A European Turns the Tables

It has become conventional wisdom that the European economies are held back by "structural rigidities" - in particular, too much labor-market regulation - in contrast to the "flexibility" of the "dynamic" US economy. In an essay titled "Structural Rigidities in the US and Europe," Belgian economist Paul De Grauwe turns the tables, identifying "structural rigidities" in the US. In particular, the US lags Europe in social mobility, and that the US gets less output per unit of energy input.

De Grawe's piece is at VoxEU, a useful new website publishing commentary by (mostly) European economists.