The Monday effect on workers' compensation insurance shows that there is a higher proportion of hard-to-diagnose injuries the first day of the week. The aim of this paper is to test whether the physiological hypothesis or the economic explanation is more satisfactory to understand this Monday effect and, if both are correct, to obtain an estimation of the magnitude of each of them. To do this, we exploit the singular legal regulation of Spanish sick leave benefits and use this country as a "laboratory". Our econometric analysis detects and measures a hard-to-diagnose reporting gap on Mondays by about 6.5 percentage points due to physiological reasons and up to 1.4 percentage points attributable to moral hazard for those injuries with a short recovery period.

The differences in the regional unemployment rates, as well as their formation mechanism and persistence, have given rise to a great number of papers in the last decades. This work contributes to that strand of literature from two different perspectives. In the first part of our work, we follow the methodological proposal established by Hofler and Murphy (1989) and Aysun et al. (2014). We make use of an estimation of a stochastic cost frontier to breakdown the Spanish provincial effective unemployment (NUTS-3) in two different components: first one associated with aggregate supply side factors, and the other one more related to the aggregate demand side factors. The second part of our research analyzes the existence of spatial dependence patterns among the Spanish provinces in the effective unemployment and in both above mentioned components. The decomposition performed in the first part of our research will let us know the margin that the policymakers have when they deal with unemployment reductions by means of aggregate supply and aggregate demand policies. Finally, the spatial analysis of the unemployment rates amongst the Spanish provinces can potentially have also significant implications from an economic policy viewpoint since we find that there are common formation patterns or clusters of unemployment.

The current paper seeks to explain differences in the number of layoff disputes resolved in favour of workers in Spanish labour courts. Although legal decisions should be based solely on an objective analysis of a case, the literature has shown that judges are influenced by socioeconomic conditions. In particular, economic research has revealed disparities in rulings depending on the economic cycle. This paper explores a different issue: namely, whether local and/or regional patterns may impact judicial decisions. For this purpose, we use a General Council of the Judiciary database, which provides court level information on the number of cases resolved in favour of the worker by judges between 2004 and 2010. From a methodological point of view, we use spatial econometrics. Specifically, we suggest different spatial correlation matrices to find local and/or regional patterns. Underlying the current analysis is the notion that judges might be influenced by the decisions taken by their colleagues in neighbouring provincial or even regional courts, given the existence of a High Court in each region which acts as the highest authority before which appeals may be filed. HIGHLIGHTS Are judges' decisions affected by those of their colleagues in neighbouring courts? There is no global spatial correlation at a geographical level in judges' decisions. It is found spatial correlation at an administrative level in judges' decisions. The results show evidence of what we have called "reversal and emulation effects"

The cost of duration moral hazard in workplace accident insurance has been amply explored by North-American scholars in both the USA and Canada. Given the current context of financial constraints in public accounts and particularly in the Social Security system, we feel that the issue merits inquiry in the case of Spain. The present research also posits a methodological proposal using the econometric technique of stochastic frontiers, which allows us to break down the duration of work-related leave into what we term "economic days" and "medical days". Our calculations indicate that during the seven-year period spanning 2005 to 2011, the cost of sick leave amongst full-time salaried workers amounted to 5,830 million Euros (in constant 2011 Euros). Of this total, and bearing in mind that "economic days" are those attributable to duration moral hazard, over 2,500 million Euros might be linked to workplace absenteeism. It is on this figure where economic policy measures might prove more effective. JEL Classification: J28, J32, I13.

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