-->Der Economist dieser Woche beschäftigt sich in einem längeren Artikel mit der US Produktivität bzw. den Produktivitätsunterschieden USA Euroland. Daraus folgender Auszug zu den gemessenen und faktischen Unterschieden, weil ich nicht weiß, ob der Link für alle funktioniert.

…..Perhaps the biggest puzzle about America's productivity gains is why Europe's IT investment has not delivered similar increases. Since the mid-1990s, while America's productivity growth has quickened, that in the European Union has slowed sharply (see chart 3).
Official statistics, however, exaggerate America's lead. American firms' spending on software is counted as investment, so it contributes to GDP. In the euro area, most countries count such software as a current business expense, and so it is excluded from final output. This depresses Europe's productivity growth relative to America's.
In addition, many European economies (unlike America's) do not allow fully for gains in computer quality over time. So official figures understate GDP growth. Adjusting for this undoubtedly narrows the gap between Europe and America. But it cannot alter the fact that productivity growth has actually fallen in Europe.
According to one study† virtually all of the difference in the growth rates of productivity in America and Europe in the late 1990s came from just three industries: wholesaling, retailing and securities trading. Just as American retailers made big efficiency gains for reasons not directly related to computers, European firms fell behind because with some exceptions, such as France's Carrefour, they were much less free to develop “big box” retail formats. Regulations on the use of land prevent the carving out of greenfield sites for big stores in suburban locations.
Angel Ubide, an economist at Tudor Investment, an American fund management company, argues that IT investment has benefited America more than the EU because Europe already had a high ratio of capital to labour (the result of its higher unit labour costs). America started the 1990s with a low capital-to-labour ratio, so there was much greater scope for investment, and hence room to boost labour productivity. In contrast, the EU's capital-to-labour ratio has risen by much less.
A more common complaint is that Europe's inflexible labour and product markets hinder the shift of labour and capital that is needed to unlock productivity gains. This is undoubtedly true. However, recent reforms to make labour markets more flexible may themselves have reduced productivity growth by deliberately making growth more job-intensive. Arrangements such as part-time jobs and fixed-term contracts, and cuts in social-security contributions for the low paid, have encouraged more hiring. The flip-side is lower productivity growth as more low-skilled workers enter the workforce.
It is striking that productivity growth has slowed most in those European countries with the strongest growth in jobs. In Germany, for example, where few new jobs have been created over the past decade, productivity growth has held up better than elsewhere.
America was the first big country to embrace IT, so it is hardly surprising that it has been the first to benefit. Most European countries still lag behind in their use of computers and the internet. Thus the benefits for them may lie in the future. Indeed, the eventual economic pay-off could turn out to be bigger in Europe than in the United States. In theory, the internet, by increasing transparency and competition, could make deep inroads into archaic European business practices. If it is true that European firms are much less efficient than their American counterparts, there is greater scope for productivity gains.
There is also an advantage in being a follower in adopting new technology, rather than a trailblazer: you can wait to see what works and then pick the best bits. As Paul Saffo of California's Institute for the Future once said: “The early bird may catch the worm; but it is always the second mouse that gets the cheese.”
Ebenfalls interessant zum gleichen Thema der Aufsatz der drei Produktivitäts-Gurus Ark Inklaar McGuckin:
ICT and productivity in Europe and the United States
Where do the differences come from?

Popeye