Capital goods, measured TFP and growth: The case of Spain

The effect of investing in equipment and/or structures on TFP and long run growth is investigated here. We argue that economies can grow in spite of stagnant TFP if the investment rate is inefficiently high. We study the case of Spain where real GDP per worker grew at 2.74 percent annually and TFP was stagnant during 1996-2007. We show that low Spanish TFP is due to low ISTC and an inefficiently high investment in residential structures. We quantify the effect of the housing boom of the 2000s, the total cost of subsidies to residential structures in terms of TFP and income growth.