The EU has made further progress towards achieving the Lisbon targets, particularly with respect to improved labour productivity. Whether this signals the beginning of a higher productivity growth path in the longer term remains unclear.
The European Growth and Jobs Monitor: Interim Update, Autumn 2007
There is a clear connection between infrastructure, or public investment, on the one hand and economic growth on the other. Bottlenecks caused by congestion and agglomeration (“congestion costs”) are calls for action to policymakers.
Globalisation, public-sector financing woes and efficiency considerations support the use of public-private partnerships for the implementation and running of infrastructure projects.
Education spending shares many characteristics with infrastructure investment, and should, in the main, be not only viewed as such, but also – to ensure that targeted political decisions are made – also recorded as such in terms of statistics to a greater extent than hitherto.