西班牙企业层面的创新：模式、驱动因素和政策含义

Firm-Level Innovation inSpain: Patterns, Drivers,and Policy Implications Younghun Shim, Isabel Figueiras (EUR Summer Intern), and CarloPizzinelli SIP/2026/056 IMF Selected Issues Papers are prepared by IMF staff asbackground documentation for periodic consultations withmember countries.It is based on the information available atthe time it was completed on May 4, 2026. This paper is alsopublished separately as IMF Country Report No 26/103. 2026JUN IMF Selected Issues Paper European Department Firm-Level Innovation in Spain: Patterns, Drivers and Policy Implications*Prepared by Younghun Shim, Isabel Figueiras and Carlo Pizzinelli Authorized for distribution by Romain DuvalJune 2026 IMF Selected Issues Papersare prepared by IMF staff as background documentation for periodicconsultations with member countries.It is based on the information available at the time it wascompleted on May 4, 2026. This paper is also published separately as IMF Country Report No 26/103. ABSTRACT:While Spain’s productivity growth has picked up in recent years, a sizable gap with other high-income countries remains. One contributing factor is a large innovation gap vis-à-vis peer countries. Firm-levelevidence shows that this gap is particularly pronounced among young firms and widens for higher-qualitypatents. Innovation is held back by size-dependent regulations, financial constraints, regulatory burdens, andthe complexity of the R&D tax credit, which is generous on paper yet has low take-up rate. Quantitativesimulations based on endogenous growth model suggest that easing these frictions could raise Spain’s long-term total factor productivity growth by over 0.25 percentage points. RECOMMENDED CITATION:Shim, Younghun, Isabel Figueiras, Carlo Pizzinelli (2026) “Firm-Level Innovationin Spain: Patterns, Drivers and Policy Implications.” IMF Selected Issues Paper (SIP/2026/056). Washington,DC.International Monetary Fund. Firm-Level Innovation in Spain:Patterns, Drivers and PolicyImplications Spain Prepared by Younghun Shim, Isabel Figueiras(EUR Summer Intern),andCarlo Pizzinelli1 FIRM-LEVEL INNOVATION IN SPAIN: PATTERNS,DRIVERS, AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS1 While Spain’s productivity growth has picked up in recent years, a sizable gap with other high-incomecountries remains. One contributing factor, which is the focus of this paper, is a large innovation gapvis-à-vis peer countries. Firm-level evidence shows that this gap is particularly pronounced amongyoung firms and widens further for higher-quality patents. Innovation by Spanish firms is found to beheld back by several factors, including size-dependent regulations, financial constraints, and regulatoryburdens. These frictions not only reduce the likelihood of innovation but also its payoff in terms ofpost-innovation firm growth. Another obstacle is the complexity of the R&D tax credit, which isrelatively generous on paper compared to other countries yet has a low take-up rate in practice.Simulations of an endogenous growth model with firm-level innovation and creative destructionsuggest that easing these frictions, together with streamlining the R&D tax credit, could raise Spain’slong-term total factor productivity growth by over a quarter of a percentage point. A.Introduction 1.Notwithstanding its recent improvement, Spain’s productivity growth performancehas been weak over the past two decades and a large gap remains with respect to other high-income countries.Figure 1 plots Spain’s GDP per capita and labor productivity alongside otherhigh-income countries. Despite some recent catchup, productivity levels remain below the euro areaaverage and are even further behind those of the US. In particular, Spain’s labor productivity wasroughly comparable to that of the US in 1990, but the gap has widened over time, with Spain’sproductivity now at about 74 percent of the US level. 2.This paper focuses on innovation as a driver of productivity growth.Productivity isdetermined by various factors, including innovation, foreign technology adoption, technologydiffusion across firms, allocative efficiency, and human capital. Among these, this paper focuses oninnovation, which is one of the main drivers of long-run productivity growth in high-incomecountries (Acemoglu and others, 2006). Specifically, it examines the magnitude of the innovationgap, how it varies across firm characteristics such as size and age, and the frictions that hinderinnovation in Spain. 3.To study the drivers of, and obstacles to innovation by Spanish firms, empiricalanalysis is carried out using a firm-level patent dataset.Analyzing innovation requires output-based measures at the micro level; in this paper, patent data are used, as commonly used in theliterature. Patent data provide measures of both the quantity and quality of innovation. They areobtained from PATSTAT and merged with firm-level ORBIS data using firm names. Using thisdataset, stylized facts are documented on firm-level innovation in Spain rel