A free lunch, if only we'll take it

A new OECD report finds:

Boosting market liberalisation by reducing trade, investment and competition barriers to "best practice" levels could significantly raise GDP per head in the European Union and the United States, according to a new OECD working paper.

The paper estimates that reducing such barriers could increase GDP per head over the medium term by the following amounts:

• 2 to 3½ per cent in the European Union.
• 1¼ to 3 per cent in the OECD area as a whole.
• 1 to 3 per cent in the United States.
• ½ to 1½ per cent in the OECD area outside the United States and the European Union.

These higher levels of GDP, once in place, would have a cumulative effect on earnings. The study estimates that the benefit to workers in OECD countries could amount to the equivalent of a full year's income across a working lifetime.

(Cutting barriers to competition, investment and trade in US and EU would boost GDP - OECD study)

via Daniel Drezner.

Comments

[ivan]

Yes, it doesn't even mean a race to the bottom, just a race to best practices.