Exports and employment in the Spanish economy: A repetitive pattern

This paper focuses on future job creation in Spain through exports. Our analysis covers direct, induced, or indirect job creation, based on exports output and inputs demanded by exports. We carried out estimations of symmetrical Input-Output Tables (iot) from 2010 to 2020, as an instrument to analyze the impacts of exports on Spanish economy and employment.

The main conclusions deal with Spanish exports within sectorial production chains, the spillover effect of those exports on the domestic economy, and, by extension, their effect on job creation and the balance of payments. Thus, one of the main contributions of this paper, not much explored in current economic literature, is the continuity of the entrepreneurial structure of Spain's export sector. This entails a dual structure: A very few high-volume exporting companies that create few jobs, and a large amount of small exporting companies that create more jobs. We surmise that this structure will continue to exist over the following years. A conclusion of our investigation is that as Spain's export sector increases its participation in global production chains, there will be few net jobs created by exported output.