Fostering the Self-Employment in Spain: An Evaluation of the Capitalisation of Unemployment Benefits Programme

Chapter
Part of the AIEL Series in Labour Economics book series (AIEL)

Abstract

Self-employment has become an important source of employment in the last decades. Moreover governments have developed labour market programmes in order to foster self-employment. The capitalisation of unemployment benefits is a Spanish programme that gives the unemployed people the possibility to receive the contributory unemployment benefits in a lump sum payment in order to set up a business.

Our analysis supports the existence of spatial spillovers in regional labour markets; consequently, the model must include this spatial process explicitly. The results suggest that the magnitude of the direct effect is smaller but it is in accordance with the expected, since the possibility of capitalisation of unemployment benefits is not the main reason to move into the self-employment.

Keywords

Self-employment Active labour market policies Evaluation 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Notes

Acknowledgement

The authors thank the editors and reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support received from the Plan de I+D+I del Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (research project ECO2009-08061).

References

  1. Alonso-Villar, O., & del Río, C. (2008). Geographical concentration of unemployment: A male-female comparison in Spain. Regional Studies, 42(3), 401–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Anselin, L., Bera, A. K., Florax, R., & Yoon, M. J. (1996). Simple diagnostic tests for spatial dependence. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 26, 77–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Audretsch, D., & Feldman, M. (1996). R&D spillovers and the geography of innovation and production. The American Economic Review, 86(3), 630–640.Google Scholar
  4. Baltagi, B. H. (2005). Econometric analysis of panel data (3rd ed.). Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
  5. Baltagi, B. H., Blien, U., & Wolf, K. (2012). A dynamic spatial panel data approach to the German wage curve. Economic Modelling, 29, 12–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Bande, R., Fernández, M., & Montuenga, V. (2008). Regional unemployment in Spain: Disparities, business cycle and wage setting. Labour Economics, 15(5), 885–914.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. Baumgartner, H. J., & Caliendo, M. (2008). Turning unemployment into self-employment: Effectiveness of two start-up programmes. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 70(3), 347–373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Beenstock, M., & Felsenstein, D. (2007). Spatial vector autoregressions. Spatial Economic Analysis, 2, 167–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Bell, B., Nickell, S., & Quintini, G. (2002). Wage equations, wage curve and all that. Labour Economics, 9, 341–360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Caliendo, M. (2009). Start-up subsidies in East Germany: Finally, a policy that works? International Journal of Manpower, 30(7), 625–647.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Congregado, E., Golpe, A. A., & Carmona, M. (2010). Is it a good policy to promote self-employment for job creation? Evidence from Spain. Journal of Policy Modeling, 32, 828–842.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Congregado, E., Golpe, A. A., & Román, C. (2006). Los autónomos en el mercado de trabajo español situación, políticas y retos. Perspectivas del Sistema Financiero, 86, 1–19.Google Scholar
  13. Cowling, M., & Mitchell, P. (1997). The evolution of UK self-employment a study of Government policy and the role of the macroeconomy. The Manchester School, LXV(4), 427–442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Elhorst, J. P. (2010a). Spatial panel data models. In M. M. Fischer & A. Getis (Eds.), Handbook of applied spatial analysis (pp. 377–407). Berlin: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. Elhorst, J. P. (2010b). Applied spatial econometrics: Raising the bar. Spatial Economic Analysis, 5, 9–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Elhorst, J. P. (2012). Dynamic spatial panels: Models, methods, and inferences. Journal of Geographical Systems, 14, 5–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. European Communities. (Several Years). European social statistics. Labour market policy – expenditure and participants. Luxemburg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.Google Scholar
  18. Florax, R. J. G. M., Folmer, H., & Rey, S. J. (2003). Specification searches in spatial econometrics: The relevance of Hendry’s methodology. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 33, 557–579.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. International Labour Office. (2002). Micro-finance in industrialized countries. Helping the unemployed to start a business. London: ILO.Google Scholar
  20. Jimeno, J. F., & Bentolila, S. (1998). Regional unemployment persistence (Spain, 1976-1994). Labour Economics, 5(1), 25–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. LeSage, J., & Fisher, M. (2008). Spatial growth regressions: Model specification, estimation and interpretation. Spatial Economic Analysis, 3(3), 275–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. LeSage, J., & Pace, R. K. (2009). Introduction to spatial econometrics. Boca Raton, FL: CRC.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. López-Bazo, E., del Barrio, T., & Artis, M. (2002). The regional distribution of Spanish unemployment: A spatial analysis. Papers in Regional Science, 81(3), 365–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. Manski, C. F. (1993). Identification of endogenous social effects: The reflection problem. Review of Economic Studies, 6, 531–542.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  25. Meager, N. (1992). Does unemployment lead to self-employment? Small Business Economics, 4, 87–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  26. Meager, N. (1996). From unemployment to self-employment: Labour market policies for business start-up. In G. Schmid, J. O’Really, & K. Schöman (Eds.), International handbook of labour market policy and evaluation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
  27. Meager, N., Bates, P., & Cowling, M. (2003). An evaluation of business start-up support for young people. National Institute Economic Review, 186, 59–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  28. Millán, J. M., Congregado, E., & Román, C. (2012). Determinants of self-employment survival in Europe. Small Business Economics, 38(2), 231–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales. (Several Years). Anuario de Estadísticas laborales. http//www.mtas.es/estadisticas/estadistica.htm.
  30. Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales. (Several Years). Informe Estadístico. Madrid: Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social. Google Scholar
  31. Molho, I. (1995). Spatial autocorrelation in British unemployment. Journal of Regional Science, 35(4), 641–658.Google Scholar
  32. Muñoz-Bullón, F., & Cueto, B. (2011). The sustainability of start-up firms among formerly wage-employed workers. International Small Business Journal, 29(1), 78–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  33. Nerlove, M., & Balestra, P. (1996). Formulation and estimation of econometric models for panel data. In L. Mátyás & P. Sevestre (Eds.), The econometrics of panel data (2nd ed., pp. 3–22). Dordrecht: Kluwer (Revised Edition).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  34. OECD. (1995). Self-employment programmes for the unemployed: Papers and proceedings from a joint US Department of Labor/OECD International Conference. Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
  35. Overman, H. G., & Puga, D. (2002). Unemployment clusters across euro regions and countries. Economic Policy, 17(34), 115–148.Google Scholar
  36. Parker, S. C. (2004). The economics of self-employment and entrepreneurship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  37. Patacchini, E., & Zenou, Y. (2007). Spatial dependence in local unemployment rates. Journal of Economic Geography, 7(2), 169–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  38. Patuelli, R., Schanne, N., Griffith, D. A., & Nijkamp, P. (2012). Persistence of regional unemployment: Application of a spatial filtering approach to local labor markets in Germany. Journal of Regional Science, 52(2), 300–23. 2.026.Google Scholar
  39. Pfeiffer, F., & Reize, F. (2000). Business start-ups by the unemployed – an econometric analysis based on firm data. Labour Economics, 7, 629–663.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  40. Pijnenburg, K., & Kholodilin, K. A. (2012). Do regions with entrepreneurial neighbours perform better? A spatial econometric approach for German regions. Regional Studies. doi: 10.1080/00343404.2012.697143.Google Scholar
  41. Plummer, L. A. (2010). Spatial dependence in entrepreneurship research. Challenges and methods. Organizational Research Methods, 13(1), 146–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  42. Reize, F. (2004). Leaving unemployment for self-employment. An empirical study. (ZEW Economic Studies, 25). Mannheim: ZEW.Google Scholar
  43. Román, C., Congregado, E., & Millán, J. M. (2013). Start-up incentives: Entrepreneurship policy or active labour market programme? Journal of Business Venturing, 28, 151–175.Google Scholar
  44. Shane, S. (2009). Why encouraging more people to become entrepreneurs is bad public policy? Small Business Economics, 33, 141–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  45. Staber, U., & Bögenhold, D. (1993). Self-employment a study of seventeen OECD countries. Industrial Relations Journal, 242, 126–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  46. Storey, D. (1994). Understanding the small business sector. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
  47. Suárez, P., Mayor, M., & Cueto, B. (2012). The accessibility to employment offices in the Spanish labor market. Papers in Regional Science, 91(4), 823–848.Google Scholar
  48. Toharia, L. (1998). El mercado de trabajo en España. Madrid: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  • Matías Mayor
    • 1
    • 2
  • Begoña Cueto
    • 1
  • Patricia Suárez
    • 3
  1. 1.Department of Applied Economics, Faculty of Economics and BusinessUniversity of OviedoOviedoSpain
  2. 2.The Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis (RCEA)RiminiItaly
  3. 3.Department of EconomicsUniversity of OviedoOviedoSpain

Personalised recommendations