TOPICS I AM CURRENTLLY WORKING IN:
College access and labour prospects
Gender gaps in access to college: evidence from the major in Economics
Sexual violence and gender stereotypes: an analysis for Spanish judicial decisions.
Formal labour market institutions and governance quality
Collective bargaining effects of unions and employers' associations
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
“Specialized Courts and the Reporting of Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence from Spain”, Journal of Public Economics (2024), forthcoming. Available here. Joint with Jorge García-Hombrados and Carmen Villa. Also as IZA DP 14936. [Nada es Gratis blog post (in Spanish)].
“Desajustes entre demanda y oferta de titulaciones universitarias públicas presenciales”, Papeles de Economía Española (2024), no. 180, pp. 98-113. Joint with Aitor Lacuesta, Jorge Sainz and Ismael Sanz.
"How representative are social partners in Europe?", LABOUR (2022), vol. 36, issue 4. Joint with Pedro S. Martins. Publication available here. Other versions available as GLO Discussion Paper and IZA Discussion Paper.
"Uncertainty and Firms' Labour Decisions. Evidence from European Countries", Journal of Applied Economics (2022). Forthcoming. Joint with Alberto Urtasun. Recent version available as IZA Discussion Paper.
"Task Specialization and Cognitive Skills: Evidence from PIAAC and IALS", Review of Economics of the Household (2021). Forthcoming. Joint with Ernesto Villanueva. Recent version available as IZA Discussion Paper.
"Do fee-shifting rules affect plaintiffs’ win rates? A theoretical and empirical analysis", International Review of Law and Economics (2021) vol 65. Avaialble here. Joint with Gabriel Doménech and Juan S. Mora-Sanguinetti.
"Employment protection legislation, labor courts and effective firing costs" (2020), IZA Journal of Labor Economics (2020) 9:2. Available here. Joint with Juan Francisco Jimeno and Juan S. Mora-Sanguinetti.
“An economic analysis of court fees: evidence from the Spanish civil jurisdiction”, European Journal of Law and Economics (2019) vol. 47 (3), pages 321-359. Available here. Joint with Juan S. Mora-Sanguinetti.
“Credit, crisis and judicial enforcement: evidence from Spain”, European Journal of Law and Economics (2017) vol. 44, issue 2. Available here. Joint with Migue García-Posada and Juan S. Mora-Sanguinetti.
"Peer effects in judicial decisions: evidence from Spanish labour courts", International Review of Law and Economics (2015) vol. 42, pp. 20-37. Avaiable here. Joint with Ángel Martín-Román and Alfonso Moral.
WORK IN PROGRESS
Gender gap in the choice of Economics: the importance of content, information and students’ stereotypes. [Brief presentation at the #TeachECONference2024 available here].
This project examines the gender gap in the choice of university degrees, particularly focusing on the underrepresentation of women in Economics. The project aims to identify the factors behind the lower female presence in this field, such as job prospects, stereotypes, and available information. It proposes a workshop designed to broaden students' perceptions of the Economics degree by providing more female role models, addressing stereotypes, and introducing more diverse topics. The ultimate goal is to reduce the gender gap and attract more female talent to the discipline.
How information on labor prospects affects college choice? A difference-in-differences analysis for Spain (with Aitor Lacuesta, Jorge Sainz and Ismael Sanz).
College choice is one of the most consequential decisions over the life cycle, with lasting effects on career opportunities, earnings, and labor market trajectories. In 2014, the Spanish government began publishing official, standardized, and reliable information on the employability outcomes of recent graduates by degree and university. This reform provides a natural setting to examine how students respond to transparent information about labor market returns. In this paper, we study the impact of this information disclosure on college demand, proxied by changes in access grades in the following academic year, which reflect students’ revealed preferences over degrees and institutions. We implement a difference-in-differences strategy exploiting variation over time and across programs in labor market outcomes. Our results show a progressive increase in access grades, particularly for degrees with higher employability rates, indicating a reallocation of demand toward programs with stronger labor market prospects. We further assess whether this differentiation operates at both the degree and the university level.
Formal labor market institutions and governance quality, with Ernesto Rodríguez-Crespo and Nuria Rodríguez-Priego (UAM)
This paper examines whether the quality of formal institutions, particularly governance quality, helps explain cross country differences in gender inequality in labor market and human capital outcomes. Although most countries have adopted legal commitments to gender equality, substantial gaps remain, suggesting that the effectiveness of institutions in implementing and enforcing policies is crucial. Using a large panel of 190 countries over the period 1996 to 2019, combining the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators with gender-disaggregated outcomes from UNDP, the authors combine governance indicators with gender disaggregated measures of labor force participation, income, education, and political representation. The results show that better governance is consistently associated with smaller gender gaps, higher female employment and earnings, and greater representation of women in parliament. These effects are stronger where women have more political power, indicating that institutional quality and female representation jointly reinforce progress toward gender equality.
Contrasting institutions, contrasting fortunes: collective bargaining in Portugal and Spain (with Pedro S. Martins)
Despite the many similarities between the labour markets of Portugal (PT) and Spain (ES), unemployment increased much more in the latter since the financial crisis of 2008. This note argues that collective bargaining may have played an important role in these contrasting outcomes, despite its sectoral nature in both countries. We document a number of more nuanced institutional differences between the two countries, including: collective agreements (CA) are bargained and signed jointly (separately) by both main unions in ES (PT); a CA involves multiple (single) annual wage increments in ES (PT); virtually all workers receive wage increases in ES (only those directly bitten by wage floors in PT). On the other hand, while we find a significant degree of regional variation in wage floors in ES, these have a national nature in PT.
Is it cold outside? Firm performance effects of employers’ association affiliation (with Pedro S. Martins)
The Global COVID-19 Student Survey: First Wave Results (with David A. Jaeger, Jaime Arellano-Bover, Krzysztof Karbownik, John Nunley, R. Alan Seals, and 37 others) [draft here, also available as IZA Discussion Paper No. 14419 & CEPR COVID Economics, issue 79]. [Nada es Gratis blog post (in Spanish)]
OTHER PUBLICATIONS:
MARTÍNEZ-MATUTE, M and MORA-SANGUINETTI, J. S. (2017): “El impacto del nuevo criterio de costas y las nuevas tasas judiciales en la litigiosidad y eficacia de la jurisdicción contencioso-administrativa”, Papeles de Economía Española, num. 151.
MARTÍNEZ MATUTE, M. (2016): “La cobertura de la negociación colectiva en España: una nueva propuesta de medición”, Revista de Economía Laboral - Spanish Journal of Labour Economics, vol. 13, nº 2, pp. 34-64. Available here.
MARTÍNEZ MATUTE, M. (2016): “La rigidez del coste laboral y el crecimiento del empleo en España”, Revista de Economía Laboral - Spanish Journal of Labour Economics, vol. 13, nº 2, pp. 135-155. Available here.
MARTÍNEZ MATUTE, M. (2014): "Una nueva base de microdatos para el estudio de los convenios colectivos en España", Estadística Española, vol. 86, nº 185, pp. 323-353. Available here.
MARTÍNEZ MATUTE, M. (2014): "La evolución del sistema de negociación colectiva en España: una panorámica general", Temas Laborales, Revista Andaluza de Ciencias del Trabajo, número 123, pp. 139-161.
MARTÍN ROMÁN, A. L.; MORAL DE BLAS, A. and MARTÍNEZ MATUTE, M. (2013): “Tipo de juez y estimación de los casos de despido: un análisis de los Juzgados de lo Social en España”, Cuadernos de Economía, vol. 36, nº 102.
MARTINEZ MATUTE, M. and PÉREZ DOMÍNGUEZ, C. (2012): "El impacto de los costes de despido sobre el empleo en España: una estimación con datos de panel", Estudios de Economía Aplicada, vol. 30-1, pp. 137-162.
CHAPTERS OF BOOKS / POLICY BRIEFS:
MARTÍNEZ-MATUTE, M. and PÉREZ, J. J. (2017): "La evolución del empleo de las Administraciones Públicas en la última década", Economic Notes of Banco de España, 3/2017. Available here.
JIMENO, J. F.; LACUESTA, A.; MARTÍNEZ-MATUTE, M. and VILLANUEVA, E. (2017): "La formación del capital humano en el mercado de trabajo", Economic Bulletin of Banco de España, 3/2017. Available here (Spanish) and here (English).
MARTÍNEZ-MATUTE, M. and URTASUN, A. (2017): “The recovery of private consumption in Spain by product type and household”, Economic Bulletin of Banco de España, 2/2017.
MORA SANGUINETTI, J. S. and MARTÍNEZ MATUTE, M. (2014): "La regulación en el mercado de productos en España según los indicadores de la OCDE", Boletín Económico del Banco de España, diciembre 2014. Available here.
LACUESTA GABARAIN, A.; MARTÍNEZ MATUTE, M. and MORAL BENITO, E. (2014): "Factores que mejoran el conocimiento financiero. El papale de la educación financiera escolar", en INEE (Ed.), PISA 2012: Competencia Financiera. Informe español. Volumen II: Análisis secundario, Capítulo 5, pp. 115-136. Madrid: Autor. Available here.