Spain and the United States - Real Instituto Elcano

THE US PLAYERS IN SPAIN 53
US companies account for a slightly smaller proportion of all Spanish
employment (an average of 1.15% between 1983 and 2002), indicating that
workers at these companies are more productive than Spanish workers overall.
This proportion rises substantially (to 3.9%) if employment in US-owned
industrial companies is taken as a percentage of all Spanish industrial
employment. On average, in the 1996-2002 period workers at US companies
were 15% more productive than workers in Spain overall, as measured by the
aggregate value per employee. Two of the factors at play here are the higher
levels of R&D and the greater importance attached to professional training.
Spain’s overall productivity has been ailing over the past few years and is
eroding the country’s competitiveness. The sector employing the most people
working for majority-owned non-bank US affiliates is transportation
equipment (34,200 out of a total of 182,600 in 2002).
In exports and R&D, the role of US companies is also greater than that
corresponding to their weight in the Spanish economy. The dissemination of
technology throughout the Spanish industrial structure has been a key
contribution from companies of US origin. This can be seen at the
macroeconomic level in the figures on R&D spending by American companies
compared to average spending in Spain as a whole, and in the figures on the
employment of research staff. US companies accounted for an average of 4.8%
of all R&D spending in Spain between 1989 and 2002, which was four times
more than these companies contributed to the country’s total production.
However, if the spending on R&D by US companies is compared with total
private sector spending on R&D in Spain, the figure was much higher – 9.3%
– between 1989 and 2002. About 40% of this total comes from the
chemicals/pharmaceuticals sector. The figures on the number of people
employed by US companies in research activities tell a similar story. US firms
account for less than 2% of all R&D workers in Spain, but close to 5% of all
R&D employment in the Spanish private sector.
US companies have played a significant role in the internationalization of
the Spanish economy thanks to their greater experience and more sophisticated
marketing chains and global distribution. Opel (General Motors) and Ford are
regularly among the country’s top ten exporters. Between 1982 and 2002, US
firms operating in Spain accounted for an average of 9% of total exports of
goods (see Exhibit 2.9). The sector that exports the most is transportation
equipment, followed by chemicals (see Exhibit 2.10).