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The Spanish Productivity Puzzle in the Great Recession

Author

Listed:
  • Hospido, Laura

    (Bank of Spain)

  • Moreno-Galbis, Eva

    (Université d'Angers)

Abstract
While Spain had traditionally under-performed its European counterparts in terms of labor productivity, the trend is reversed after 2007. The evolution of aggregate productivity in Spain during the Great Recession largely responds to the adverse conditions in the labor market, but not only. Using a longitudinal sample of Spanish manufacturing and services companies between 1995 and 2012, we show that the recent increase in Spanish aggregate productivity also responds to the evolution of the total factor productivity (TFP) and to composition effects. By combining the information at the firm level on balance sheet items, collective agreements and imports-exports, we are able to establish that commitment to a collective agreement at the firm level and access to external markets are positively related to TFP performance during the whole period. In addition, we estimate that firm TFP was negatively correlated with the share of temporary workers during the expansion period, 1995-2007, whereas the sign of that correlation reversed completely during the crisis, 2008-2012. Finally, we relate this sign reversal with the changing composition of temporary workers in the labor market.

Suggested Citation

  • Hospido, Laura & Moreno-Galbis, Eva, 2015. "The Spanish Productivity Puzzle in the Great Recession," IZA Discussion Papers 8891, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8891
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Askenazy, Philippe & Erhel, Christine, 2015. "The French Productivity Puzzle," IZA Discussion Papers 9188, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Román-Collado, Rocío & Colinet, María José, 2018. "Are labour productivity and residential living standards drivers of the energy consumption changes?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 746-756.
    3. Francisco-Javier Escribá-Pérez & María-José Murgui-García & José-Ramón Ruiz-Tamarit, 2022. "The devil is in the details: Capital stock estimation and aggregate productivity growth—An application to the Spanish economy," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 21(1), pages 31-50, January.
    4. Román-Collado, Rocío & Colinet, Maria José, 2018. "Is energy efficiency a driver or an inhibitor of energy consumption changes in Spain? Two decomposition approaches," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 409-417.
    5. Peter S. Eppinger & Nicole Meythaler & Marc-Manuel Sindlinger & Marcel Smolka, 2018. "The great trade collapse and the Spanish export miracle: Firm-level evidence from the crisis," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 457-493, February.
    6. del Río, Fernando & Lores, Francisco-Xavier, 2023. "Accounting for Spanish economic development 1850-2019," MPRA Paper 116025, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Anete Pajuste & Hernán Ruffo, 2017. "Wage rigidity and workers’ flows during recessions," SSE Riga/BICEPS Research Papers 4, Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies (BICEPS);Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (SSE Riga).
    8. Cristina Fernández & Aitor Lacuesta & José Manuel Montero & Alberto Urtasun, 2015. "Heterogeneity of markups at the firm level and changes during the great recession: the case of spain," Working Papers 1536, Banco de España.
    9. F. J. Escribá-Pérez & M. J. Murgui-García & J. R. Ruiz-Tamarit, 2017. "Economic and Statistical Measurement of Physical Capital with an Application to the Spanish Economy," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2017020, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    10. Borja Jalón & Simón Sosvilla-Rivero & José A. Herce, 2017. "Countercyclical Labor Productivity: The Spanish Anomaly," IREA Working Papers 201712, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Jun 2017.
    11. del Río, Fernando & Lores, Francisco-Xavier, 2023. "Accounting for spanish economic development 1850–2019," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    collective agreements; temporary workers; TFP; labor productivity; exporting firms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J52 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Dispute Resolution: Strikes, Arbitration, and Mediation

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