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.

This article analyses the relationship between the uses of Industry 4.0 technologies (I4.0), the value generation and firm results. Based on a sample of 1,525 Spanish industrial firms for 2014, the uses of four basic I4.0 technologies are identified: 1) computer-aided industrial design (CAD); 2) robotics; 3) flexible production systems; and 4) the activity’s numerical control machinery and software, an additional indicator is constructed and the statistical association with the value generation and firm results are studied. The research has obtained three main results. First of all, it is worth noting its incipience. 72.5% of Spanish industrial firms either do not use or use very moderately the I4.0 technologies. Despite of this and secondly, it should be noted that the uses of these technologies are associated with a value generating process in industrial firms which is more intensive in R&D and human capital, more innovative, more digital and more sustainable. And, thirdly, the research also concludes that firms with more intensive uses of I4.0 technologies have better results in terms of sales, value added, exports and gross operating margin. Productivity and employment results are especially relevant. I4.0 intensive industrial firms are 30% more efficient than firms that do not use these technologies. They are also able to take on a much larger number of employees (twice the industrial average) and to pay them much better (12.4% above the industrial average). Finally, the article also discusses the role that I4.0 could play as a new general purpose technology.

The Spanish economy is more productive but employment rates have not returned to levels prior to the recession. Therefore, the main challenge is reducing unemployment and temporary employment, creating quality, stable and productive jobs that help reduce inequality, as well as resuming the path of convergence with more advanced economies. The model of flexicurity is defined as a strategy to modernize the labour market through two paths that converge: flexibility (for both business and workers, to respond to the needs of both) and safety (for workers who must be able to develop their careers, expand their skills and receive support from social security systems during periods of inactivity). However, this model of Danish flexicurity cannot be implemented directly to each Member State or region of the European Union, but rather it must be adapted to each context with an adequate combination of instruments that respond in our region to the debate between different social and political sensitivities. The goal is not increasing precariousness through flexibility, but rather flexible specialization.

The Economic Monetary Union project was founded with the expectation that a greater level of macroeconomic stability would help to improve living conditions for the European population, especially in countries with lower incomes. Labour productivity is one of the main indicators of an economy's international competitiveness, and is also a measure of a society's capacity to improve its wellbeing. Analysis of the project's evolution demonstrates how possibilities for convergence in productivity are conditioned by the economic growth model in place, and also by the strategy used in response to the financial crisis.