Factors affecting the productivity of European Economies (original) (raw)

Productivity Growth Rates in Europe and the USA: A Tale of Convergence in the 21st Century

2010

In mid 90’s, productivity growth rate started to accelerate in the USA. The sources of this resurgence were the IT-producing industry and the IT-using market services. Meanwhile, Europe was still suffering from the low level of productivity growth rates. This fact leads to pessimistic assessments about the economic future of Europe. However, this paper uncovers that productivity growth rate started to accelerate after 2000 in the EU-15ex which consists of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and United Kingdom. In fact, it is hard to realize the acceleration in the productivity growth rate in early 2000’s because of the low level of productivity growth rate in this period. However, the productivity growth rate of the EU-15ex reached to the US productivity growth rate in mid 2000’s. The major source of this convergence is the IT-using market services. In addition, acceleration of the productivity growth rate of IT-producing industry has conti...

European Productivity Growth Since 2000 and Future Prospects

2015

This article revisits the issue of Europe's growth slowdown, taking into account the latest experiences from the recession and the debt crisis since 2008. There are few, if any, signs of even the beginnings of a reversal in the slowing growth trend, which is primarily driven by the weak productivity performance in most European countries. Recently, slow productivity growth has broadened from the services sector to the goods sector for most European economies. Output growth projections out to 2025 show a deceleration in Europe’s growth trend compared to the pre-recession period, and even compared to the latest period, 2006-2012, there are no signs of significant acceleration in the growth trend. Demographic structures and continued slow total factor productivity growth are both dampening trend output growth, although there will be large variation between different EU economies. RÉSUMÉ Le présent article revient sur la question du ralentissement de la croissance de la productivit...

Productivity Growth in Europe and the US: a Sectoral Study

Review of Economics and Institutions, 2010

This paper describes recent trends in productivity growth in the EU and the US. By adopting a sectoral perspective, we achieve a deeper understanding of the compositional patterns of aggregate growth and shed light on the reasons why the EU productivity has lagged behind the US during the period 1995-2007. This may be of use for policy makers in order to design policies to close the gap. Whilst our findings indicate that performance in manufacturing sectors of many EU countries has been strong, we observe notable disadvantages in relation to productivity performance of key market service sectors. Restrictions in product and labour markets prevailing in many EU countries have been put forward as potential factors causing poor productivity; research shows that these can have particular harmful effects in services sectors given their large size and inter-linkages to other sector of the economy.

Recent Trends in Europe's Output and Productivity Growth Performance at the Sector Level, 2002-2015

International Productivity Monitor, 2017

Using the latest release of sector-level growth and productivity data up to 2015 from the EU KLEMS database, evidence is mounting that the global financial crisis (2008/09) and the Euro Area recession (2011/12) have significantly damaged the growth potential of European economies across the board. None of the countries in the 12 EU member states included in the analysis have recovered to growth rates anywhere near to what they were in the decade before the crisis. Slow productivity growth which was already visible in most market services sectors before the crisis has broadened to the goods-producing sector for most European economies since the crisis. The manufacturing sector was particularly hard hit, and has only partially recovered. The dynamics of the global and Euro Area crises and their impact seem still to be in full swing, making it too early to judge whether output and productivity growth rates can still recover to the pre-crises rate or whether growth in Europe will end up...

The Productivity Slowdown Puzzle in European Countries

Productivity growth is slowing around the world and this is one of the most disturbing and, no doubt, worrying phenomenon affecting the world economy in the new millennium. The productivity slowdown may appear alarming in relation to the fact that weak productivity growth usually means a lower trend of the whole economy, as well as a lower level of profits, wage and a less public and private debt sustainability.

A Comparative Analysis of Productivity Measurements for Five European Countries

The last century provided the stage for important changes in the productivity of all industries. The Industrial Revolution together with the several technological revolutions enhanced the growth rhythm of economies by introducing new and improved production means. This article analyses several indicators of productivity for five European countries, during the last decades of the 20th century and the first of the 21st century. The research is based on statistical data provided by EU KLEMS, OECD and The New Maddison Project and the reviewed period is 1970-2007. The countries that have been the focus of our research are Finland, France, Germany, Greece and Spain. The choice of countries is justified by the need to approach both countries that are well known for their productivity enhancing methods and countries that have entered the race at a later stage. Another reason motivating our selection is the fact that we wanted to include countries from Northern, Central and Southern Europe. The research is based on input-output indexes used to emphasise the productivity of labour and capital and its evolution over the time. The basic research question of the present paper is whether there are largely different methods for computing productivity or we can consider the existence of a single theoretical concept measured in many ways. Subsequently, we wanted to verify whether these measurements reflect different underlying realities or if they are just different representations of the same process.

Ketteni “Multilateral Comparisons of Productivity among European Countries

2014

The objective of this multilateral comparison study is to analyse differences between levels of total factor productivity among European countries for the 2000-2012 period. Our results indicate that countries in Western and Central Europe are doing better with respect to the level of productivity compared with Mediterranean and Eastern European countries. Furthermore, we observe that most of the countries experienced increases in their productivity throughout the years. The productivity increases in Western and Central European countries are mainly due to increases in output, while the increases in Mediterranean and Eastern European countries are mainly due to the more efficient use of their inputs. It is important to note that our results suggest that the less productive countries are those with the highest productivity growth. That is, the Mediterranean and Eastern European countries show a faster productivity growth compared with the Western/Central European countries.