ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the different behaviour in the regional labour markets of Spain, with special emphasis on how institutional variables affect them. The authoritarian political regime in Spain between 1939 and 1975 imposed a model of forceful intervention in labour relations: bargaining between employers and employees were suppressed and labour relations regulations originated from administrative acts. Among the countries of the European Union, Spain and Italy have the most pronounced regional disparities. It can be concluded that Spain, like Italy, shows a typical model in which both national unemployment and the regional disparities in unemployment are very persistent. A logit-analysis of inter- and intra-regional divergences for the probability of being unemployed, has shown that different features of the labour supply, particularly the level of education, have a large influence in regions with relatively lower unemployment rates.
