Spatial analysis of public employment services in the Spanish provinces

Laburpena

This study is motivated by evidence that even today differentials in regional placement have persisted in Spain. Also, the issue of decentralization is becoming important due to the transfer of Active Labour Market Policy to the Spanish Autonomous Communities. Many empirical labour market studies have ignored spatial effects. We are interested in comparing the spatial patterns of two types of vacancies: placement by PES and placement not by PES. We show evidence of global and local spatial autocorrelation using exploratory spatial-data analysis (ESDA) tools when we analyze the distribution of the vacancies filled due to the mediation of the PES for the period 2007-2008. This outcome is important if we ask where the market share of PES is really meaningful in terms of job vacancies filled. Also, the spatial distribution of placement by PES plays an important role in explaining the gap between provinces.