Productivity has been slowing in advanced economies for several decades, and today’s potential productivity increases are among the lowest seen in more than a century, except in times of war. A drop in Europe compared to the United States, which has intensified post-pandemic, adds to this overall slowdown. With the start of a massive spread of artificial intelligence (AI), its effects on productivity increase hopes for a new industrial revolution, despite current macro estimates appearing disappointing.

The recent slowdown results from long-lasting yet transitory factors linked to the financial crisis and the delay in deploying new technologies. However, particularly in the context of the clash between the COVID-19 crisis and rising energy prices, a recovery in productivity cannot be achieved without policies that facilitate the reallocation of production factors, the effective adoption of AI-related technologies, and the energy transition. Reform by European institutions appears essential to encourage companies to take more risks and implement critical measures, particularly in the digital sector.

If productivity does not accelerate in the next decade, major challenges will be posed to fund significant issues such as climate transition, population ageing, and financial deleveraging. It will then be difficult to respond to expectations for improvements in purchasing power, of which productivity improvements remain the only source of sustainable financing in the medium term.

This study introduces a methodology to quantify knowledge flow in Spanish manufacturing firms, utilizing data from the Enterprise Strategy Survey (ESEE). A composite index is created through a structural equation model (SEM) featuring latent variables, which removes any subjectivity in weighting the dimensions. The analysis encompasses seven critical dimensions concerning innovation, R&D, work organization, and the Internet. Results indicate that dimensions linked to R&D significantly influence knowledge flow and, consequently, business productivity. The combination of R&D investment and the implementation of new organizational approaches in the workplace shows a positive and statistically significant correlation with enhanced productivity. These findings emphasize companies' need to embrace strategies that merge technological advancement with organizational innovation. In this regard, the knowledge flow index highlights the importance of incorporating both elements. This method provides a statistically sound tool for evaluating business competitiveness, emphasizing the necessity of integrating technology and organizational innovation within corporations’ strategies.

This article examines various economic and sociopolitical perspectives on reducing working hours in the current context. Six main approaches are analysed: the income-leisure choice of neoclassical economics, the distributive conflict of Marxist political economy, the optimization of production processes, the centrality of reproductive work in feminist economics, ecological considerations, and post-work theories. The article shows how these perspectives, often complementary but sometimes contradictory, offer a complex and multifaceted view of the issue. It concludes that the confluence of factors such as technological changes, environmental concerns and new conceptions of work is driving a renewed debate about reducing working hours, posing challenges and opportunities for transforming work organization in contemporary society.

Soft skills – the ability to manage yourself, manage others, and the tasks you perform – are increasingly seen as essential for success in the labour market. Traditionally, soft skills have been considered transversal competences, i.e., competences required in a wide range of occupations and activities. However, there is little evidence to assess the extent to which this is true. This article presents evidence of the degree of transferability and transversality of soft skills in the labour market using data from 1.7 million online job offers in Catalonia. This data covers a broad segment of the labour market and captures the demand for different skills from companies with a high level of granularity. Our results indicate that soft skills are not highly transversal, except for a small subset of broadly demanded and transferable skills. Our results point to the need to stop treating the terms soft skills and transversal skills as synonyms. On the contrary, soft skills should be considered specific skills, the need for which and their relevance vary significantly between different occupations and sectors. Identifying these specific competence needs and prioritizing their teaching will be essential to building an effective and prepared workforce.

The evolution of the duration of the workday is one of the determinants of the contribution of the work factor to the growth of the economy’s product. The proposal to reduce the workday without modifying the salary in a context of digitization of the economy, increased productivity, and the need to improve work-life balance has raised great interest in analysing the evolution that working hours in Spain have followed, as well as the prospects that, in the future, the moderately decreasing tendency that this variable has shown over the last four decades will continue.

The reduction in average² working hours in Spain between 1987 and 2023 (from 37 to 30.9 hours per week) reflects a set of structural changes in the economy during that period, such as the increasing importance of the services sector and the rise in part-time employment. The pandemic intensified the decrease in the average workday, although it subsequently recovered before resuming a trend of gradual decline. On average, workdays are now one hour less than before the pandemic, although there are differences between sectors. Looking ahead, factors such as demographic aging, the growing significance of services, and the tendency to increase the rate of part-time work suggest that the downward trend in working hours could be prolonged.

Automation is the process of replacing human work with machines and aims to make certain tasks in the workplace more efficient. This article reviews the effects of the link between automation and artificial intelligence (AI) on people’s work. In principle, the constant improvement of AI and its ever-wider use have favoured the automation of an increasing number of tasks, particularly non-routine tasks traditionally performed only by people. This has meant that many occupations, both low- and high-skilled, as well as many workers, are in danger of being replaced after losing the race with technology. However, a review of the effects, based on the level of skills, occupations, and workers, indicates that automation is still focused on replacing routine and low-skilled tasks and occupations. If automation and AI can boost productivity to the point where new and better jobs are created and if workers acquire the skills to interact with AI, a future of enhanced work, of agreement between people and machines, is also possible.

The analysis of previous industrial revolutions has shown that the consequences of technological innovations on employment depend on the degree of complementarity between new technologies and workers. So far, this complementarity has clearly benefited the most qualified workers (skill-biased technological change); however, in the current context, recent developments in generative artificial intelligence could change this situation. This article aims to briefly present the current state of affairs regarding this subject based on a bibliographic review of recent academic works. The main conclusion is that the available evidence on the effects of artificial intelligence on employment does not show any significant variation in relation to previous technological changes. However, if AI-based technologies continue to develop and adapt to new tasks, we can expect their effects to be much more disruptive than in the past, although it is too early to tell. In any case, it is essential that educational systems are flexible enough to cope with these changes and respond adequately to the new needs of the labour market.

Oikonomics, the UOC’s magazine of economics, business and society, organized a presentation event on 19 June 2024, of which we attach a video, of a very special edition such as that of its tenth anniversary. For this reason, the publication devotes a monograph to the analysis of well-being from a holistic view. A vision that, on the one hand, addresses the analysis of the current challenges posed by the welfare society, understood as a system by which the public administration guarantees citizens a set of basic social services, mainly in health, education, pensions, unemployment, housing... to improve their living conditions and promote equal opportunities for personal fulfillment. And, on the other hand, it also incorporates elements of reflection regarding personal well-being with approximations to the study of human strengths and happiness.

This monograph from Oikonomics, therefore, shows well-being as a broad concept to examine how personal sovereignty, collective well-being, welfare state, public education, health, pension system sustainability and tax awareness interact to shape citizenship quality of life. This act organized in the College of Economists addresses this analysis from three areas: personal sovereignty, the role played by the public sector in the construction of the welfare society and the sustainability of finances that allow it to be financed. Issues that raise deep questions and future challenges to identify and correct possible adjustments that need to be made to have a fair and efficient welfare state.

Moderated by the coordinator of the monograph, the professor of the Economic and Business Studies of the UOC, Fernando Alvarez, these issues are addressed by three authors of the articles that make up this special edition of Oikonomics: the professor of Economics of the Universitat de Barcelona, Alejandro Esteller; the collaborating professor of the Economic and Business Studies of the UOC, Gemma Segura and the collaborating profesor of the UOC, Laura López. To commemorate Oikonomics’ birthday, the UOC’s director, Àngels Fitó; the vice-rector, Mª Jesús Martínez, the head of the Economic and Business Studies, Xavier Baraza, and the head of Oikonomics, Joan Miquel Gomis, also participated in this presentation.

Individuals, as selfish beings, have incentives not to voluntarily comply with the payment of taxes. This low predisposition differs between countries or, within a country, between individuals. Given the social costs of tax non-compliance, finding mechanisms that can improve this predisposition, that is, without the need for coercive mechanisms, improve “tax morale” is a key aspect for the effectiveness, efficiency and equity of our system. fiscal. In this article, these issues are discussed and various mechanisms are proposed to promote tax morale, the level of which is not necessarily well reflected in the surveys that are usually carried out on this topic.