This paper reviews the analysis of technological change by cliometricians. It focuses on lessons about total factor productivity (TFP) from growth accounting and on aspects of social capability that are conducive to the effective assimilation of new technology. Key messages are that when TFP growth is very rapid this typically involves reductions in inefficiency not just technological advance and that even really important new technologies have small initial effects on aggregate productivity. Incentive structures matter greatly for the adoption of new technology, but social capability is not independent of the technological epoch as the information and communications technology (ICT) era has emphasized to Europeans.

This paper exploits sectorial growth accounting methodology in a similar way to Jorgenson, Gollop and Fraumeni (1987) in order to provide additional insight into the sources of Spanish economic growth. We measure the contribution of intermediate inputs, capital, labour and total factor productivity to the increase in total output for 25 productive branches. We also analyse sectorial contributions to overall productivity growth and discuss the role of pioneering sectors in the whole transformation. The findings presented attribute more than fifty per cent of output growth to improvement in TFP. This productivity growth was unevenly distributed and was fuelled by some potent manufacturing industries together with advances in transportation and communications.