Spain: better understanding productivity trends

Since the end of the twentieth century, Spain has experienced several phases of stagnation in labour productivity. This slowdown in productivity is widespread and can be observed in most of the key sectors of the Spanish economy. Some of the factors behind this slowdown in labour productivity are also affecting other European economies. In this special report, we focus on the determinants specific to the Spanish economy: What is the impact of the labour market’s many inadequacies ? To what extent do they lead to labour not being allocated optimally? Some of the issues that stand out are low geographical mobility, poor integration of young people into the labour market , a duality in the nature of contracts, and so on. What are the consequences of very low R&D expenditure ? What are the problems that are leading to so little investment? Identifying these characteristics specific to Spain is helpful in gaining a better understanding of the specific evolution of Spanish labour productivity.