Every summer, the Rencontres Économiques d’Aix-en-Provence brings together leading economic thinkers to discuss the issues shaping our societies. At the end of the session entitled ‘Capital, labour and progress: why is productivity slowing down?’, our Senior Economic Adviser Hervé Goulletquer showed how these debates directly inform the strategic decisions of companies and investors. His analysis illustrates the value we seek to bring, namely transforming global trends into key insights for understanding risks, anticipating sectoral changes and identifying opportunities for value creation.
Productivity is slowing down all over the world. But Hervé emphasises a deeper dynamic: productivity reflects an economy’s capacity for transformation. It increases when capital and labour are reallocated to the most promising sectors and uses.
However, in Europe, this process of adaptation is slower than elsewhere. Such rigidity slows productivity gains and ultimately weighs on overall growth. And less growth means less wealth to share between companies and employees, which fuels social tensions and weakens public finances.
For executives and investors alike, understanding this mechanism is not just an academic question: it is key to anticipating sector developments, market risks and tomorrow’s opportunities.