IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ris/ecoint/0783.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why isn't Europe Growing?

Author

Listed:
  • Viren, Matti

    (Department of Economics at University of Turku, Finland)

Abstract

This paper deals with the slowdown of economic growth in Europe. For that purpose, we focus on factors that affect the long-run growth path of different economies. Special emphasis is paid to institutional and structural factors that are often assumed to affect aggregate growth: functioning of labor markets, availability of labor and capital, and the size of government. For more explicit measures, we use the data on profit rates, average working hours, various dependency ratio indexes, tax rates, other measures of the size of government, and measures of price competitiveness. Empirical analysis makes use of cross-country panel data from EU15 countries for 1971-2014. Estimation results suggest that profitability and competitiveness do indeed constitute the main determinants of growth. However, also other variables like average working hours and the size of government appear to affect growth in an important manner. All in all, slowdown of growth in Europe does not appear to be beyond reasonable explanations. Thus, more ambitious growth rates may be achieved with well-designed policies. Perchè l’Europa non cresce? Questo lavoro tratta la questione del rallentamento della crescita economica in Europa. A questo fine ci focalizziamo sui fattori che influenzano la crescita nel lungo periodo in differenti sistemi economici. Viene data particolare enfasi ai fattori strutturali e istituzionali che spesso si ritiene influenzino la crescita aggregata: funzionamento del mercato del lavoro, disponibilità di capitale e lavoro, dimensione del settore pubblico. A questo fine, utilizziamo i dati sui tassi di profitto, le media delle ore lavorate, i vari rapporti di dipendenza, la pressione fiscale ed altri indicatori della dimensione del settore pubblico e sulla competitività di prezzo. L’analisi empirica fa uso di dati panel cross-country di 15 paesi dell’Unione Europea nel periodo 1974-2014. I risultati delle stime suggeriscono che gli indici di profitto e competitività rappresentano le determinanti maggiori della crescita economica. Comunque, anche altre variabili, come la media di ore lavorate e la dimensione del settore pubblico sembrano influenzare la crescita in maniera importante. In generale la diminuzione della crescita in Europa sembra potersi spiegare in modo ragionevole. Ciò a nostro avviso implica che attraverso politiche ben strutturate si potrebbero ottenere tassi di crescita più ambiziosi.

Suggested Citation

  • Viren, Matti, 2016. "Why isn't Europe Growing?," Economia Internazionale / International Economics, Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato Agricoltura di Genova, vol. 69(4), pages 317-340.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:ecoint:0783
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.iei1946.it/upload/rivista_articoli/allegati/114_virenric100517.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Juha Kilponen & Matti Viren, 2010. "Why do growth rates differ? Evidence from cross-country data on private sector production," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 37(3), pages 311-328, July.
    2. Matti Virén & Erkki Koskela, 2000. "Is there a Laffer curve between aggregate output and public sector employment?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 605-621.
    3. Francesco Caselli & James Feyrer, 2007. "The Marginal Product of Capital," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(2), pages 535-568.
    4. Olivier de La Grandville & Rainer Klump, 2000. "Economic Growth and the Elasticity of Substitution: Two Theorems and Some Suggestions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(1), pages 282-291, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Viren Matti, 2015. "Remedies for European growth problem," Discussion Papers 104, Aboa Centre for Economics.
    2. Trenczek, Jan & Wacker, Konstantin M., 2023. "Human Capital Misallocation and Output per Worker Differences: Beyond Cobb-Douglas," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1331, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    3. Hernando Zuleta & antiago Alberico, 2007. "Labor supply, biased technological change and economic growth," Revista ESPE - Ensayos Sobre Política Económica, Banco de la República, vol. 25(53), pages 260-286, January.
    4. Virén, Matti, 2012. "How can growth be accelerated in Europe?," Research Discussion Papers 29/2012, Bank of Finland.
    5. Hernando Zuleta, 2015. "Factor shares, inequality, and capital flows," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 82(2), pages 647-667, October.
    6. Virén, Matti, 2012. "How can growth be accelerated in Europe?," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 29/2012, Bank of Finland.
    7. Dawson, John W. & Sturgill, Brad, 2022. "Market Institutions and Factor Shares Across Countries," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 266-289.
    8. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2012_029 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Hernando Zuleta, 2011. "Factor Shares, Income Distribution and Capital Flows," DEGIT Conference Papers c016_003, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    10. Nicolai J. Foss, 2012. "Linking Ethics and Economic Growth: a Comment on Hunt," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 6(3), September.
    11. Dongya Koh & Raül Santaeulàlia-Llopis, 2017. "Countercyclical Elasticity of Substitution," Working Papers 946, Barcelona School of Economics.
    12. Luca Marchiori & I-Ling Shen & Frédéric Docquier, 2013. "Brain Drain In Globalization: A General Equilibrium Analysis From The Sending Countries' Perspective," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 51(2), pages 1582-1602, April.
    13. Kevin S. Nell & Maria M. De Mello, 2019. "The interdependence between the saving rate and technology across regimes: evidence from South Africa," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 269-300, January.
    14. Blanco, Luisa & Grier, Robin, 2012. "Natural resource dependence and the accumulation of physical and human capital in Latin America," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 281-295.
    15. Mika Nieminen, 2017. "Patterns of international capital flows and their implications for developing countries," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-171, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    16. Steve Newbold & Charles Griffiths & Christopher C. Moore & Ann Wolverton & Elizabeth Kopits, 2010. "The "Social Cost of Carbon" Made Simple," NCEE Working Paper Series 201007, National Center for Environmental Economics, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, revised Aug 2010.
    17. Douglas Gollin & David Lagakos & Michael E. Waugh, 2011. "The Agricultural Productivity Gap in Developing Countries," Working Papers 11-14, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    18. Esteban Aucejo & Jonathan James, 2021. "The Path to College Education: The Role of Math and Verbal Skills," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(10), pages 2905-2946.
    19. Dalgaard, Carl-Johan & Erickson, Lennart, 2009. "Reasonable Expectations and the First Millennium Development Goal: How Much Can Aid Achieve?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 1170-1181, July.
    20. Kevin S. Nell & A.P. Thirlwall, 2017. "Why does the productivity of investment vary across countries?," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 70(282), pages 213-245.
    21. Gente, Karine & León-Ledesma, Miguel A. & Nourry, Carine, 2015. "External constraints and endogenous growth: Why didn't some countries benefit from capital flows?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 223-249.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Growth; Working Hours; Taxes; Competitiveness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
    • O43 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Institutions and Growth

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ris:ecoint:0783. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Angela Procopio (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cacogit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.