With the start of the international financial crisis in the summer of 2007, the Spanish economy has been subjected to shocks unprecedented in its recent economic history: the bursting of the housing bubble, the financial crisis and sovereign debt. Currently the focus is placed on problems of debt sustainability, difficulties in the financial sector and the high rate of unemployment. It is for this reason that the main and most urgent measures put forward are related to labour market reforms, budgetary adjustments in public administrations and the reorganization of credit institutions.

However, in addition to the impact of such shocks, there is another problem in Spain arising from one of its traditional weaknesses: a structure of activity concentrated in sectors of low productivity. This accounts for why we often hear about the importance of achieving a productive specialization that is more concentrated in sectors with higher levels of productivity (change of production model). But ensuring that the productivity of the economy as a whole increases through a radical change in specialization is a complex task, given that it depends on pre-existing economic and corporate structure, available productive factors, and their quality and qualification, as well as the way in which they are combined.

A key issue here is that within sectors of activity there is significant dispersion between firms in terms of behaviour, strategies, capacity for innovation and results. That is why the central role of this transformation is the firm itself. And therefore having knowledge about the dynamics, barriers and factors that contribute to its proper functioning is essential for the design of policies aimed at transforming the productive fabric.

This workshop aims to analyze issues related to productivity and innovation from a microeconomic perspective, i.e. considering firms as the unit of analysis and not sectoral aggregates. A group of researchers will present papers dealing with the major differences in productivity between firms, the importance of different factors such as market structure, deregulation and the relocation of activities for improvement. Special attention will also be paid to factors influencing the level of innovation, the different intensity of investment in ICT and differences in competitiveness at firm level.

Juan Fernández de Guevara, Universitat de València e Ivie

César Alonso Borrego, Universidad Carlos III
Pilar Beneito, Universitat de València
José Carlos Fariñas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Juan Fernández de Guevara, Universitat de València e Ivie
Emilio Huerta, Universidad Pública de Navarra
Jordi Jaumandreu, Boston University y CEPR
Paloma López García, Banco de España
Miguel A. Manjón, Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Fundación Universidad-Empresa, Adeit
Plaza Virgen de la Paz, 3
46001 Valencia