This publication provides a broad overview of the labor-market integration in Spain of three disadvantaged collectives: young people, women and the elderly. Starting from the premise that equal opportunity requires a constant institutional attention to the wellbeing of less favored sections of society, it examines the relative disadvantages of each group and the remedial strategies being deployed by central government departments and agencies, providing empirical data and a conceptual framework aligned with Spain’s socioeconomic reality.

Instituciones, igualdad de oportunidades y bienestar económico en España is organized into four parts. It opens with a presentation of the conceptual framework and institutional setting, then goes on to describe the characteristics, circumstances and needs of each disadvantaged group. The third section offers an analysis of the social policy factors of most bearing on equality of opportunity.

Finally, the author considers the importance of education and new technologies as drivers of new employment opportunities. Among the book’s general conclusions are the need for official compensatory policies to mitigate the effects of discrimination, and also more flexible institutions, able to adapt to the demographic changes and speed of technological advance of these early years of the 21st century.