The paper provides an in-depth analysis of profitability in Spain between 1995 and 2014, showing that behind the asset-price inflation of the growth period and its corresponding macroeconomic imbalances, an underlying problem of capital valorization can be found. For this purpose, a study of various measures of profitability is carried out based on the concept of productive labor and highlighting the role of finance (interest rates and indebtedness). The evolution of the profit rate in previous years is also shown , together with a comparison with countries in the Eurozone, both in the most advanced areas and in the periphery. The paper reveals the large extent of the underlying profitability crisis, with a huge fall of profit rates from the late sixties, during the period of the housing boom, and throughout the subsequent recession. In addition, this drop in profitability stands out in relation to other economies of the European periphery. Hence, the study puts the rate of profit at the center of the debate on the Great Recession in Spain, despite its absence in much of the economic literature.

The aim of this work is to study the degree of stability, as well as the establishment guidelines, of the foreign bank (FB) installed in Spain and its correlation with the business cycle and the volume of foreign trade. The results are detailed by legal form and show that the FB has achieved a high degree of stability for a high number of institutions, especially in the legal form of branches, and low turnover rates between entities, especially in the legal form of subsidiaries. The time series regression models reveal that the stability of the FB is associated with the degree of openness to foreign trade and, in detail, by legal form, both in subsidiaries and branches, and also with the business cycle. Lastly, the time series analysis test shows the existence of a structural change in the years 2012-2013, indicating the resilience of the FB installed in Spain to the impacts of the crisis,

This article examines the commercial performance of the top 12 industrial goods exporting countries in 2004-2013, analyzing both the purported partnership between labour productivity and external competitiveness, and the role of highly technological industries in export success. The application of Wang, Wei, and Zhu's methodology (2018), based on the use of global input-product matrices, for U.S. and Chinese trade, shows the best U.S. positioning in Global Value Chain (GVC) and exemplifies the relevance of new global productive dynamics for the evaluation of international trade at the sectoral level.