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Productivity and Competitiveness
The McKinsey Global Institute's research has examined the drivers of productivity in nearly 20 countries around the world across more than 30 industry sectors.

With the breadth and academic rigor of economic analyses, MGI assesses the productivity performance and competitiveness of countries and sectors relative to global benchmarks. Building on McKinsey's industry expertise in the way companies operate across the globe, MGI is then able to explain how managerial decisions and industry dynamics lead to these aggregate outcomes. We have also assessed the potential impact of growth drivers such as information technology and innovation, manufacturing versus service industries, and the informal economy.

Featured Books
McKinsey Global Institute Anthology Series McKinsey Global Institute Anthology Series
Diana Farrell (Editor), 2007

Now available, a new collection of McKinsey Global Institute research, published by Harvard Business School Press, offers perspectives on offshoring, productivity, and what drives economic growth.
Read more on the main McKinsey site
Highlights
Five Priorities for Brazil's Economy
To enter the ranks of the world's leading economies, Brazil must
remove entrenched barriers to productivity.
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Increasing Global Competition and Labor Productivity: Lessons from the U.S. Automotive Industry
MGI found that process innovations in the U.S. auto industry (1987–2002) were the largest contributor to the increase in auto sector productivity growth, while advantage conferred by product innovations was short-lived.
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Perspective — Domestic Services: The Hidden Key to Growth
While often neglected, the sheer size of local service sectors makes them powerful drivers of GDP growth in developing countries.
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Sweden's Economic Performance: Recent Development, Current Priorities
To sustain growth, Sweden should focus on three priorities: improve competition in the private sector, accelerate productivity in the public sector, and focus on job creation in services sectors.
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How Brazil Can Grow
A sector-based analysis maps the barriers to productivity in Brazil and identifies the path to higher growth.
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Perspective — U.S. Productivity after the Dot-Com Bust
A sector-by-sector analysis unveils the sources of continued productivity growth in the United States, even after the dot-com collapse in 2000.
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Perspective — A Road Map for European Economic Reform
To maintain adequate social programs, Europe must restore full employment and generate economic growth through regulatory reform.
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The Hidden Dangers of the Informal Economy
In between legitimate businesses and black market activity, there floats a segment of the economy where quasi-legal practices are the standard. Often ignored or explained away, the informal, or gray, economy can dampen productivity and undermine a nation's financial health.
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Perspective — Improving European Competitiveness
Many European countries need economic reforms that will encourage sectors to develop, adopt, and scale innovations.
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Regulation That's Good for Competition
The McKinsey Quarterly, 2005 Number 2
Unfortunately, regulation often has a negative effect. What can governments do to get it right?
Read more on the McKinsey Quarterly site
Reining in Brazil's Informal Economy
The McKinsey Quarterly, 2005 Number 1
Brazil's economy could grow by an additional 1.5 percent a year if its government launched a concerted effort to reduce the size of the gray market, as many other countries have succeeded in doing.
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Turkey: Making the Productivity and Growth Breakthrough
Turkey's economy is poised to take off. Completing a successful transformation, however, means Turkey needs to confront monopolies and traditionally run businesses that are slow to modernize. MGI shows how privatization and enforcement of financial laws will boost the economy.
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Perspective — Whatever Happened To The New Economy?
Reports of the New Economy's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Evidence from both the U.S. and Europe indicates that IT was and is important to productivity growth, but that its primary role is as an enabler of innovation and competition.
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Perspective — How IT Enables Productivity Growth
IT was during the '90s boom most effective when tailored to sector-specific business processes, deployed sequentially to build capabilities over time, and coevolved incrementally with managerial and technical innovations.
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Getting IT Spending Right This Time
Smart IT investing doesn't require a return to the spendthrift ways of the late 1990s.
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U.S. Productivity Growth, 1995–2000
This study reveals the sources of the U.S. productivity miracle in the late '90s and the economy's future prospects. Much of the U.S. productivity acceleration was structural in nature and should endure.
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Reaching Higher Productivity Growth in France and Germany
Following the end of World War II, France and Germany made dramatic strides in narrowing the labor productivity gap with the United States. Then that trend suddenly changed. This MGI report uncovers the reasons why and what France and Germany can do about it.
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Slideshow and MP3
MGI explores how the informal economy dampens productivity growth and describes implications for policymakers.
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Audio Presentation
Diana Farrell explores the relationship between IT and productivity.
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Gain MGI insights through interactive graphics, podcasts and other media.
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New Horizons: Multinational Company Investment in Developing Economies
A major study suggests that both multinational companies and developing economies could find enormous benefits through foreign direct investment. But global expansion has its pitfalls as well as its opportunities, and CEOs as well as policy leaders need to understand them both.
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U.S. Productivity Growth, 1995–2000
This study reveals the sources of the U.S. productivity miracle in the late '90s and the economy's future prospects. Much of the U.S. productivity acceleration was structural in nature and should endure.
Read more
Whatever Happened to the New Economy?
Reports of the New Economy's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Evidence from both the U.S. and Europe indicates that IT was and is important to productivity growth, but that its primary role is as an enabler of innovation and competition.
Read more
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