Las cotizaciones sociales en España y la Unión Europea: simulando algunas posibles reformas

In this paper, we analyse the effects of a decrease in social contributions paid by employers, either accompanied or not by an increase in the rates of indirect taxes, using the methodology of computable general equilibrium in the context of a multi-country model. The results show that a 10 por 100 fall in social contributions would result in moderate increases in the levels of GDP and employment of the Spanish economy, with a reduction in the unemployment rate of about half a point. The effects would be quantitatively smaller if the fall in social contributions is accompanied of an increase in indirect taxes. When the fall in social contributions is performed in the EU-14, its effects on the Spanish economy are only significant, albeit of a small amount, in the case of full international mobility of the productive factors.