Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T06:49:16.400Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Sources of Long-Run Growth in Spain, 1850-2000

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2009

Leandro Prados de la Escosura*
Affiliation:
Professor, Universidad Carlos III - Economic History and Institutions Calle Madrid 126 and Researchers, Instituto Figuerola, Universidad Carlos III, Getafe (Madrid) 28903 Spain. E-mail: leandro.prados.delaescosura@uc3m.es.
Joan R. Rosés*
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Universidad Carlos III - Economic History and Institutions Calle Madrid 126 and Researchers, Instituto Figuerola, Universidad Carlos III, Getafe (Madrid) 28903 Spain. E-mail: jroses@clio.uc3m.es.

Abstract

Between 1850 and 2000 Spain's real output and labor productivity grew at average rates of 2.5 and 2.1 percent. The sources of this long-run growth are investigated here for the first time. Broad capital accumulation and efficiency gains appear as complementary in Spain's long-term growth. Factor accumulation dominated long-run growth up to 1950, while total factor productivity (TFP) led thereafter and, especially, during periods of growth acceleration. The main spurts in TFP and capital coincide with the impact of the railroads (1850s-1880), the electrification (the 1920s and 1950s), and to the adoption of new vintage technology during the Golden Age.

Type
ARTICLES
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abramovitz, M.“Catching Up, Falling Behind, and Forging Ahead.” This JOURNAL 46 no. 2 (1986) 385–406.Google Scholar
Abramovitz, M. and David, P.“Two Centuries of American Macroeconomic Growth from Exploitation of Resource Abundance to Knowledge-Driven Development.” SIEPR Discussion Paper No. 01-05, 2001.Google Scholar
Altug, S.Filiztekin, A. and Pamuk, S.“Sources of Long-Term Economic Growth for Turkey, 1880-2005.” European Review of Economic History 12 no. 3 (2008) 393–430.Google Scholar
Alvaredo, F. and E. Saez “Income and Wealth Concentration in Spain in a Historical and Fiscal Perspective.” Paris School of Economics Working Paper No. 2007-39, 2007.Google Scholar
Antràs, P. and Voth, H. J.“Factor Prices and Productivity Growth During the British Industrial Revolution.” Explorations in Economic History 40 no. 1 (2003) 52–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baiges, J.Molinas, C. and Sebastiàn, M. La economía española 1964-1985. Datos, fuentes y análisis. New York: Hill and Wang, 2002.Google Scholar
Banco, UrquijoLa Riqueza y el progreso de España. New York: Hill and Wang, 2002.Google Scholar
Barciela, C.Giráldez, GEHR, J. and López, I.“Sector agrario y pesca.” In Estadísticas Históricas de España, siglos XIX y XX. edited by Carreras, A. and Tafunell, X.245–356Bilbao: Fundación BBBV 2005.Google Scholar
Barro, R. J.“Notes on Growth Accounting.” Journal of Economic Growth 4 no. 2 (1999) 119–37.Google Scholar
Bosworth, B. P. and Collins, S. M.“The Empirics of Growth: An Update.Brookings Papers in Economic Activity 2 (2003): 113–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bosworth, B. P. and Collins, S. M.“Accounting for Growth: Comparing China and India.” NBER Working Paper No. 12943, Cambridge, MA, February 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bringas Gutiérrez, M. A.La productividad de los factores en la agricultura española (1752-1935). Madrid: Banco de España 2000.Google Scholar
Caballero, F.Memoria sobre el fomento de la población rural. Madrid: Imp. del Colegio de Sordo-mudos y de Ciegos 1864.Google Scholar
Carré, J. J.Dubois, P. and Malinvaud, E.French Economic Growth. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press 1975Google Scholar
Cebrián, M.“Las fuentes del crecimiento económico español, 1964-1973.” Revista de Historia Económica 19 special issue (2001): 277-99.Google Scholar
Chastagnaret, G.L'Espagne, puissance minière dans l'Europe du XIXe siècle. Madrid: Casa de Velázquez 2000.Google Scholar
Christensen, L.Jorgenson, D. and Lau, L.“Transcendental Logarithmic Production Frontiers.” Review of Economics and Statistics 55 no. 1 (1973) 8–45.Google Scholar
Collins, S. M. and Bosworth, B. P.“Economic Growth in East Asia: Accumulation versus Assimilation.” Brookings Papers in Economic Activity 2 (1996)135–91Google Scholar
Crafts, N. F. R.British Economic Growth During the Industrial Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1985Google Scholar
Crafts, N. F. R.“Implications of Financial Crisis for East Asian Trend Growth.” Oxford Review of Economic Policy 15 (1999): 110–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crafts, N. F. R.“Productivity Growth in the Industrial Revolution: A New Growth Accounting Perspective.” This JOURNAL 64 no. 2(2004): 521–35.Google Scholar
Dabán Sánchez, T. A. Díaz Ballesteros, F. J. Escribá Pérez and M. J. Murgui García. “La base de datos BDMORES”. Mo de Economía y Hacienda. Dirección General de Análisis y Programación Presupuestaria. Documento de Trabajo D-98001, 1998.Google Scholar
Denison, E. F.The Sources of Economic Growth in the United States and the Alternatives Before Us. Washington, DC: Committee for Economic Development 1962.Google Scholar
Denison, E. F. and Poullier, J.-P.Why Growth Rates Differ Postwar Experience in Nine Western Countries. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution 1967.Google Scholar
Domar, E.“On the Measurement of Technological Change.” Economic Journal 71 no. 284 (1961) 709–29.Google Scholar
Doménech, J.“Working Hours in the European Periphery: The Length of the Working Day in Spain, 1880-1920.” Explorations in Economic History 44 no. 3 (2007) 469–86.Google Scholar
Faini, R.“Europe: A Continent in Decline.” In The Global Economy in the 1990s: A Long-Run Perspective edited by Paul, W. Rhode and Gianni, Toniolo69–88 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feinstein, C. H.“Sources and Methods of Estimation for Domestic Reproducible Fixed Assets, Stocks and Works in Progress, Overseas Assets, and Land.” In Studies in Capital Formation in the United Kingdom 1750-1920 edited by Feinstein, C. H. and Pollard, S.257–471 Oxford: Clarendon Press 1988Google Scholar
Fraile, P.La retórica contra la competencia en España (1875-1975). Madrid: Fundación Argentaria/Visor 1988Google Scholar
Fraile, P.Industrialización y grupos de presión. La economía política de la protección en España 1900-1950. Madrid: Alianza 1991Google Scholar
Fundación BBV. Renta nacional de España y su distribución provincial: serie homogénea años 1955 a 1993 y avances 1994 a 1998. Bilbao: Fundación BBV 1999.Google Scholar
García Sanz, A.“Jornales agrícolas y presupuesto familiar campesino en España a mediados del siglo XIX.” Anales del CUNEF (1979-1980): 49–71.Google Scholar
Garrabou, R. and Sanz, R.Historia Agraria de la España contemporánea. Barcelona: Crítica 1985Google Scholar
Gómez Mendoza, A.Ferrocarriles y cambio económico en España (1855-1913) Madrid: Alianza 1982.Google Scholar
Gordon, R. J.“U.S. Economic Growth Since 1870: One Big Wave?” American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 89 no. 2 (1999) 123–28.Google Scholar
Griliches, Z. and Jorgenson, D.“The Explanation of Productivity Change.” Review of Economic Studies 34 no. 99 (1967) 249–80.Google Scholar
Grossman, G. M. and Helpman, E.Innovation and Growth in the Global Economy. Cambridge: MIT Press 1991Google Scholar
Hall, R. J. and Jorgenson, D.“Tax Policy and Investment Behavior.” American Economic Review 57 no. 3 (1967) 391–414.Google Scholar
Hayami, Y. and Ruttan, V. W.Agricultural Development: An International Perspective. Baltimore, MD and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press 1985Google Scholar
Hofman, A.“Economic Development in Latin America in the Twentieth Century: A Comparative Perspective.” In Explaining Economic Growth edited by Szirmai, A.van Ark, B. and Pilat, D.241–66Amsterdam: North-Holland 1993.Google Scholar
Huberman, M.“Working Hours of the World Unite? New International Evidence of Worktime, 1870-1913.” This JOURNAL 64 no. 4 (2005) 964–1001.Google Scholar
Hulten, C. R.“The Measurement of Capital.” In Fifty Years of Economic Measurement: The Jubilee of the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth edited by Berndt, E. R. and Tripplett, J. E.119–52 NBER Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. 54. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1990Google Scholar
Hulten, C. R.“Growth Accounting When Technical Change is Embodied in Capital.” American Economic Review 82 no. 4 (1992) 964–80.Google Scholar
Hulten, C. R. and Srinivasan, S.“Indian Manufacturing Industry: Elephant or Tiger?” NBER Working Paper No. 7441, Cambridge, MA, December 1999.Google Scholar
Hulten, C. R. and Wykoff, F.“The Estimation of Economic Depreciation Using Vintage Asset Prices: An Application of the Box-Cox Power Transformation.” Journal of Econometrics 15 no. 3 (1981) 367–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Instituto Nacional de Estadística.Encuesta de Población Activa. Madrid: INE 1964-1980Google Scholar
Jorgenson, D. J.“Capital as a Factor of Production.” In Technology and Capital Formation edited by Jorgenson, D. J. and Landau, R.1–35Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 1989Google Scholar
Jorgenson, D. J.“Productivity and Economic Growth.” In Fifty Years of Economic Measurement: The Jubilee of the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth edited by Berndt, E. R. and Tripplett, J. E.19–118 NBER Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. 54. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1990.Google Scholar
Kendrick, J. W.Productivity Trends in the United States. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 1961.Google Scholar
Krugman, P.“The Myth of Asia's Miracle.” Foreign Affairs 73 no. 6 (1994) 62–78.Google Scholar
Kuznets, S.Modern Economic Growth. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press 1966Google Scholar
Lains, P.“Catching Up to the European Core: Portuguese Economic Growth, 1910-1990.” Explorations in Economic History 40 no. 4 (2003) 369–86.Google Scholar
Maddison, A.“Growth and Slowdown in Advanced Capitalist Economies: Techniques of Quantitative Assessment.” Journal of Economic Literature 25, no. 2 (1987)649–68.Google Scholar
Mas, M. and Quesada, J.“ICT and Economic Growth: A Quantification of Productivity Growth in Spain.” OECD Statistics Working Papers, 2005.Google Scholar
Mas, M. and Quesada, J.Las nuevas tecnologías y el crecimiento económico en España. Bilbao: Fundación BBVA 2005Google Scholar
Matthews, R. C. O.Feinstein, C. H. and Odling-Smee, J.British Economic Growth, 1856-1973. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1982CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCloskey, D. N.“The Industrial Revolution in Britain, 1780-1860: A Survey.” In The Economic History of Britain Since 1700 edited by Floud, R. and McCloskey, D.103–27Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1981.Google Scholar
Ministerio de Agricultura.Cuentas del sector agrario. Madrid: Secretaría General Técnica del Ministerio de Agricultura 1979.Google Scholar
Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación.Anuario de Estadóstica Agroalimentaria. Madrid: Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación 2005Google Scholar
Mokyr, J.The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress. New York: Oxford University Press 1990Google Scholar
The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress.“Editor's Introduction: The New Economic History and the Industrial Revolution.” In The British Industrial Revolution: An Economic Perspective edited by Mokyr, J.1–127Oxford: Westview Press 1999Google Scholar
Myro, R.“La evolución de la productividad global de la economóa española en el peróodo 1965-1981.” Información Comercial Espaóola 594 (1983): 115–27.Google Scholar
O'Brien, P. and Prados de la Escosura, L.“Agricultural Productivity and European Industrialization, 1890-1980.” Economic History Review 45 no. 3 (1992) 514–36.Google Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L.El progreso económico de España, 1850-2000. Bilbao: Fundación BBVA 2003.Google Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L.“Growth and Structural Change in Spain, 1850-2000: A European Perspective.” Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History 25 no. 1 (2007) 147–81.Google Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L.“Inequality, Poverty, and the Kuznets Curve in Spain, 1850-2000.” European Review of Economic History 12 no. 3 (2008) 287–324.Google Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L. and Rosós, J. R.“‘National Income Accounts: Wages and Labour.” In Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History edited by Joel, Mokyr48–52London: Oxford University Press 2003Google Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L. and Rosós, J. R.“Proximate Causes of Economic Growth in Spain, 1850-2000.” Universidad Carlos III Working Papers in Economic History No. 2008-12, June 2008.Google Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L. and Rosós, J. R.“Capital Accumulation in the Long Run: The Case of Spain, 1850-2000.” Research in Economic History 28(2010), forthcoming.Google Scholar
Prasada Rao, D. S.Intercountry Comparisons of Agricultural Output and Productivity. Rome: FAO 1993Google Scholar
Sánchez-Alonso, B.“European Emigration in the Late Nineteenth Century: The Paradoxical Case of Spain.” Economic History Review 53 no. 2 (2000) 309–30.Google Scholar
San Juan, C.Eficacia y rentabilidad de la agricultura española. Madrid: Ministerio de AgriculturaPesca y Alimentación 1987.Google Scholar
Silvestre, J., Migraciones interiores y mercado de trabajo en España, 1877-1936. Ph.D. diss., Universidad de Zaragoza, 2003.Google Scholar
Simpson, J.“Technical Change, Labor Absorption, and Living Standards in Andalucia, 1886-1936.” Agricultural History 66 no. 3 (1992) 1–24.Google Scholar
Simpson, J.Spanish Agriculture: The Long Siesta, 1765-1965. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1995.Google Scholar
Soto Carmona, A.El trabajo industrial en la España contemporónea (1874-1936). Rubó: Anthropos 1989Google Scholar
Suórez, F. J.“Economóas de escala, poder de mercado y externalidades: Medición de las fuentes del crecimiento español.” Investigaciones Económicas 16 no. 3 (1992) 411–41.Google Scholar
Tafunell, X.“La rentabilidad financiera de la empresa española, 1880-1981: una estimación en perspectiva sectorial.” Revista de Historia Industrial 18 (2001): 71–111.Google Scholar
Tafunell, X.“Empresa y bolsa.” In Estadósticas Históricas de España, siglos XIX y XX edited by Carreras, A. and Tafunell, X.707–833Bilbao: Fundación BBBV 2005Google Scholar
Timmer, M. P. and van Ark, B.“Does Information and Communication Technology Drive EU-US Productivity Growth Differentials?” Oxford Economic Papers 57 no. 4 (2005) 693–716.Google Scholar
Vandellós, J. A.“La richesse et le revenu de la Póninsule Ibórique.” Metron 4(1925): 151–86.Google Scholar
Young, A.“The Tyranny of Numbers: Confronting the Statistical Realities of the East Asian Growth Experience.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 90 no. 2 (1995) 641–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, A.“The Razor's Edge: Distortions and Incremental Reform in the People's Republic of China.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 115, no 4 (2000): 109–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar