ICT demand behaviour: an international comparison

Breaking the Oil Spell

“…This in turn suggests that liberalizing product markets is key to enhancing productivity growth in developed countries, also because it facilitates the diffusion of the ICT wave through various sectors of the economy. Cette and Lopez (2012), who confirm this result, show that the euro area and Japan suffer from a lack of ICT diffusion compared with the United States. 1 Using an econometric analysis, they show that this is explained by institutional factors: a lower education level, on average, of the working-age population and more regulations on labor and product markets in the euro area and Japan.…”

“…These seven countries together represented 88½ percent of the euro area's GDP in 2012. SeeFigure 4inCette and Lopez (2012). ©International Monetary Fund. Not for Redistribution…”

Productivity Trends in Advanced Countries between 1890 and 2012

“…Naturally, one important question is to ascertain the reason for the ICT diffusion lag in the non-U.S. countries. As mentioned above, several studies (Van Ark et al, 2008;Cette and Lopez, 2012) stressed this point and showed that this ICT diffusion lag was due to the lower education level of the working age population and to higher rigidities on product and labor markets relative to the U.S. Indeed, even after the catch-up following WWII, differences in higher education attainment between the U.S. and other countries, especially the euro area, are still considerable (1.3 years for the U.S. in 1995 compared to around 0.5 in euro area countries).…”

“…Numerous studies provide alternative explanations for the ICT diffusion lag observed everywhere but in the U.K. and in the U.S. (see, for example, the studies quoted above). Cette and Lopez (2012) present a survey of this literature and show, through an econometric approach on country panel data, that this lag can be explained by differences in the average education level of the working age population and by higher labor and product market regulations.…”

L’euro 2009-2019 : de l’adolescence à l’âge adulte

“…Il existe en particulier une large réserve de croissance dans la hausse potentielle des taux d'emploi de la zone euro (66,1 % en 2008), très inférieure à celle d'autres pays avancés comme les États-Unis (70,9 %) ou la Suède (74,3 %). Une convergence de la diffusion des technologies de l'information sur les États-Unis, permise par une plus grande flexibilité des marchés (Cette et Lopez, 2009), constituerait également une source de croissance pour la zone euro. La R&D, en particulier celle des entreprises, doit pouvoir être ramenée aux niveaux des États-Unis ou du Japon, ce qui doit aller de pair avec le renforcement du capital humain et de nos systèmes d'éducation.…”