Description

This book provides a thorough and detailed analysis of economic growth in Europe from a comparative industry perspective. Why has European growth slowed down since the 1990s while American productivity growth has speeded up? This book provides a thorough and detailed analysis of the sources of growth from a comparative industry perspective. The analysis is based on rich new databases including the EU KLEMS growth accounting database. Why has European growth slowed down since the 1990s while American productivity growth has speeded up? This book provides a thorough and detailed analysis of the sources of growth from a comparative industry perspective. The analysis is based on rich new databases including the EU KLEMS growth accounting database. Why has European growth slowed down since the 1990s while American productivity growth has speeded up? This book provides a thorough and detailed analysis of the sources of growth from a comparative industry perspective. It argues that Europe's slow growth is the combined result of a severe productivity slowdown in traditional manufacturing and other goods production, and a concomitant failure to invest in and reap the benefits from Information and Communications Technology (ICT), in particular in market services. The analysis is based on rich new databases including the EU KLEMS growth accounting database and provides detailed background of the data construction. As such, the book provides new methodological perspectives and serves as a primer on the use of data in economic growth analysis. More generally, it illustrates to the research and policy community the benefits of analysis based on detailed data on the sources of economic growth. List of figures; List of tables; Preface and acknowledgments; 1. Introduction and overview; 2. Economic growth in Europe; 3. EU KLEMS database; 4. Structural change; 5. The industry origins of aggregate growth; 6. Productivity levels and convergence; 7. Drivers of productivity growth in Europe; References; Author index; Subject index. 'This book elevates the analysis of economic growth in advanced countries to new levels of sophistication and relevance. The authors have overturned the long-standing paradigm for economic growth, based on innovation, and have replaced this with the knowledge economy. This new paradigm focuses on investments in information technology equipment and software and intangibles, especially human capital. On this view, the failure of the long-standing European project to create a single market for services emerges as the main barrier to recovery of sustainable economic growth in Europe. Whatever the outcome of the current crisis, this book will be essential reading for policy-makers in the European Union countries and everyone interested in European economic affairs and the future of the world economy.' Dale Jorgenson, Samuel W. Morris University Professor, Harvard University 'This book instantly becomes the new Bible of post-war European economic growth. It so fully absorbs and moves beyond previous contributions that there is no need to read anything else. It poses a new paradox of productivity growth - since Europeans use all the same electronic devices as Americans do, from bar-code scanners, to smart phones, to laptops, why have European economies failed to use this cornucopia of an electronic revolution as the US has succeeded in doing? The answers dig deep not just into differences between the US and Europe, but more importantly be