The Role of ICT on the Spanish Productivity Slowdown

The paper presents a quantification of Spanish productivity performance over the last two decades –with a special mention to the role played by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). It makes use of the capital service data -recently released by the BBVA Foundation- exploiting its sectoral break down. It concentrates in twenty six industries belonging to the business (non-primary) sectors of the economy. These industries are further grouped in two clusters according to their intensity in the use of ICT capital. Our results show that the ICT cluster as a whole has presented the most dynamic behaviour. However, some important differences can be detected, both among the industries included in the cluster and also over the period under consideration. A growth accounting exercise allows us to conclude that the Spanish economy shows notable inefficiencies, as identified by negative Total Factor Productivity (TFP) contributions to productivity growth during the period 1985-2004. However, the ICT intensive cluster has reversed its behaviour since 2000, driving a modest resurgence of labour productivity in Spain over the 2000-2004 period