EU productivity now 20% below US: Andrew McAfee urges Brussels to build a startup ecosystem
amcafee · x · 2026-10-09
In Foreign Affairs, MIT Sloan's Andrew McAfee argues Europe is falling behind: EU labor productivity was once 95% of US levels around 2000, but has since reversed and now sits 20% lower.
He attributes the decline largely to Europe missing the digital revolution — only 2 of the world's 100 most valuable tech companies are European. With regulatory and institutional barriers still in place, he calls on Brussels to build "a startup ecosystem capable of supplying the new growth engines Europe needs."
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