"In recent years the United States has had stronger productivity growth than the EU while the UK has done better than France or Germany. This is quite a turn around from the earlier post-war period. Why ?A major role has been played by the diffusion of ICT (information and communications technologies), the extent to which it has been obstructed by regulation and, especially, how well it has been assimilated in the services sector, especially in distribution. The key point is not so much that regulation has become more onerous in the now less-rapidly growing countries but rather that existing regulations have become more costly in the context of ICT."

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