El pago único de la prestación por desempleo como medio de financiación inicial de las empresas de Economía Social en España

Abstract

Objective The single unemployment benefit payment is a method that has been used to foster self-employment since 1985, when it was ratified under Spanish Royal Decree 1044/85, dated 19th June. The aim of this measure is to foster and facilitate self-employment initiatives, and consists of payment of the current value of the contributory unemployment benefit to claimants who intend to set up a cooperative or employee-owned company, join an existing company as a self-employed partner or carry out a new activity as a self-employed worker. Since coming into effect, it has formed the basis of numerous professional and business initiatives (Martín et al., 2005) both in the wider context and in the social economy sector. Its significance lies in the difficulties encountered when seeking finance for business in general, and in particular for social economy enterprises (Coll and Cuñat, 2006;Plaza-Angulo,2011; álamo et al. 2015), and in the fact that investment in this type of undertaking may generate effects in employment that are considerably higher than the global average (Fuentes and Mainar, 2015). Based on these studies it seems that the single unemployment payment is the benefit that makes a general contribution to the initial financing of cooperatives and employee-owned companies, and is instrumental in the creation of stable employment. To support the hypothesis, this paper describes the legal framework of the benefit, reviews the literature on the subject and analyses Ministry of Employment and Social Security (MESS) data, before elaborating on an original questionnaire formulated to generate supplementary data and provide a contrast with official information. Design/methodology/approach In order to appreciate the nature and characteristics of the benefit, this paper begins with an analysis of the legal context, which is followed by an explanation of the theoretical framework and an analysis of the main official MESS statistics. Additionally, to paint a clearer picture of the subject and corroborate certain of the research hypotheses, we conducted a quantitative analysis based on a telephone survey. The population under study is employee-owned companies and cooperatives in Spain, excluding housing or consumer cooperatives and second or higher degree cooperatives. The reference group was composed of 10,313 employee-owned companies and 11,956 cooperatives, i.e. 22,269 social economy businesses located in Spain in 2015. Sampling is stratified and proportional to the number of businesses that constitute the study population. Thus, the sample consisted of a total 378 businesses, of which 176 are employee-owned companies and 202 are cooperatives. The chosen method for selection of the businesses that would participate in the survey was simple random sampling. Findings The number of unemployment beneficiaries who decide to capitalise their benefit in order to set up or join a new or existing social economy business is only 4.36%. Within this group of entrepreneurs, 77.6% of our interviewees stated that access to the single payment was a decisive factor when setting up their business venture or joining an existing business. This type of venture rarely resorts to external financing. In fact, in 63.4% of cases the partners contributed more than 76% of the equity or share capital for the business from personal savings. On the other hand, 46.4% of the partners opted to capitalise their unemployment benefit to finance their contribution to company equity while in only 2.5% of the companies none of the partners opted for this benefit. Each partner who capitalised his or her unemployment benefit did so to an average value of 4,108.2 euros and, moreover, 79.4% of the businesses reported that they had no access to any other funding or subsidy. It is estimated that the total average amount to which partners have a right is 12,200.1 euros, of which 4,108.2 euros (33.67%) is used to cover the amount devoted to equity/share capital and other expenses necessary to become a partner, and an average 8,091.9 euros (66.33%) defrays the costs of monthly Social Security contributions (not attributable to the company). That is to say, the business venture itself only benefits from 33.67% of the amount to which the worker really has a right. This amount is small when considering the initial financial needs of any business venture, however, for 79.4% of businesses this is the only funding or subsidy they have had access to. Research limitations/implications The lack of previous empirical research quantifying the impact of the benefit, along with the generality of official MESS data, has limited the information that can be contributed, although this is precisely the reason that justified our paper and its empirical study. Due to the lack of funding available to conduct this study, it has not been possible to go into any greater depth, and other collectives that also have the right to this benefit, such as self-employed workers, have been excluded. In the future, it may be pertinent to study this group, or even to segment data by autonomous community, which would help understand the impact of salary on the amount of the benefit and, ultimately, on the financing of a business venture. Practical conclusions In light of the results of this study, we can assert that the single payment constitutes the main benefit to which this type of entrepreneur can resort. Despite its small economic value, the benefit is clearly vital for this type of business, which rarely resorts to external financing and covers its needs with personal contributions. This endorses aspects previously highlighted in works such as those of Coll and Cuñat (2006), Lejarriaga et al. (2010), Plaza-Angulo (2011), Lejarriaga et al. (2013), Plaza-Angulo and Rico (2013), álamo et al. (2015) or Sanchis et al. (2015), upon which we have based our hypothesis. For all of these reasons, it can be stated that the single unemployment benefit payment is the benefit that makes a general contribution to the initial financing of cooperatives and employee-owned companies, thus fostering the creation of stable employment. Originality/value This is one of the first pieces of empirical research that contributes its own data on the subject and highlights the importance of the single payment for social economy entrepreneurs. It likewise facilitates extension of the reseach to the other collectives concerned, and lays the foundations for a much needed debate on future reforms to improve this benefit in terms of its amount, among the beneficiary population, and regarding its equality countrywide.