy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 79-102.
    19. Miyazaki, Takeshi, 2016. "Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers and Tax Efforts: Evidence from Japan," MPRA Paper 74337, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Takahide Yanagi, 2014. "The Effect of Measurement Error in the Sharp Regression Discontinuity Design," KIER Working Papers 910, Kyoto University, Institute of Economic Research.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    employment subsidies; firm response; labour market reforms; quasi-experiment; regression discontinuity design;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20161970. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Official Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/emieude.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.