are ICT and intangibles the missing links?
No 200204, CCSO Working Papers from University of Groningen, CCSO Centre for Economic Research Abstract: This paper looks at the changes in economic performance across the OECD area during the 1990s. More specifically it reviews the explanations for differences in growth and relative levels of productivity and per capita income. Firstly it looks at the performance of labour market indicators, such as hours worked per person employed and labour force participation rates, to understand the rising Europe/US gap in labour productivity. Secondly, it reviews the evidence on the role of ICT investment in explaining productivity differentials, and the contributions of ICT-producing industries and intensive ICT-using industries to the change in productivity during the second half of the 1990s. Finally, the paper relates the scarce evidence of the role on intangible investment, in particular investment in knowledge, to productivity differentials. The analysis suggests that differences in realiza
