As the proportion of the Spanish population entering retirement continues to grow, the sustainability of the pay-as-you-go social security system is facing increasing pressure. This study examined the implications of this demographic shift on consumption patterns in Spain from 2002 to 2017, focusing specifically on the retirement consumption puzzle using data from the Survey of Households Finances (SHF). Our findings, obtained from various estimation methods, suggest that the average decline in non-durable consumption at retirement is approximately 20%. This is in line with results from other developed economies and exceeds previous estimates for Spain. However, our analysis provided inconclusive results regarding spending on food and beverages. Finally, we observed no significant differences in the responses of working individuals and retirees to changes in interest rates, suggesting that stabilisation policies do not necessarily have to be adjusted due to population ageing.

In this paper, we estimated the intertemporal substitution for consumption and leisure in Spain. We used the standard intertemporal optimization consumption model with an intra-temporally separable utility function, using different population groups: employees, self-employed, unemployed, or retired people. Further, we analyse if the elasticity of intra-temporal substitution for leisure is affected by the individual labour status (temporary workers vs. fixed-term contract workers). For this purpose, we used the panel of the Spanish Survey on Household Finances (Encuesta Financiera de las Familias, SHF), covering the period 2002–2017. The results we obtain confirm that intertemporal substitution elasticities for both consumption and leisure are different depending on individuals' labour status and the labour contract's characteristics, such as the duration of the contract (temporary vs. fixed-term) or the degree of uncertainty about the future.

This study evaluates how the pandemic affected non-durable household spending in 2020. Using panel data from the Spanish Survey of Household Finances, we compare actual expenditures with predicted values from a consumption model. Results reveal smaller individual-level income and spending declines than National Accounts data suggests. The estimated reduction in non-durable consumption is positively related to wealth but negatively to income. Additionally, we regress each individual estimated decline in non-durable spending on a set of indicators for different COVID-19 policy measures. Results indicate that these interventions did not significantly support non-durable expenditure, potentially explaining increased savings during the pandemic.

This paper simulates the response of the Spanish labour supply to income tax changes using estimates for the intertemporal elasticity of substitution of leisure, calculated using a pseudo-panel built combining information from the EPA and the ECPF, for the period 1987-1997. According to our findings, income tax reforms have an impact on Spanish labour market, although the effects are quite small, making this mechanism a restricted tool for addressing the country’s existing social security system deficit. Further, labour responses differ for men and women, across workers’ age, as well as between permanent and fixed-term contract workers.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to estimate the housing wealth effect on non-durable consumption using data from the Spanish Survey of Household Finances (Encuesta Financiera de las Familias, SHF) for the period 2002–2017. Design/methodology/approach The authors aim at identifying the effect of anticipated and unanticipated housing wealth changes on consumption with the sample of homeowners, following Paiella and Pistaferri (2017). Findings Results of this study lead us to conclude that there exists a strong housing wealth effect on consumption for the Spanish households. Originality/value The authors provide evidence against the permanent income model. They also analyse how the results change with income expectations, age and the household indebtedness rate. Finally, they detect a strong excess sensitivity to income.

This paper analyzes Okun's Law for Spain using regional data. The results confirm a very high Okun coefficient for Spain, with a high degree of re-gional heterogeneity. Furthermore, we find that panel data techniques provide notably more stable estimates than time series techniques applied to the same regional data. Finally, the results reveal a remarkable degree of regional hetero-geneity in cyclical asymmetry in Okun's Law for the Spanish case.

In this paper we provide the first estimate of the intertemporal substitution for leisure in Spain, accounting for the impact of human capital accumulation. This would allow uncovering whether the intertemporal labour supply of Spanish workers is affected by human capital. Our empirical strategy consists of estimating the equation for the intertemporal substitution of leisure with and without accounting for human capital, what allows to detect hypothetical estimation biases associated to omitting the impact of human capital. To that end, we build a pseudo-panel data set combining the Spanish Family Expenditure Survey and the Labour Survey over the period 1987–1997. While the model that ignores human capital accumulation provides an estimate of the intertemporal elasticity of substitution for leisure about 0.25, comparable to previously available estimates for Spain and other economies, the model with human capital provides an estimate about 0.5, what confirms the existence of a bias in the former estimates. Finally, this bias is larger for the younger cohorts than for the older ones.

This paper performs a nonlinear estimation of a normalized CES production function within a system of equations with a panel of Spanish regions for the period 1964-2013. It obtains an elasticity of substitution below one and identifies different rates of factor-augmenting technical progress. The results support for labor-saving innovations hypothesis for the Spanish case. Nevertheless, they do not support a relationship between the elasticity of substitution and the initial regional capital per worker. The results do not change if labor is adjusted by human capital.

The aim of this paper is testing the three first-order conditions of an intertemporal optimization model for a representative individual who chooses simultaneously for her level of consumption and leisure, assuming a separable utility function. We estimate these conditions jointly in a system of equations, using a Spanish pseudo-panel data set built by combining the Family Expenditure Survey and the Labor Survey over the period 1987–1997. Our results are in line with previous empirical evidence as regards the elasticity of intertemporal substitution for consumption, as our estimate for this elasticity is between 0.4 and 0.5. Further, we also obtain the first estimate for Spain of the intertemporal elasticity of leisure. This value is above 0.3, and is comparable to other estimates found for other economies.

In this paper we contribute to the study of the Spanish unemployment puzzle. We introduce the user cost of labour in the analysis (instead of wages) as this might be the relevant price for firms considering to hire a new worker. We construct a pseudo-panel by combining two Spanish microeconomic surveys (the labour and the family expenditure surveys), and estimate that the user cost is more procyclical than average wages.

This paper investigates the implications of aggregation in empirical analyses of Euler equations for consumption. We compare the results obtained after estimating the same model using total and non-durable microeconomic consumption data, from the maximum aggregation level (Spanish National Accounts) to household data from the Spanish Expenditure Survey (Encuesta Continua de Presupuestos Familiares). We use this survey to build cohort and aggregate data to test the model using different aggregate measures for consumption. The results we obtain confirm the theoretical predictions summarised in Blundell and Stoker (J Econ Lit 43:347–391, 2005.  https://doi.org/10.1257/0022051054661486) as well as in previous empirical evidence, i.e. aggregation turns out to be crucial to empirically study Euler equations for consumption (Attanasio and Weber in Rev Econ Stud 60:631–649, 1993.  https://doi.org/10.2307/229812) or when simulating real business cycle models (Guvenen in J Monet Econ 53:1451–1472, 2006.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmoneco.2005.06.001). The estimated elasticity of intertemporal substitution (EIS) with aggregated data is biased as compared with the corresponding estimate using microeconomic data. Further, we find that the size of the bias increases with the level of aggregation. Finally, our estimates confirm Hall (J Polit Econ 96:339–357, 1988. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2704067) result that the EIS is not statistically different from zero, unless panel data are used.

This paper studies the intertemporal substitution in consumption and leisure for the Spanish economy by estimating the first-order conditions of an individual optimization model with regional and aggregate data. While first-order conditions determining intertemporal substitution in consumption show a good econometric fit, and the value we obtain for the intertemporal elasticity of substitution is similar to previously available results, the econometric fit of the intertemporal condition in leisure indicates that the behaviour of the Spanish labour supply over the cycle is more complex than can be explained by the canonical intertemporal choice model.

In this paper we use a sample of 15 OECD countries to examine whether provision of public and private capital satisfies conditions of intertemporal e! ciency over the 1970-1995 period. We find robust evidence that private and public capital have followed criteria of e! cient resource allocation in all countries. The estimated output elasticities of private and public capital display little variation across countries, and reach mean values of 0.19 and 0.055. Consequently, average rates of return to both factors are estimated at about 5-5.5%. All along we estimate a positive and significant intertemporal elasticity of substitution of consumption in all countries.

Este trabajo analiza la evolucion de la desigualdad tanto en consumo como en renta en un contexto de optimizacion intertemporal y a partir de una muestra de datos microeconomicos. Para ello, se evalua el impacto de la incertidumbre en la renta sobre la desigualdad, descomponiendola en sus componentes permanente y transitorio. Ademas, se analiza el efecto sobre la desigualdad de variables como la edad, la educacion y la ocupacion. El analisis se centra en el estudio de los patrones de desigualdad observados en Espana durante el periodo 1985-1995, a partir de la informacion de la Encuesta Continua de Presupuestos Familiares. Los resultados obtenidos indican que dichas variables son determinantes importantes en la explicacion de la desigualdad en Espana, tanto temporal como permanente, que se ha reducido, en lineas generales, durante el periodo, si bien puede observarse un ligero repunte al final del mismo.

Results obtained by Otto and Voss show that public investment undertaken in Australia over recent decades satisfies conditions for intertemporal efficiency. This paper confirms this result, although lower output elasticities and rates of return to private and public capital are obtained. The reason for these results is that the earlier work is extended by estimating the parameter related to the elasticity of intertemporal substitution that was earlier restricted to a specific value. In fact, it is shown here that it is possible to obtain an economically reasonable (and statistically significant) estimate of this parameter by assuming that the stochastic discount factor for the representative firm is the same as for the representative consumer and equal to a gross real interest rate.

. This work analyses the relevance of borrowing constraints on the intertemporal behaviour of Spanish non-durable consumption. We estimate Euler equations with cohort data extracted from the “Encuesta Continua de Presupuestos Familiares” (ECPF) for the period 1985–1993. The results are robust to the use of different estimators to eliminate fixed individual effects, to different specifications of the model, to the effect of uncertainty and to the presence of habits in consumption. Our results allow us to conclude that non-durable consumption of a considerable fraction of the Spanish population is affected by borrowing constraints. At the same time, and in accordance with similar results for other countries, we confirm that borrowing constraints are especially important for the young.

Este trabajo considera el uso de informacion individual de consumo para analizar la desigualdad en renta. Dada la presumible asociacion entre desigualdad y el nivel de la renta permanente y los problemas asociados a su identificacion con datos individuales de ingreso, los datos microeconomicos de consumo se constituyen en una alternativa muy valida para analizar la desigualdad y los cambios en el bienestar. De acuerdo con el modelo de la renta permanente es posible identificar las varianzas permanente y transitoria de la renta a partir de informacion microeconomica de ambas variables. Este trabajo constituye un ejemplo de aplicacion de esta metodologia con la Encuesta Continua de Presupuestos Familiares (ECPF), con el objetivo de analizar la desigualdad en Espana entre 1985 y 1995. Los resultados indican que, a diferencia de lo que ocurre en otras economias, la desigualdad se ha reducido globalmente en Espana a lo largo de este periodo. Classification-JEL : D12, D31, D91

n este trabajo se utiliza la tecnica propuesta por Deaton (1991) para simular la evolucion de consumo y ahorro de individuos representativos. La simulacion impone el cumplimiento de la condicion de Euler del consumo, cuya estimacion se ha realizado utilizando un pseudo-panel de datos extraido de la ECPF entre 1985 y 1995. Se pretende evaluar si las tecnicas de simulacion son capaces de replicar el comportamiento observado en consumo y ahorro agregados, tanto a nivel de la Contabilidad Nacional como tomando agregaciones sobre los datos muestrales, asi como identificar algunos determinantes que a nivel desagregado pueden afectar a la tasa de ahorro. Los resultados obtenidos muestran evidencia de que los individuos consideran como relevante el diferencial entre la tasa de preferencia temporal y el tipo de interes pero no el nivel de ninguno de ellos. Por otra parte, tambien muestran la importancia de la incertidumbre en la renta sobre el comportamiento de los consumidores y la existencia de ahorro por motivo precaucion para el caso espanol