Employment and Productivity in the European Union and Comparison with the USA, 1985-2005 : Analysis of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom

The main emphasis of labour policies in several EU countries seem to have been addressed during the period 1985-2005 to contain the increases of real wages, under the misleading belief that lower wages could lead the policies to get higher employment rates. We show that the main policies to increase employment rates are not opposite to the increase of wages, and even the best labour policies, addressed to increase simultaneously labour productivity and employment, usually get both goals, as to say an increase in real wages and in the employment rate. We also analyse the main econometric approaches to the explanation of the evolution of these variables and present a comparison of their evolution in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom