Product Market Regulation and Macroeconomic Performance: A Review of Cross Country Evidence

The main purpose of this paper is to provide a critical overview of the recent empirical contributions that use cross-country data to study the effect of product market regulation and reform on a country’s macroeconomic performance. After a review of the theoretical literature and of relevant micro-econometric evidence, the paper discusses the main data and methodological issues related to empirical work on this topic. It then critically evaluates the cross-country evidence on the effect of product market regulation on mark- ups, firm dynamics, investment, employment, innovation, productivity and output growth. A summary of what we learn from the econometric results concludes the paper.