ABSTRACT
Nonetheless, the convergence in productivity that took place during the 1980s was accompanied by a substantial rise in unemployment, which at one point climbed to above 20 per cent. Likewise, the fall in the unemployment rate since 1995 has coincided with productivity gains of less than one per cent annually. Estimates for the Spanish economy (De la Fuente and Doménech 2000) suggest that a decline in the unemployment rate relative to the European average would push up the productivity gap by some 13 points, there being only a small impact on per capita income.
