US-vs-Europe structural rigidities: A re-think

Un article intéressant sur les évolutions comparées de l'Europe et des USA sur certains critères macro économiques clés, dont la productivité. Vers le milieu de l'article, un point sur la mobilité sociale comparée des US et de certains pays européens.

US-vs-Europe structural rigidities: A re-think vox - Research-based policy analysis and commentary from Europe's leading economists

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Death of the American Dream

The strength and pride of America has traditionally been that it provides for a high level of social mobility. It is part of the “American Dream” in which the poorest of the poor can climb to the top of the social ladder in one generation. This dream has attracted millions of outsiders to the land of promise, away from old Europe, which was incapable of providing a future for the poor. The high social mobility has also worked as a “safety valve” that allows political acceptance of the high income inequality in the US. Finally, it has provided the basis for the extraordinary dynamics of the US economy. Developments of the last decades have shattered this American Dream. It now appears that many EU countries have created an environment in which it is significantly easier for the poor to climb the social ladder than it is in the US. Structural reforms will be necessary in the US if it wants to emulate the success of European countries in organising social mobility.
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Source: Jäntti, M., Bratsberg, B., Røed, K., Raaum, O., Naylor, R., Österbacka, E., Oddbjørn, Björklund, A., and Eriksson, T., (2006), American Exceptionalism in a New Light: A Comparison of Intergenerational Earnings Mobility in the Nordic Countries, the United Kingdom and the United States, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Discussion Paper, no. 1938