Cover -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1 New Policies and New Goals for Changing Times -- The Need for Sustained Economic Reform in Europe -- Reform Progress to Date -- A Framework for Transforming the European Economy -- Summarizing the Nature of the Reform Proposals -- Feasibility of Reform Proposals -- Chapter Summaries -- Concluding Remarks -- Chapter 2 Europe's Postwar Success and Subsequent Problems -- What Drove Rapid Growth in Postwar Europe? -- The European System's Advantages for Postwar Catch-Up -- The 1973-95 Global Growth Slowdown -- The Impact of Slower Productivity Growth: The US Lesson -- The Impact of the Productivity Growth Slowdown on the European Economy -- Cyclical and Structural Sources of Low Employment -- Skill Differences and the Distribution of Wages -- Taxes, Transfers, and the Willingness to Work -- Demographic Changes: Extended Life Expectancy and Changes in Cohort Size -- The Possibility of an Unstable Labor Market: A Warning Parable -- Economic Performance since 1995 -- The Diagnosis -- Appendix 2.1 A Model of Employment and Productivity -- Chapter 3 What Drives Productivity Growth and How to Improve It in Europe -- Policy Implications of the OECD Growth Analysis -- Understanding What Drives Productivity Improvements Based on US Experience -- Can Growth Accounting Track US Productivity Trends and Reveal the Role of IT? -- Industry Data and Case Studies: How Much More Do They Explain? -- A Summary Explanation for the Post-1995 Improvement in US Productivity Growth -- Case Study Evidence on the Importance of Regulation and Competition in Europe -- Lessons for Europe about Procompetitive Productivity-Enhancing Regulation -- The Role of IT in Productivity in Europe: Is an IT Policy Needed? -- The Role of IT in European Economic Growth -- Chapter 4 The Productivity Puzzle in Britain.

Economic Performance in the Postwar Period -- Resolving the Productivity Puzzle: Capital, Skills, and Other Factors -- Productivity Differences Associated with Nationality of Ownership and with Being Part of a Multinational Company -- Case Study Evidence of Barriers to Productivity in Britain -- Why Does the OECD Conclude that Product Markets in Britain Are Deregulated? -- Conclusions on the Productivity Gap in Britain -- Chapter 5 Reforming the Labor Market and Social Programs -- Reform and European Labor-Market Values -- Social Policy Reforms -- The Wage-Setting Process: Making Jobs Available -- Labor-Market Reforms: European Solutions That Have Raised Employment -- Appendix 5.1 The Nonobserved Economy, Undeclared Work, and European Economic Reforms -- Chapter 6 What Europe Should Do: Getting the Macroeconomics Right -- The Stability and Growth Pact -- Fiscal Policy Leading Up to and after the SGP -- Problems with the SGP -- Reform Proposals from Economists -- The European Commission's Reform Proposal for the SGP -- Modifying the European Commission Proposals -- Getting the Macroeconomics Right: The ECB Mandate and Its Stated Goals -- External Assessments of What the ECB Has Actually Done -- Is the ECB Following the Right Monetary Policy? -- Macroeconomic Policy to Support Reform -- Chapter 7 Are Current Reform Efforts on the Right Track? -- Where Does EU Competition Policy Stand Now and What More Is Needed? -- Reform: Driven by Individual European Governments, Reinforced at the EU Level -- A Summary of Reforms to Date in the Four Largest Economies -- A Big Push or a Slow and Incremental Approach to Reform? -- Conclusion: Progress Has Been Made, but Much More Is Needed -- References -- Index.