Abstract
Over the last 20 years, the Spanish economy has followed a sustained growth trend – with the exception of a very short recession in 1993 – interrupted by the current global crisis initiated in the middle of 2007. Spain’s growth has been driven both by a very intensive process of labour employment creation – accompanied by large improvements in qualification – and a great effort made in capital accumulation. Across the board the results have been positive, especially from the labour market perspective. The slashing of the unemployment rate (a chronic problem in Spain for more than 20 years) has been remarkably positive, concurrent with a fast increase in the participation of women in the labour force. The fact that Spain has turned from a country of emigrants into a country with immigrants clearly shows this process, indicating that in recent years foreigners have found good job and welfare opportunities in the country. In spite of these undeniably positive results, Spain has also shown some weaknesses that threaten to condition its future recovery. Probably the most serious problem today is the poor performance of labour productivity. The origin of this problem is twofold: firstly, a product specialisation in activities that are very intensive in labour and have low value added; and secondly, the inefficient use of the production factors capital and labour. Although both determinants are common to most of the other EU countries, they have been aggravated in the Spanish case by the high and increasing weight of the construction sector (including real estate activities) characterised by the intensive use of labour – particularly unqualified – slow penetration of technical progress; and with high risk of suffering cyclical speculative bubbles that sooner or later burst and cause the collapse of other key industries.
The authors are grateful to Juan Carlos Robledo for research assistance. Financial assistance from Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología/FEDER SEC2008-03813/ECO and Fundación BBVA-Ivie research programme is also gratefully acknowledged.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
We will refer to them as regions.
- 2.
- 3.
Today the same idea has been used by President Obama in his plan to promote growth after the great turbulence in which most of the western economies find themselves.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
More details in Maroto-Sánchez and Cuadrado-Roura (2006).
- 7.
Pérez (2008 y 2006).
- 8.
See Mas et al. (2007b) for capital stock and Mas et al. (2008) for human capital.
- 9.
The permanent inventory procedure used in the estimates of FBBVA-Ivie considers the investment made in the corresponding region, although its use – as in the case of the infrastructures of transport – is not limited to its residents or to the firms operating in the area. This fact makes the comparison of infrastructures among regions difficult.
- 10.
References
Aschauer, D. A. (1989). Is public expenditure productive? Journal of Monetary Economics, 23, 177–200.
Basu, S., & Fernald, J. G. (1995). Are apparent productive spillover a figment of specification error? Journal of Monetary Economics, 36, 165–188.
Basu, S., & Fernald, J. G. (1997). Returns to Scale in US Production: Estimates and Implications. Journal of Political Economy, 105(2), 249–283.
Becker, G. (1964). Human Capital. Nueva York: Columbia University Press.
Cuadrado-Roura, J. R., Mancha, T., & Garrido, R. (1998). Convergencia Regional en España. Hechos, tendencias y perspectivas. Madrid: Fundación Argentaria.
Cuadrado-Roura, J. R., García-Greciano, B., & Raymond, J. L. (1999). Regional convergence in productivity and productive structure: the Spanish case. International Regional Science Review, 22(1), 35–53.
Cuadrado-Roura, J. R., & Parellada, M. (2002). Regional convergence in the European regions: Facts, prospects and policies. Berlin: Springer.
De La Fuente, A. (2001). Infraestructuras y política regional. In T. García-Milà (Ed.), Nuevas fronteras de la política económica, 2001. (pp. 18–55). Barcelona: Generalitat de Cataluña y Universidad Pompeu Fabra.
De la Fuente, A. (2008). Dinámica regional de la renta y la población. In Velarde Fuentes and J. Serrano Sanz (dirs) La España del siglo XXI, vol III (pp. 679–719). Madrid: La economía, Editorial Biblioteca Nueva.
De La Fuente, A. (2008). Inversión en infraestructuras, crecimiento y convergencia regional. Economic Reports 20-08, FEDEA
De La Fuente, A., & Doménech, R. (2006). Capital humano, crecimiento y desigualdad en las regiones españolas. Moneda y Crédito, 222, 13–56.
Dolado, J. J., González-Páramo, J. M., & Roldán, J. M. (1994). Convergencia entre las provincias españolas. Evidencia Empírica. Moneda y Crédito, 198.
Draper, M., & Herce, J. A. (1994). Infraestructuras y Crecimiento. Un Panorama. Revista Economía Aplicada, 2(6), Winter.
Garrido, R., Mancha, T., & Cuadrado, J. R. (2007). La Política Regional y de Cohesión en la Unión Europea: veinte años de avance y un futuro nuevo. Investigaciones Regionales, 10, 239–266.
Goerlich, F. J., & Mas, M. (2006). (Dirs.) La Localización de la Población sobre el Territorio. Un siglo de cambios. Un estudio basado en series homogéneas 1900–2001 (536 páginas). Bilbao: Fundación BBVA. Includes CD with the database.
Goerlich, F. J., & Mas, M. (2008). Pautas de localización de la población a lo largo del siglo XX. Investigaciones Regionales, 12, 5–34.
Gordon, R. J. (1999). Has the “new economy” rendered the productivity slowdown obsolete? (mimeo). Chicago: Northwestern University.
Gordon, R. J. (2000). Does the new economy measure up to the great inventions of the past? Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(4), 3–22.
Gordon, R. J. (2002). Technology and economic performance in the American economy, Working Paper no. 8771. Cambridge, MA: NBER.
Gordon, R. J. (2003). High-tech innovation and productivity growth: does supply create its own demand, Working Paper no. 9437. Cambridge, MA: NBER.
Jorgenson, D. W. (1999). Information technology and growth. American Economic Review, Papers and proceedings, 89(2), 109–115.
Jorgenson, D. W. (2000). Information technology and the US economy. Presidential Address to the American Economic Association, January, 2001.
Jorgenson, D. W. (2001). Information technology and the US economy. American Economic Review, 91(1), 249–280.
Jorgenson, D. W., Ho, M. S., & Stiroh, K. J. (2002). Information technology, education, and the sources of economic growth across US industries. USA: Federal Reserve System.
Jorgenson, D. W., & Stiroh, K. (2000). Raising the speedy limit: US economic growth in the information age. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1, 125–211.
Maroto-Sánchez, & Cuadrado-Roura J. R. (2006). La productividad en la Economía Española. Madrid: Instituto de Estudios Económicos.
Mas, M. (2006) Infrastructures and ICT: Measurement issues and impact on economic growth. EUKLEMS Working Paper Series no 12, European Commission, 6th Framework Programme, (available in www.euklems.net).
Mas, M., Maudos, J., Pérez, F., & Uriel, E. (1995). Public capital and convergence in the Spanish regions. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 7(4), 309–327.
Mas, M., Maudos, J., Pérez, F., & Uriel, E. (1996). Infrastructures and productivity in the Spanish regions. Regional Studies, 30(7), 641–649.
Mas, M., Maudos, J., Pérez, F., & Uriel, E. (1998). Public capital, productive efficiency and convergence in the Spanish regions (1964–93). The Review of Income and Wealth, 44(3), 383–396.
Mas, M., Pérez, F., Serrano, L., & Uriel, E. (2002). Capital humano. Metodología y series históricas 1964–2001 (297 pp). Valencia: Fundación Bancaja.
Mas, M., Pérez, F., & Uriel, E. (2006). Spanish new capital stock estimates. In M. Mas & P. Schreyer (Eds.), Growth, capital and new technologies. Bilbao: Fundación BBVA.
Mas, M., & Quesada J. (2005a). Las Nuevas Tecnologías y el Crecimiento Económico en España (pp. 384). Bilbao: Fundación BBVA.
Mas, M., & Quesada, J. (2005b). ICT and economic growth. A quantification of productivity growth in Spain. OECD Statistics Working Papers, Statistics Directorate, STD/DOC(2005)4. Paris: OECD.
Mas, M., Quesada, J., & Robledo, J. C. (2007a). In Reig, E. (Dir.) Competitividad, Crecimiento y Capitalización en las Regiones Españolas (pp. 371). Bilbao: Fundación BBVA.
Mas, M, Pérez, F. & Uriel, E. (2007b) of stock if los servicios del capital eu España if su distribución territorial (1964–2005). Neuva Metodología, Fundación BBVA, Bilbao
Mas, M, Pérez, F, Uriel, E, Serrano, L & Soler, A (2008) Series de capital humano (1964–2007) Fundación BANCAJA.
Mincer, J. (1958). Investment in human capital and personal income distribution. The Journal of Political Economy, 66, 281–320.
National Research Council. (2007). Measuring and Sustaining the New Economy, 5 vols. Washington: The National Academies Press.
OCDE. (2001). Measuring productivity. Measurement of aggregate and industry-level productivity growth. Paris: OCDE.
Pérez, F. (2006). Productividad, capitalización y especialización. Información Comercial Española, 829, 27–47.
Pérez, F. (2007). Las claves del desarrollo a largo plazo de la economía española. Fundación BBVA. pp. 221.
Pérez, F. (2008). La capitalización de la economía española y la mejora de la productividad. In Velarde Fuentes, and J. Serrano Sanz, J. Mª (dirs): La España del siglo XXI, volume III: (pp. 97–130). Madrid: La economía, Editorial Biblioteca Nueva.
Pérez, F., Maudos, J., Pastor, J. M., & Serrano, L. (2006). Productividad e internacionalización. El crecimiento español ante los nuevos cambios estructurales (pp. 289). Valencia: Fundación BBVA.
Pérez, F., & Serrano, L. (2000). Capital humano y patrón de crecimiento sectorial y territorial: España (1964–1998). Papeles de Economía Española Capital Humano y Bienestar Económico, 6, 20–40.
Pérez, F., & Serrano, L. (2008). Los inmigrantes y el mercado de trabajo español. Una aproximación económica. In J. García Roca, J. Lacomba (Eds.), La inmigración en la sociedad española. Una radiografía multidisciplinar (pp. 157–203). Spain: Edicions Bellaterrra.
Schultz, T. (1961). Investment in human capital. American Economic Review, 51, 1–17.
Solow, R. (1956). A contribution to the theory of economic growth. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 70(1), 65–94.
Solow, R. (1957). Technical change and the aggregate production function. Review of Economics and Statistics, 39(3), 312–320.
Stiroh, Kevin J. (2002). Information Technology and the U.S. productivity revival: What do the industry data say. American Economic Review, 92(5), 1559–1576.
Acknowledgment
The authors are grateful to Juan Carlos Robledo for research assistance. Financial assistance from Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología/FEDER SEC2008-03813/ECO and Fundación BBVA-Ivie research programme is also gratefully acknowledged.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mas, M., Pérez, F., Quesada, J. (2009). The Sources of Spanish Regional Growth. In: Cuadrado-Roura, J. (eds) Regional Policy, Economic Growth and Convergence. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02178-7_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02178-7_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-02177-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-02178-7
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsEconomics and Finance (R0)