Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/125720 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
WWWforEurope Working Paper No. 69
Publisher: 
WWWforEurope, Vienna
Abstract: 
Macroeconomic imbalances in the EMU are at the heart of the current crisis. A widely popular explanation for the high current account deficits in the Southern European countries is that they lack a large, competitive and export-oriented industrial sector. The paper tests the hypothesis that parts of the structural change which happened in the EU before 2008 were supported by the divergent unit labour cost developments in the EMU. We look into patterns of structural change and sectoral competitiveness in all EU member countries and assess their linkages by means of a descripitve analysis as well as through econometric estimations. Our results broadly support the hypothesis. Structural policies alone to foster new competitive export-oriented industries in Southern Europe in order to reduce macroeconomic imbalances in the EMU would not be efficient without accompanying adjustments in relative labour costs.
Subjects: 
Macroeconomic imbalances
structural change
labour costs
dynamic panel regression
JEL: 
C33
F41
J31
O40
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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