Foreign technology in the Spanish economy: An analysis of the recent evolution

Abstract

The discussion about the future role to be played by countries like Spain in the new international division of labor has a crucial point in the availability of technological inputs in such a way that allows us to deal with the accumulation process better than we did in the past. In the 1960s and even the 1950s, the very important growth of the Spanish economy depended very much on the massive importation of foreign technology, as we show in the first part of the work. The deficiencies of the inner innovation system made access to the foreign technology a vicious circle ruling any movement towards more complex stages of industrialization. Several important events took place throughout the 1970s (the international crisis, the political change in Spain, etc.) and this is why we are trying to find signs of change in the conditions of the innovation process. Even though the available data is not as good as the question requires, analysis of the recent information allows us to reach the conclusion that the general framework still remains the same. The R&D effort continues to be very poor and the importation of foreign technology dominates the industrial production even during a very dramatic stagnation of the economic activity.