Cuando el más reciente artículo de Tena sobre indicadores de protección ve la luz en las páginas de esta Revista (otoño-invierno de 1999), nos encuentra trabajando en el vínculo entre apertura externa y crecimiento económico español a largo plazo. Somos por entonces plenamente conscientes de cuan sensibles son los resultados econométricos al indicador de protección considerado, de forma que la lectura de una propuesta de medición alternativa no podía sino despertar nuestro interés. El hecho, además, de sentirnos personalmente aludidos en pasajes concretos del ejercicio, nos movió a poner por escrito ciertas objeciones al respecto.

This article is a novel study on previously unedited data regarding employment in the Spanish Railway sector between the years 1893–1935. The Annual data published by the well know Annals of the Spanish Railways have been closely scrutinised and checked against document referring to the two major companies: Norte y MZA. The resulting findings show the dynamic nature of this labour market! Between 1893 and 1935 employment figures tripled. The documents examined further reveal the existence of a labour market which was quite diverse and consisted of numerous different segments.

There are many studies about the export failure of the Spanish cotton industry, but they are mainly focused on specific features of the Spanish economy. This article applies new trade theories to this topic. Taking into account this theoretical framework, the main hypothesis is the imperfect competition of international cotton textile markets in 1913. The econometric model employed in this paper measures the influence of variables such as historical and geographical dependencies, home market effect and product differentiation strategies. This international approach shows new explanations to the lack of an export orientation of the Spanish cotton industry.

This paper discusses the price collusive behaviour of the main Spanish banks from the end of the Civil War to 1975. The second purpose of this paper is to obtain quantitative and qualitative indicators of the degree of effectiveness of these cartel agreements. I conclude that in spite of the existence of collusive pacts to fix price conditions, the main banks broke cartel agreements and they competed in prices in the deposit market side, and especially from the mid-1950s onward.

Las siguientes líneas son una respuesta a los comentarios críticos que dedican Marcela Sabaté y Eva Pardos a un artículo publicado por esta Revista en el otoño-invierno 1999, número 3. Dada la escasez de espacio ofrecido a esta réplica, me limitaré a contestar lo esencial y no lo superfluo de sus comentarios. Sin embargo, me resulta imprescindible comenzar con una introducción para que el lector pueda evaluar el sentido de sus descalificaciones iniciales sobre la metodología seguida en la construcción de mis indicadores.

This paper presents an annual series of the Spanish infrastructure stock between 1844 and 1935 and tries to ascertain to what extent it responded to the needs of the Spanish economy. A comparison with other European economies of die time, both in monetary and in physical terms, shows a situation of relative infrastructure shortage in Spain, which progressively deteriorated during the period under analysis. That shortage did probably set a constraint on the Spanish economic growth during die century prior to die Civil War.

This paper presents an analysis of the relationship between foreign sector and growth in the Spanish economy, through Granger causality tests for exports and income, and imports and income, along three periods: 1870–1935, 1940–1959 and 1964–1995. The results confirm a positive mutual influence, which works from exports to growth from the 1940s onwards, and begins only in the 1960s in the case of imports and growth. Our interpretation for the absence of causality from trade to growth between 1870 and 1935 stems mainly from the composition of Spanish trade at the time.

Gracias a un libro reciente de Pablo Martín Aceña hemos pasado a comprender plenamente la complejidad que tiene el Servicio de Estudios del Banco de España. Por una parte, es nada menos que una institución inmersa en el seno de nuestro Banco Central, en grandísima parte puesta al servicio de la política monetaria española. Sin el Servicio, ésta hoy sería, por fuerza, bastante diferente. De ahí se deriva una influencia muy importante y, por ello, poderosa, en el conjunto de la política española toda. Por otra, es un lugar de investigación de la economía que, desde hace setenta años trabaja, además, con unos niveles muy altos de calidad científica, mídanse éstos como se desee.

This article applies an anthropometric study to Spanish conscripts between 1893–1954 in order to explore a proxy for living standards in Spain. The first part of the article introduces the importance of height as an indicator of levels of nutrition and epidemiological enviroment, and its determinants. The second part uses the conscripts files to calculate average heights at a national and regional level and by socio-professional categories. This section shows changes and differences in Spanish living standards. A second finding is the strong correlation between height, income and sanitary conditions. Finally, height can be used as an indicator of the evolution of the degree of inequality in material living conditions which in the case of Spain shows a divergent behaviour between regions and socio-professional categories.

This article tries to provide a specific analytical framework which includes labour as an essential factor within die internal and external set of relations defining the competitiveness of firms and their strategies to adapt to the environment in which they operate. Special attention is given to the Spanish case, taking into consideration its regional and sectorial diversity. Instead of studying labour as an input to be bought and applied, or the history of the conflict between employers and employees, this article analyses the evolution of how different forms labour have been organised within firms. Labour is considered as an element with the potential to provide an incentive, to impede, facilitate, delay, and mainly adapt technological change to the different factor endowments. The emphasis is put on human capital —mainly shopfloor skills, organisation skills and research skills— instead of physical capital to explain the competitiveness of firms. Special attention is reserved to the institutional context and the interaction between business and governments on labour issues, analysing the state as an employer, regulator and intermediary in the transmission of skills and knowledge.