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Economies
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Macroeconomics of the Labour Market
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Macroeconomics of the Labour Market

A special issue of Economies (ISSN 2227-7099). This special issue belongs to the section "Labour and Education".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2026) | Viewed by 3777

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Ángel Martín-Román

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Facultad de CC. Sociales, Jurídicas y de la Comunicación, Universidad de Valladolid, Plaza de la Universidad, 1, 40005 Segovia, Spain
Interests: labour economics; health economics; urban and regional economics; law and economics; socioeconomics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The relationship between macroeconomics and the labour market remains a critical area of research, particularly in the face of evolving economic challenges. From the impact of automation and demographic shifts to the consequences of monetary and fiscal policies, understanding labour market dynamics is essential for devising effective economic policies. Recent global disruptions, including the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions, have further highlighted the need to analyse employment fluctuations, wage dynamics, and labour productivity from a macroeconomic perspective. This Special Issue aims to bring together new insights into how macroeconomic forces shape labour outcomes and how labour market trends, in turn, influence the economy.

Economies invites researchers and scholars to submit their work to a Special Issue entitled “Macroeconomics of the Labour Market”. Some of the topics that this Special Issue may include, but is not limited to, are business cycles and unemployment, labour market frictions, labour productivity and economic growth, the impact of technological change on employment and job polarisation, wage rigidities and unemployment, macroeconomic policies effects on the labour market, demographic trends and labour population ageing, flexibilization and job insecurity, the impact of economic crises and labour market resilience. The papers can be theoretical or empirical, and different approaches are welcomed.

Dr. Ángel Martín-Román
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Economies is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • business cycles and employment
  • unemployment dynamics
  • job creation and destruction
  • technological change and labour
  • income inequality and labour markets
  • demographics and employment
  • macro policies and labour
  • labour productivity

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

36 pages, 1438 KB  
Article
Multilevel Okun’s Law: Heterogeneity, Stability and Asymmetry in Ecuador
by Rocío González-Reyes, Ángel Maridueña-Larrea, Patricio Álvarez-Muñoz and Geoconda Álava-Bravo
Economies 2026, 14(5), 189; https://doi.org/10.3390/economies14050189 - 20 May 2026
Viewed by 343
Abstract
Okun’s Law has been predominantly estimated at the aggregate level and for advanced economies, leaving its heterogeneity insufficiently explored in developing countries. This paper examines such heterogeneity for Ecuador, articulating for the first time in a developing and dollarised economy the multilevel estimation [...] Read more.
Okun’s Law has been predominantly estimated at the aggregate level and for advanced economies, leaving its heterogeneity insufficiently explored in developing countries. This paper examines such heterogeneity for Ecuador, articulating for the first time in a developing and dollarised economy the multilevel estimation of the coefficient, the assessment of its temporal stability and the test for cyclical asymmetry within a single analytical framework. The relationship between economic activity and unemployment is estimated at the national level and for 19 disaggregations by area, sex, age, ethnicity and educational attainment, using monthly series from 2021 to 2025. The results suggest that the aggregate coefficient conceals a profound heterogeneity: Okun’s Law operates with intensity in the urban, female, youth, Afro-Ecuadorian and university-educated segments, yet is non-existent in the rural, male, older-age, indigenous and lower-education strata. This configuration is temporally robust and predominantly symmetrical between phases of the cycle, with specific exceptions in the Montubio and postgraduate segments. Economic growth reduces unemployment only in certain groups, whilst in the remainder the cyclical adjustment is channelled through margins that conventional statistics do not capture, suggesting that economic growth may be a necessary but not sufficient condition for improving labour market outcomes as a whole. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Macroeconomics of the Labour Market)
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23 pages, 330 KB  
Article
Refinement of Signaling Theory in Labor Markets: Informational Frictions, Educational Overinvestment, and Equilibrium Fragility
by Monem Abidi and Adel Benhamed
Economies 2026, 14(5), 182; https://doi.org/10.3390/economies14050182 - 14 May 2026
Viewed by 201
Abstract
This paper develops a dynamic signaling framework to analyze how educational investment evolves under imperfect information and how the informational value of credentials changes over time. It addresses a central question: under what conditions do signaling equilibria become fragile, and how does this [...] Read more.
This paper develops a dynamic signaling framework to analyze how educational investment evolves under imperfect information and how the informational value of credentials changes over time. It addresses a central question: under what conditions do signaling equilibria become fragile, and how does this fragility generate educational overinvestment and credential inflation in equilibrium? The model features heterogeneous productivity groups and endogenous educational choices, in which education plays both a signaling and a productive role. Informational frictions and wage-setting mechanisms jointly determine equilibrium configurations, allowing for separation, pooling, and mixed equilibria. The analysis shows that separating equilibria are inherently fragile: when signaling costs decline or when the share of lower-productivity workers becomes sufficiently small, incentives for imitation intensify, progressively eroding informational differentiation. This fragility gives rise to a cascade mechanism of overinvestment, whereby individuals increase educational attainment beyond efficient levels to preserve relative positioning. As a result, signaling distortions propagate across educational levels, generating persistent credential inflation and weakening the informational content of degrees. The framework also identifies conditions under which mixed equilibria may dominate separating equilibria in terms of aggregate welfare, particularly when the proportion of low-productivity workers is limited. By incorporating a productive dimension of education, the model distinguishes between pure signaling rents and genuine productivity gains, providing a unified interpretation of overeducation, declining returns to credentials, and persistent wage dispersion. Finally, the analysis characterizes an optimal taxation scheme that eliminates inefficient signaling rents while preserving incentives for productivity-enhancing investment. Taken together, the results highlight how equilibrium fragility, informational distortions, and strategic educational measures provide a unified explanation for diploma inflation, equilibrium segmentation, and persistent deviations from socially optimal investment levels. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Macroeconomics of the Labour Market)
30 pages, 595 KB  
Article
Digital Infrastructure and Firm Labor Productivity: Evidence from the Implementation of China’s Labor Contract Law
by Qian Hu, Yong Chen and Lu Zhao
Economies 2026, 14(4), 140; https://doi.org/10.3390/economies14040140 - 16 Apr 2026
Viewed by 780
Abstract
This paper utilizes panel data of Chinese A-share listed manufacturing firms from 2006 to 2022 and measures regional digital infrastructure by the number of internet broadband access ports per capita. It systematically examines the moderating role of digital infrastructure in the relationship between [...] Read more.
This paper utilizes panel data of Chinese A-share listed manufacturing firms from 2006 to 2022 and measures regional digital infrastructure by the number of internet broadband access ports per capita. It systematically examines the moderating role of digital infrastructure in the relationship between labor protection policies and firms’ labor productivity. The findings are as follows: (1) Digital infrastructure exhibits a positive moderating effect on the relationship between the Labor Contract Law and firms’ labor productivity. This conclusion remains generally robust across multiple robustness tests and endogeneity treatments, and the direction of the results remains consistent after applying an instrumental variable approach to alleviate endogeneity concerns. (2) The digital transformation channel exhibits a negative relationship, indicating that compliance pressure associated with the institutional reform generates a short-term “crowding-out effect” on firms’ digital investment; the human capital channel shows a positive relationship, indicating that digital infrastructure strengthens the institutional effect by improving the level of urban human capital. (3) The moderating effect is particularly pronounced in cities with strong digital industry foundations, abundant fiscal resources, and firms that have not received government digital subsidies. These results provide empirical support for optimizing the supporting environment of labor protection policies, accelerating digital infrastructure development, and enhancing enterprise adaptability to institutional changes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Macroeconomics of the Labour Market)
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31 pages, 2153 KB  
Article
Telework and Occupational Segregation in Europe
by Anja Siegert, Rafael Granell and Francisco G. Morillas-Jurado
Economies 2025, 13(10), 292; https://doi.org/10.3390/economies13100292 - 8 Oct 2025
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1617
Abstract
Occupational segregation between men and women and between rural and urban areas is a persistent driver of labor market inequality in Europe. Women and rural workers are often overrepresented in lower-paid and lower-status occupations, reflecting structural barriers to occupational mobility. This paper investigates [...] Read more.
Occupational segregation between men and women and between rural and urban areas is a persistent driver of labor market inequality in Europe. Women and rural workers are often overrepresented in lower-paid and lower-status occupations, reflecting structural barriers to occupational mobility. This paper investigates how occupational segregation varies across gender, space, and telework status and examines the potential of telework to reduce these inequalities. Using microdata from the 2023 European Labor Force Survey, we calculate segregation indices to measure occupational segregation and monetary gains, as well as losses due to segregation. We further analyze the relationship of segregation and telework. We find the highest segregation and economic disadvantages due to segregation for rural men. Female teleworkers are less clustered in feminized roles compared to non-teleworking women, suggesting that remote work can broaden occupational opportunities. Telework shows reduced segregation when primarily working remotely, but not in hybrid settings. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of spatial and gendered labor market disparities. We further identify the potential of telework to promote a more equitable occupational integration across gender and space. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Macroeconomics of the Labour Market)
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