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The economic performance of Uruguay in the last 50 years has been disappointing. Annual growth in labor productivity has been lower than the rest of the Latin American economies and well below that East Asian and OECD countries. Out of the 0.9 percent of annual growth in productivity, total factor productivity (TFP) accounts for around 45 percent, which confirms the key role TFP plays in economic growth. The paper aims to discuss the issues.

The authors decompose the change in productivity into four sources: an utilization effect, a reallocation effect, a markup effect, and effect of technical change.

In the 1985‐1994 period, there is an appreciable increase in productivity levels. On the other hand, the 1995‐1999 period productivity increased by a mere 0.8 percent per year. The high increase in productivity between 1985 and 1994 is explained by the relatively high and sustained technical change of Uruguayan firms as well as the relocation of inputs between and within industries. The process of relocation seems to lose momentum – or may have been completed – in the late 1990s.

This paper uses data only from the manufacturing sector. It would be desirable to include all other sectors of activity.

A study of the contribution to growth of different determinants suggests two important conclusions. First, that government policies are at the base of growth instability. Second, that reforms have been the source of higher than predicted growth in the 1970s and 1990s, pointing to the need of deepening such reforms.

This paper decomposes the productivity change in four main sources and performs a contrafactual exercise of the impact of several policies on output growth. Therefore, researchers interested in development issues, policy makers and international multilateral organizations are likely to find it useful.

This paper aims to review the history of Roldós y Compañía, one of the oldest advertising agencies in the world and the oldest currently operating. This research aims to highlight the importance of this agency and its founder, Rafael Roldós Viñolas – the first documented advertising agent in Spain to this day – in shaping the emerging Spanish advertising industry at the end of the 19th century.

The methodology used in this paper is based on a review of period and contemporary literature, as well as on newspaper sources and documents from the private archive of Roldós, S.A.

In its early years, the agency’s participation in two of the most significant events for the modernization of the city of Barcelona, the Universal Exhibition of 1888 and the International Exhibition of 1929; as well as the ideation and implementation of several urban projects with the aim of finding new formulas and advertising media are factors that make it one of the most important in the country. In 1929, the alliance Roldós-Tiroleses, S.A. de Publicidad, the first great merger of advertising agencies in Spain, which lasted three years, was led. The outbreak of the Civil War and the subsequent post-war period marked a few years of business irregularities and advertising silences that gave instability to its activity. During the last third of the 20th century, the agency was immersed in the generalized advertising euphoria around the world. With the arrival of North American agencies in Barcelona and the consequent business movements, Roldós, S.A. specializes in the processing of advertisements and media planning. The 21st century began with important changes in the media planning sector, and the agency was forced to restructure its services and organizational structure. In 2022, it celebrates 150 years of uninterrupted activity, recognized by the country’s business sector.

This research aims to internationalize the history of the Roldós y Compañía agency, so that it can be studied together with other names of Anglo-Saxon advertising pioneers who were contemporaries of Rafael Roldós.

Scientific research on the history of advertising agencies, especially in Spain, is scarce, so this paper aims to help fill this gap.