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The paper offers some reflections on the convergence of productivity in the United States and Europe, which essentially stopped in the 1990s. It argues that the barriers preventing further convergence in the early 1990s were removed subsequently. But since then trends in productivity growth have been importantly affected by the advent of the New Economy, which poses further challenges for Europe. Without additional reform of European labor markets, financial markets, and university systems, we may be on the eve of another era of persistent divergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a simple model of labor supply extended to allow for home production to understand the extent to which differences in taxes can account for differences in time allocations between the US and Europe. Once home production is included, the elasticity of substitution between consumption and leisure is almost irrelevant in determining the response of market hours to higher taxes. But to account for observed differences in leisure and time spent in home production, one still requires a relatively large elasticity of substitution between consumption and leisure, combined with a relatively small elasticity of substitution between time and goods in home production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an overview of articles on economic policy agenda for the 21st century. Definition of the U.S. economic policy agenda; Analysis of the challenges of stimulating economic growth in Europe; Examination of the changes in European competition policy.