Economics Applied Micro Seminar - Ferran Elias

Thursday, 30 April 2026 at 13:30

Economics Applied Micro Seminar - Ferran Elias (Universität de Girona) "The Extension of Collective Agreements in Fissured Workplaces: Wages Premiums, Spill overs, and Rent-Sharing"

Event details

We study a 1999 Spanish reform that extended collective bargaining coverage by requiring temporary agency workers to be paid according to user-firm agreements. Using administrative data and quasi-experimental variation, we estimate a coverage premium: agency wages rose by about 15%, with additional spillovers to in-house workers. Agency employment declined, but this was more than offset by increases in in-house and permanent jobs, yielding positive total employment effects. Agencies passed all labor-cost increases to user firms. The results suggest that the reform reallocated rents toward workers and reduced monopsonistic distortions, indicating efficiency gains alongside redistribution.

Organiser

University of Exeter Business School

Location

Pearson Teaching Room (Building One)