Spain and Italy: Catching up and falling behind. Two different tales of productivity slowdown

Mas, Matilde and Milana, Carlo and Serrano, Lorenzo (2008): Spain and Italy: Catching up and falling behind. Two different tales of productivity slowdown. Published in: EU Klems Working Paper No. 37 (2008)

Abstract

The paper presents a first set of results for Spain and Italy using the EUKLEMS database. It emphasizes the different paths followed by the two countries over the last thirty five years, even though they still have many features in common. The motivation behind this paper is the poor productivity performance that the two countries have shown recently. The general overview details the factors underlying the process of per capita income convergence. Productivity performance is highlighted as the driving factor of convergence, deserving the greatest attention from different perspectives: the contributions of the different sources of productivity growth, which make use of the growth accounting framework; the impact of the structural change undergone by the two countries while moving from economies with still important shares of the agricultural sector to a more modern one; or the responsibility of poor productivity improvements in given industries. The changing composition of labour also deserves a detailed analysis because of its importance in productivity over the period analyzed.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Growth, productivity, Growth accouting
• Subjects: O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O4 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity > O47 - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth ; Aggregate Productivity ; Cross-Country Output Convergence

References

Aschauer, David. A. (1989): “Is public expenditure productive?”, Journal of Monetary Economics 23, mars, pp. 177-200.

Costello, Donna M. (1993): “A Cross-County, Cross-Industry Comparison of Productivity Growth”, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 101, No. 2, April, 207-222.

Di Matteo, Massimo and Piacentini, Paolo (2003), The Italian Economy at the Dawn of the 21st Century, Burlington, VT and Aldershot, England, Ashgate Publishing

Ginsborg, Paul (2006), Italy and Its Discontents: Family, Civil Society, State, New York and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England, Palgrave Macmillan.

Guerrieri, Paolo and Milana, Carlo (1993), L’Italia e il commercio mondiale, Bologna, Il Mulino.

Heimler, Alberto and Milana, Carlo (1984), Prezzi relativi, ristrutturazione e produttività, Bologna, Il Mulino.

Heimler, Alberto and Milana, Carlo (1988), Ristrutturazione e produttività nei paesi industrializzati, Bologna, Il Mulino.

Mas, Matilde, Pérez, Francisco and Uriel, Ezequiel (2007): El stock y los Servicios del Capital en España y su Distribución Territorial (1964-2005), Fundación BBVA, Bilbao.

Mas, Matilde, Quesada, Javier and Robledo, Juan Carlos (2007): chapters 3 and 5 in Reig, E. Competitividad, Crecimiento y Capitalización de las Regiones Españolas, Fundación BBVA, Bilbao, forthcoming.

Mas, Matilde, Maudos, Joaquín, Pérez Francisco and Uriel, Ezequiel (1998): “Public Capital, Productive Efficiency and Convergence in the Spanish Regions (1964-93)”, The Review of Income and Wealth, series 44, nº 3, 383-396.

Mas, Matilde, Maudos, Joaquín, Pérez Francisco and Uriel, Ezequiel (1996): "Infrastructures and Productivity in the Spanish Regions", Regional Studies, Vol. 30, nº. 7, 641-649.

Tortosa, Emili, Pérez, Francisco, Mas, Matilde and Goerlich, Francisco J. (2005): “Growth and Convergence Profiles in the Spanish Regions (1965-1997), Journal of Regional Sciences, Vol. 45, nº 1, 147-182.

Sapelli, Giulio (2008), Storia economica dell’Italia contemporanea, 2nd ed., Milano, Bruno Mondadori.