TY  - JOUR
AU  - García-Gómez, Pilar
AU  - Jimenez-Martin, Sergi
AU  - Castelló, Judit Vall
TI  - Trends in Labor Force Participation of Older Workers in Spain
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 24637
PY  - 2018
Y2  - May 2018
DO  - 10.3386/w24637
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w24637
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w24637.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Pilar García-Gómez
Erasmus School of Economics
P.O. Box 1738 3000 DR Rotterdam
The Netherlands
E-Mail: garciagomez@ese.eur.nl

Sergi Jimenez-Martin
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Ramon Trias Fargas 25-27
08005 BARCELONA (SPAIN)
E-Mail: sergi.jimenez@upf.edu

Judit Vall Castelló
Department of Economics & IEB
Universitat de Barcelona
08034 Barcelona 
Spain
E-Mail: judit.vall@ub.edu
M1  - published as Pilar García-Gómez, Sergi Jiménez-Martín, Judit Vall Castelló. "Trends in Labor Force Participation of Older Workers in Spain," in Courtney C. Coile, Kevin Milligan, and David A. Wise, editors, "Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: Working Longer" University of Chicago Press (2019)

M3  - presented at "International Social Security Project (Working Longer)", May 1, 2018
AB  - Similar to other OECD countries, labor force participation rates of Spanish older workers were falling until the mid-1990s when there was a reversal in the trend. Labor force participation rates of Spanish men have been increasing since then, although at a slower pace than in other OECD countries. We explore to what extent several factors can be behind these trends. First, we conclude that the (old-age) social security system (except perhaps for the disability component) has played a marginal (at most) role on this reversal given the lack of major changes in social security benefits until the last set of reforms in 2011 and 2013. Second, we also rule out that changes in the health status of the population are responsible for the reversal of this trend.  Finally, we find that aggregate economic conditions, and differences across cohorts in both the skill composition and the labor force attachment of wives are potential drivers of these observed changes.
ER  -