ABSTRACT
The stock of physical capital in Spain has increased twelvefold in the last 40 years, while in the same period it has only increased eightfold in the EU and threefold in the OECD. This represents an important impulse to convergence in this factor of production. The most important thrust took place in the second half of the 1980s, owing to the structural change that took place with Spain’s entry into the European Community. Another factor (noted earlier) is the impact that the structural funds have had on the accumulation of capital in the Spanish economy (six per cent of Spanish public capital has been financed with European funds). The strong impulse toward convergence in the capital stock that took place in the second part of the 1980s had slowed considerably by the mid-1990s, with the result that convergence was not realized. The Spanish economy’s
physical capital stock is still around 70 per cent of the EU average, and is only higher than that of Portugal, Ireland, and Greece. As for public capital, the accumulated stock is a little higher than that of private capital (in EU terms), that is to say, 83 per cent of the EU average.
