The Nordic Economic Policy Review is published by the Nordic Council of Ministers and addresses policy issues in a way that is useful for informed non-specialists as well as for professional economists. All articles are commissioned from leading professional economists and are subject to peer review prior to publication. The review appears twice a year. The journal is distributed free of charge to the members of the Nordic economic associations. The easiest way to subscribe to the NEPR is therefore to become a member of one of these associations, i.e., Denmark: Nationaløkonomisk Forening Finland: Taloustieteellinen Yhdistys Norway: Samfunnsøkonomene Sweden: Nationalekonomiska Föreningen. For institutional subscriptions, please contact nepr@iies.su.se.    

Content:

• The widening productivity gap between the EU and the US: An introduction to the conference on productivity and competitiveness - Jakob B. Madsen and Anders Sørensen.
• Up the hill and down again: A history of Europe’s productivity gap relative to the United States, 1950-2009 - Bart van Ark Comment by Matti Pohjola.
• Regulation, resource reallocation and productivity growth - Jens Matthias Arnold, Giuseppe Nicoletti and Stefano Scarpetta. Comment by Mika Maliranta.
• Human capital and productivity - Angel de la Fuente Comment by Pekka Ilmakunnas
• Productivity and international firm activities: What do we know? - Joachim Wagner. Comment by Markku Stenborg.
• Innovation and productivity - Bronwyn H. Hall. Comment by Ari Hyytinen
• A personnel economics approach to productivity enhancement - Edward P. Lazear and Kathryn L. Shaw. Comment by Tuomas Pekkarinen.
• Productivity and education: Benchmarking of elementary and lower secondary schools in Denmark - Peter Bogetoft and Jesper Wittrup. Comment by Timo Kuosmanen.