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

Author: Jorge Salas
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 148439240X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 23

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Book Description
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.

Author: Ara Stepanyan
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1513526871
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 30

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Book Description
Spain’s structural reforms, implemented around 2012, have arguably contributed to a faster and stronger economic recovery. In particular, there is strong evidence that the 2012 labor market reforms increased wage flexibility, which helped the Spanish economy to regain competitiveness and create jobs. But the impact of these labor reforms on income inequality and social inclusion has not been analyzed much. This paper aims to shed light on this issue by employing an econometric decomposition procedure combined with the synthetic control method. The results indicate that the 2012 labor reforms have helped improve employment and income equality outcomes with no substantial impact on the overall risk of poverty. Nevertheless, the reforms appear to have induced a deterioration of average hours worked, in-work poverty, and possibly also of involuntary part-time employment.

Author: International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1484385713
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 82

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Book Description
Spain’s economy has continued to grow strongly, reflecting its improved fundamentals. However, especially the young generation still faces daunting economic challenges. In the meantime, several downside risks are clouding the medium-term outlook. Externally, they comprise sudden changes in investors’ global risk appetite, escalating global protectionism, and weakening conditions in emerging economies. Domestically, they include pressure to reverse reforms, continued procyclical fiscal policy, and prolonged uncertainty related to Catalonia. These could hurt the economy particularly in an environment of high public debt and structural unemployment as well as sluggish productivity growth, which is set to slow Spain’s income convergence.

Author: European Commission. Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Balance of payments
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
On 14 February 2012, the European Commission presented its first Alert Mechanism Report (AMR), prepared in accordance with Article 3 of Regulation (EU) No 1176/2011 on the prevention and correction of macroeconomic imbalances. The AMR serves as an initial screening device, helping to identify Member States that warrant further in-depth analysis to determine whether imbalances exist or risk emerging. According to Article 5 of Regulation No. 1176/2011, these country-specific ?in-depth reviews? should examine the nature, origin and severity of macroeconomic developments in the Member State concerned which constitute, or could lead to, imbalances. On the basis of this analysis, the Commission will establish whether it considers that an imbalance exists and what type of policy follow-up it will recommend to the Council. For Slovenia, the AMR noted that two indicators in the scoreboard exceeded their thresholds in 2010 and suggested the need to assess the development and drivers of potential imbalances. The AMR explained that in the years before the crisis, Slovenia enjoyed strong growth and domestic demand conditions, coupled with some losses in price competitiveness and a gradual widening of the current account deficit. It identified signs that overheating occurred, particularly as regards private sector credit growth, construction value added and property prices. The Slovenian economy was hit hard by the global crisis and the AMR noted that this has brought some, perhaps temporary, adjustment in the external balance but this is still at an early stage. Against this background, Section 2 examines the external and internal dimensions of imbalances including developments in competitiveness, private sector indebtedness and in asset markets. This is followed by a closer look at the implications of indebtedness of non-financial corporations for the banking sector in Section 3. Section 4 presents possible policy considerations.

Author: International Monetary
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 51

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Book Description
Selected Issues

Author: Christian Bodewig
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464802319
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
The demand for workforce skills is changing in Vietnam’s dynamic economy. In addition to job-specific skills, Vietnamese employers value cognitive skills, like problem solving, and behavioral skills, like team work. This book presents an agenda of change for Vietnam’s education system to prepare workers to succeed in Vietnam’s modernizing economy.

Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464813566
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
Work is constantly reshaped by technological progress. New ways of production are adopted, markets expand, and societies evolve. But some changes provoke more attention than others, in part due to the vast uncertainty involved in making predictions about the future. The 2019 World Development Report will study how the nature of work is changing as a result of advances in technology today. Technological progress disrupts existing systems. A new social contract is needed to smooth the transition and guard against rising inequality. Significant investments in human capital throughout a person’s lifecycle are vital to this effort. If workers are to stay competitive against machines they need to train or retool existing skills. A social protection system that includes a minimum basic level of protection for workers and citizens can complement new forms of employment. Improved private sector policies to encourage startup activity and competition can help countries compete in the digital age. Governments also need to ensure that firms pay their fair share of taxes, in part to fund this new social contract. The 2019 World Development Report presents an analysis of these issues based upon the available evidence.

Author: Mr.Koshy Mathai
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1475531710
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 84

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Book Description
China’s trade patterns are evolving. While it started in light manufacturing and the assembly of more sophisticated products as part of global supply chains, China is now moving up the value chain, “onshoring” the production of higher-value-added upstream products and moving into more sophisticated downstream products as well. At the same time, with its wages rising, it has started to exit some lower-end, more labor-intensive sectors. These changes are taking place in the broader context of China’s rebalancing—away from exports and toward domestic demand, and within the latter, away from investment and toward consumption—and as a consequence, demand for some commodity imports is slowing, while consumption imports are slowly rising. The evolution of Chinese trade, investment, and consumption patterns offers opportunities and challenges to low-wage, low-income countries, including China’s neighbors in the Mekong region. Cambodia, Lao P.D.R., Myanmar, and Vietnam (the CLMV) are all open economies that are highly integrated with China. Rebalancing in China may mean less of a role for commodity exports from the region, but at the same time, the CLMV’s low labor costs suggest that manufacturing assembly for export could take off as China becomes less competitive, and as China itself demands more consumption items. Labor costs, however, are only part of the story. The CLMV will need to strengthen their infrastructure, education, governance, and trade regimes, and also run sound macro policies in order to capitalize fully on the opportunities presented by China’s transformation. With such policy efforts, the CLMV could see their trade and integration with global supply chains grow dramatically in the coming years.

Author: Marc Bacchetta
Publisher: World Trade Organization
ISBN: 9789287036919
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
World trade has expanded significantly in recent years, making a major contribution to global growth. Economic growth has not led to a corresponding improvement in working conditions and living standards for many workers. In developing countries, job creation has largely taken place in the informal economy, where around 60 per cent of workers are employed. Most of the workers in the informal economy have almost no job security, low incomes and no social protection, with limited opportunities to benefit from globalization. This study focuses on the relationship between trade And The growth of the informal economy in developing countries. Based on existing academic literature, complemented with new empirical research by the ILO And The WTO, The study discusses how trade reform affects different aspects of the informal economy. it also examines how high rates of informal employment diminish the scope for developing countries to translate trade openness into sustainable long-term growth. The report analyses how well-designed trade and decent-work friendly policies can complement each other so as to promote sustainable development and growing prosperity in developing countries.

Author: Mr.Marcello M. Estevão
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451875649
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 31

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Book Description
Using panel data for 15 industrial countries, active labor market policies (ALMPs) are shown to have raised employment rates in the business sector in the 1990s, after controlling for many institutions, country-specific effects, and economic variables. Among such policies, direct subsidies to job creation were the most effective. ALMPs also affected employment rates by reducing real wages below levels allowed by technological growth, changes in the unemployment rate, and institutional and other economic factors. However, part of this wage moderation may be linked to a composition effect because policies were targeted to low-paid individuals. Whether ALMPs are cost-effective from a budgetary perspective remains to be determined, but they are certainly not substitutes for comprehensive institutional reforms.