Measuring the role of manufacturing in the productivity growth of the European economies (1993–2007)

Abstract

This article focuses on the changes and dynamics followed by manufacturing production in order to quantify the share of manufacturing in the aggregate productivity growth of European economies, as well as the share of each industrial branch in the growth of manufacturing productivity. It proposes that the contribution of manufacturing to aggregate productivity remains high, but lower than that of the service sector, that within manufacturing the growth pattern of technology-intensive branches is more oriented towards productivity, and that the growth pattern of manufacturing will tend to be increasingly oriented towards productivity since demand growth is higher in the more technology-intensive branches.