Productivity growth and catch up in Europe: A new perspective on total factor productivity differences

Filippetti, Andrea and Payrache, Antonio (2010): Productivity growth and catch up in Europe: A new perspective on total factor productivity differences.

Abstract

This paper investigates the relative contribution of capital deepening and total factor productivity (TFP) as drivers of labour productivity growth and catch up in Europe. Proxies for technological capabilities (technology gap) are introduced which allow to explain differences in TFP. Using a conditional Malmquist nonparametric approach, we find that capital deepening and TFP respectively account for around 53% and 47% of labour productivity growth respectively. Further, change in technological capabilities explains 71% of change in TFP, making a substantial contribution to catch up. Different patterns arise between industrialized and catching-up countries. Our results support the scope for innovation policy, technology diffusion and education policy to explain growth and convergence in labour productivity across Europe.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: labour productivity growth, technological capabilities, EU policies, Malmquist TFP
• Subjects: O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O4 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity > O47 - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth ; Aggregate Productivity ; Cross-Country Output Convergence; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E2 - Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy > E23 - Production; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Innovation ; Research and Development ; Technological Change ; Intellectual Property Rights > O33 - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences ; Diffusion Processes

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