Wieder am falschen Hebel gezogen

Europe’s economic stagnation relative to the United States stems primarily from a persistent productivity gap that widened significantly after 1995. This decline is largely driven by the structural reallocation of labor from high-productivity sectors into stagnant service industries, a phenomenon known as Baumol’s cost disease. Professor Joao Duarte notes that while the US experienced similar shifts, Europe’s inability to foster high-tech innovation and its reliance on low-skill service sectors have exacerbated the divergence. Addressing this requires fundamental structural reforms—including deregulation, labor market flexibility, and education improvements—rather than increased EU spending or centralized industrial policy. Furthermore, the rise of artificial intelligence threatens to deepen labor market polarization, creating a critical tension between the necessity of technological adoption and the preservation of social cohesion within the European middle class.