Structural components of income growth: an application to the evolution of the Spanish economy, 1980-2014

This paper analyses the structural and technical changes in Spain since the 1980s, using annual input-output tables. Specifically, a differential structural decomposition analysis (SDA) is applied to shifts in value-added, revealing eight different components and allowing the estimation of the impacts of technical change on the process of economic transformation on a sector-by-sector basis. We conclude that growth in the Spanish economy in recent decades was a mix of technological modernization and general economic expansion, although with some heterogeneity among sectors over time. High-technology services played a key role in modernization in the late 1980s and 1990s. In fact, the growth of High-technology, Medium-high-technology, Energy and Construction sectors accelerated through the 2008 crisis. Labour compensation and returns from capital followed different trends both during expansions and recessions, intensifying income inequality in Spain.