Productivity profile of Spain

There is no single institution dedicated to productivity in Spain. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation and the Bank of Spain, among others institutions, provide analysis on productivity issues.

Spain has not yet established a National Productivity Board.

Bank of Spain: El crecimiento de la productividad en la economía española: ¿síntoma o problema? (2022) in Spanish, A sectoral analysis of the future challenges facing the Spanish economy (2021), A sectoral anatomy of the Spanish productivity puzzle (2020);

Fedea (Private think-thank): Per capita income and productivity in the OECD 1960 - 2022 (In Spanish);

Published academic articles: Accounting for Growth in Spain, 1850-2019 (2020), Capital Allocation and Productivity in South Europe (2017);

OECD: OECD Economic Surveys: Spain (multiple), Economic Policy Reforms 2023: Going for Growth – Spain, Enhancing digital diffusion for higher productivity in Spain (2021).

Unlock potential for future growth by promoting innovation:

• Encourage greater scale and specialisation of universities to raise the quality of innovation, by extending performance-based resources allocation and the application of international peer review and by providing more career opportunities for highly qualified researchers.
• Promote collaboration and knowledge transfer between businesses and universities through performance contracts that reward collaboration and participation of businesses in university governance.
• Support Technology Centres, which conduct R&D projects through partnerships between firms, notably SMEs, and research institutes.

Foster a competitive business environment by strengthening competition:

• Continue to incentivize the reduction of regulatory barriers and better regulation of economic activities by fostering the mutual recognition of regulations by regions and the implementation of the Market Unity Law.
• Gradually eliminate the existing regulations that depend on the size of firms, as needed.

Strengthen skills of the labour force:

• Shift a part of job training subsidies to individuals and develop ICT training programmes targeted to low-skilled and older workers.