In this paper we present an international comparison of growth trends in the OECD countries, with a special attention to developments in labour productivity - allowing for human capital accumulation – and multifactor productivity (MFP) - allowing for changes in the composition of fixed...

This paper sheds light on the importance of aggregation bias in the analysis of wage shares developments over time and across countries. We focus on five European countries and the United States and show that the trend decline in the aggregate wage share observed in these countries over much of...

This paper presents a database on indicators of product market regulations and employment protection legislation for most of the OECD countries and illustrates a methodology for aggregating these detailed indicators into summary indicators of the strictness of regulations. The summary indicators...

This paper presents empirical estimates of human-capital augmented growth equations for a panel of 21 OECD countries over the period 1971-98. It uses an improved dataset on human capital and a novel econometric technique that reconciles growth model assumptions with the needs of panel data...

In this paper, we present estimates of the mark-up of product price over marginal costs for the US manufacturing industries over the 1970-1992 period. The paper extends the analysis used in previous studies based on nominal productivity residuals by considering intermediate inputs and cyclical...

This paper analyses the determinants of the retirement decision in Germany using microdata from the German Socio-Economic Panel over the period 1985-1995. Non-parametric and semi-parametric techniques have been used to describe the exit to retirement. Non-parametric estimates suggest that the...

Problems of unemployment and low pay amongst the low-skilled and those with little work experience are severe in many OECD countries. Employment-conditional schemes are policy instruments designed to increase the employment prospects of the low-skilled as well as to support their living...

This paper relates diverging productivity performances across OECD countries over the past fifteen years to differences in the stringency of regulations in the product market. We first summarize industry-level evidence linking these diverging patterns to delays in service markets reforms in the...

<I>This paper provides estimates of mark-ups of product prices over marginal costs for 36 manufacturing industries in 14 OECD countries over the 1970- 1992 period. The estimates are based on the methodology put forward by Roeger (1995), extended to include intermediate inputs. After a discussion of...</i>

This paper assesses the implications of past and ongoing reforms in OECD product markets for the labour productivity gap, a key component of cross-country differences in GDP per capita. After a brief review of the theoretical literature, we bring together the results obtained in some of our...