National Growth Strategies and Welfare State Reforms: The Case of Spain

This paper focuses on the analysis of national growth strategies and welfare reform in Spain since the early 1990s to present. The first section is devoted to the assessment and characterization of (explicit and implicit) growth strategies. It endeavors to elicit to what extent such strategies were aimed at sustainable growth and the creation of jobs. Also, the evolution of the production structure of the national economy and of the interrelations among its different sectors is taken into account. Furthermore, attention is paid to the degree of internationalization of the Spanish economy and business/workers preferences.  The second section deals with the reform of social protection policies during the last twenty five years with an accent on structural changes and on the presence/introduction of employment- friendly measures. Moreover, the economic motivations behind welfare reforms are taken into account. Special attention is paid to the crisis period in both the first and second sections with the objective of studying the influence of external conditionality. The third section considers the match/mismatch between the economic and welfare reform strategies under the light of the Varieties of Capitalism approach. The paper closes with a discussion on the key institutional components affecting economic and welfare reform strategies in Spain