The writer is a senior fellow of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Europe is often portrayed as the great underperformer of the global economy, undermined by economic rigidity, high wages and an expansive social welfare system. For years critics have argued that these features must be reversed because they erode Europe’s competitiveness, pushing manufacturing activity towards more “nimble” economies that suppress wages, weaken labour protections, subsidise manufacturing and maintain tight control over their external accounts.
But it is important to distinguish between conditions and policies that make European businesses less efficient and those that make them less competitive globally. These are not the same.
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