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Complete document available on OLIS in its original format This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.

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Previous literature finds that the quality of judicial enforcement has a positive impact on average firm size, but it has not disentangled its effect on the growth of incumbent firms from that on business demography. This distinction is crucial, as entrants are generally smaller than incumbents, but both high entry rates and high firm growth are associated with better economic performance. This paper fills this gap, finding that judicial efficacy fosters the growth of incumbents and promotes entry in Spain. The paper also shows for the first time that the specific type of judicial procedure that companies face in case of a conflict, rather than the overall functioning of courts, is the relevant matter. Specifically, judicial efficacy at the declaratory stage (when a debt is verified by a judge) has a positive impact on both firm growth and entry, while it has no impact at the execution stage (when the judge requires its payment).

After a long academic debate, Spain …nally repealed in 2012 the deduction for home purchase. The abrogation took e¤ect in 2013. In parallel, the VAT for the purchase of new housing was increased after a short period in which it had a reduced rate. The aim of this paper is to assess the macroeconomic e¤ects of these two relevant housing market reforms. In order to do that, we use a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model calibrated to capture the key ratios of the Spanish economy. The model includes a housing market, covering both the rental market side and the property market side and credit-constrained agents. We …nd that these measures drive down housing prices and have a negative impact on output and employment in the construction sector. However, in the long run, this last e¤ect is o¤set by the bene…ts of a reduction in distortionary taxes.

In many countries, labor courts play a central role in the determination of firing costs by monitoring and supervising the procedures for dismissals, and, eventually, deciding severance payments mandated by the employment protection legislation (EPL). To get some insights about the impact of labor courts on effective firing costs, we explore a new database that contains information on labor courts’ intervention in firings before and after the implementation of significant EPL reforms modifying severance payments and procedures for dismissals. Our results suggest that labor court rulings on economic dismissals did not fully translate the reduction of firing costs mandated by the new EPL to effective firing costs.

SummaryIn 1993 Argentina began implementing workfare programs, and workfare has become a central public policy starting 2002 when the government increased the number of beneficiaries from 100,000 to 2 million people in a country of 38 million. We explore targeting, poverty and employability effects of workfare before 2002 based on the permanent household survey (EPH). We find that the program was pro-poor although more than one third of participants did not satisfy the eligibility criteria. Our estimates suggest that the income of participants increased during treatment -particularly for women -indicating beneficial short run poverty effects. However, the long run effects of the program are not obvious due to selection on treatment completion. We present evidence suggesting that -for a large fraction of participants-the program generated dependency and did not increase their human capital.