The productivity slowdown puzzle of European countries: a focus on Italy

With the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the new millennium many European countries, especially those of the Southern Europe, experienced a structural economic change. The slowdown of the GDP growth rate, the deterioration of labor productivity, total factor productivity and investments are all common facts. In this paper we use the growth accounting to measure the contribution of different sources to economic growth in some European countries and in U.S.. We attempt to disentangle the determinants of the European slowdown during the Great Recession, with a special focus on Italy. The analysis suggests that the productivity slowdown of the Italian economy is structural. It affects both the non-ICT and ICT sectors.