This publication looks in detail at the progress of productivity over 1970-2005 in each of the EU-25 countries, Australia, South Korea, the United States and Japan. It takes as its starting point the results of the EU KLEMS project, funded under the Sixth Framework Program, with the involvement of seventeen research organizations from across Europe. The Valencian Economic Research Institute (Ivie), in collaboration with the BBVA Foundation, was Spain’s representative in the consortium.

What sets EU KLEMS apart from similar databases is the extent of its disaggregation in terms of both productive sectors and worker profiles, as well as the typology of capital goods.

The book concludes that certain service sectors, rather than industry, are to blame for the mediocre productivity performance of some EU countries, Spain in particular. It also stresses the importance of specializing in productive sectors with a high technology content, incorporating new technologies into productive processes and building workforce skills and qualifications.

Both scholars and ordinary readers will find in this book a powerful analysis tool which locates the productivity problems confronting the Spanish economy in an international context.