Growing United : Upgrading Europe's Convergence Machine
Since its foundation over sixty years ago, the European Union (EU) has become the modern world's greatest "convergence machine", propelling poorer, and newer, member states to become high-income economies, and delivering to its citiz...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/250311520359538450/Growing-united-upgrading-Europes-convergence-machine http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29448 |
| Summary: | Since its foundation over sixty years
ago, the European Union (EU) has become the modern
world's greatest "convergence machine",
propelling poorer, and newer, member states to become
high-income economies, and delivering to its citizens some
of the highest living standards and lowest levels of income
inequality in the world. But today, Europeans are
increasingly recognizing that convergence is not automatic.
Inequality among people has been mounting in many parts of
the EU since the 1990s, as low-income Europeans are falling
behind in the labor market. And the productivity gap between
Southern and Northern member states has been widening since
the early 2000s. The EU is growing, but Europeans are not
"growing united". Why? Growing United argues that
technological change, by revolutionizing product and labor
markets, is slowing down the old convergence machine:
technology offers ever richer opportunities for well-skilled
workers and frontier firms, while low-skilled workers and
less productive firms risk falling behind. As a result,
countries that provide less opportunities for people to
build relevant skills and a less supportive environment for
firms to thrive are losing ground. This calls for an upgrade
to Europe's convergence machine, to seize the benefits
of technological change for all Europeans. Growing United
argues that the convergence machine, version 2.0, should
focus on the convergence of opportunities for people and
firms across the Union. It should support the capabilities
of people (skills) and firms (innovation), and provide a
level-playing field for people and firms through
"flexicure" labor markets and an enabling business environment. |
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