As we learned in class, Germans have a constitution that lay out economic goals, including full employment. In a study posted by IEE, they discuss how the workers in South European countries put in more hours than in those in North European countries, such as Germany. But the article goes on to discuss how while in Spain unemployment changed dramatically during the recession, in Germany it was the hours worked while unemployment remained low.
The study, while trying to indicate that South Europeans are harder workers, might instead indicate that these countries have something they could learn from German practices. As German GDP per working hour, while the lower end of Northern countries, is still higher than the best measure in Southern countries. So perhaps it is not working hard that can necessarily bring a country out of a slump, working smart might be the way to go.
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5 comments:
The problem with Greece is that their government workers are getting paid too much, and that is what hurt their economy more when they went into a recession. If they are working hard then why has there not been progress? Should Greece be changing their labor policies in order to copy Germany? Or is it harder than just that?
Does it really matter how many hours someone works doesn't productivity matter more? A country that is more developed is going to be more productive than one that is not, because of resources, capital and human capital. Thus does Greece need to be a more productive society in order to get out of their recession? How does that happen?
Germany's labor market is set up so that part-time workers get benefits that helps employment stay steady. I wonder what would happen if these policies were in Spain? Would it help their economy? Spain has 14% of part-time workers, which is pretty low. Is it because women are being left out of the economy? Since Germany has been making strides with including women in theirs. Increasing labor can have a big effect on a country, it was successful in Asia, maybe that is the simple trick that can help Spain's economy.
I definitely agree that productivity is more important. And Germany, as well as other countries, have labor policies that allow them to reward hard work without raising wages, which could affect employment in other sectors. Greece does have an issue where their government/protected sector workers have too high of wages, which influences worker migration as the wages do not become a reflection of the productivity of the sector and can also cause inflation if prices for goods and services rise beyond the ability of export competing sectors to increase wages to stay competitive.
So there are definitely some things that do need to change, perhaps an entire overhaul of the system to match some of the more productive countries.
I agree with Sara. Productivity is "the rate at which goods and services having exchange value are brought forth or produced" (Dictionary.com), meaning creating the highest output with the lowest possible resources. In Spain's case, time is the most important resource. Germany's system is able to create output with much less time and so I think it would be beneficial for Spain to alter its system to reflect more on Germany's.
Additional source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/productivity?s=t
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