Based on a disaggregation of the workforce into three qualification or educational attainment categories, the article estimates the effects on hourly productivity from changes in the employment rate structure and from changes in the qualification structure. 21 OECD countries are then ranked in terms of the potential gains in GDP they could expect from moving to the educational attainment rates and employment rates of the best performing countries.

We identify the impact of intermediate goods markets imperfections on productivity downstream. Our empirical specification is based on a model of multifactor productivity growth in which the effects of upstream competition can vary with distance to frontier. This model is estimated on a panel of 15 OECD countries and 20 industries over 1985-2007. Competitive pressures are proxied with industry product market regulation data. We find evidence that anticompetitive upstream regulations have significantly curbed MFP growth over the past 15 years, and more strongly so for observations that are close to the productivity frontier.<br><small>(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)</small>

This study ties in with recent literature on how a country’s growth determinants are shaped by its technological position. In addition to the effects of education and regulations on the goods market and labour market, we also explore potential interaction between these regulations. We use data on 17 OECD countries for the period 1985-2003. Our main novel findings are the characterization of the effects of (1) the education level of the working-age population and (2) rigidities in the goods market and labour market on total factor productivity (TFP) growth. For countries close to the technological frontier, the effects seem very significant. An interaction between the rigidities in the two markets is clearly visible. The strong impact of higher-education level and rigidities on TFP growth appears to reflect a direct influence and an indirect effect via the diffusion of ICTs. In the goods market, the “entry barriers”, “market structure”, and “degree of vertical integration” seem to have a major influence. For countries far from the technological frontier, our estimates show that the higher-education level of the working-age population and rigidities in the goods market and labour market do not necessarily have a significant impact on TFP growth. These results underscore the importance of gains in productivity growth, and therefore in potential GDP growth, that some industrialized countries—mainly in Europe, including France—could expect from policies aimed at raising the education level of the working-age population and at reducing rigidities in the goods market and labour market.

Estimating returns to hours worked and the employment rate provides us with an original interpretation of changes in US productivity and other industrialized countries' catch-up with US productivity levels over recent decades.