JEL classification

Arbeidskosten, loonsubsidies, arbeidsproductiviteit en opleidingsinspanningen van ondernemingen
Coût salarial, subventions salariales, productivité du travail et effort de formation des entreprises [19/07/2013]

Within the context of the economic stimulus plan adopted at the end of 2012, the government set up a group of experts from the National Bank of Belgium (NBB), the Federal Planning Bureau (FPB), the High Council for Employment (HCE), the Directorate General Statistics and Economic Information (DGSEI), the Central Economic Council (CEC) and Eurostat. The group was charged with the following missions:

• an impact analysis of subsidies which decrease labour costs in Belgium and in its three main neighbouring countries;
• an analysis per industry of the differences in labour costs and productivity between Belgium and its three main neighbouring countries;
• an objectification of  the training efforts by enterprises with regard to the 1.9 % objective set by law.

To complete these missions, the group of experts has drawn up this two-part report. The first part (A) deals with productivity and labour costs and the second part (B) discusses training efforts by enterprises.

L’évolution des coûts unitaires du travail en Belgique de 1996 à 2008 [28/05/2010]

Alternative assessment of Belgian competitiveness [15/09/2009]

This paper investigates graphically and econometrically the relationship between the relative positions, in terms of value added and relative prices, of Belgian manufacturing and market services in the European Union over 1970-2005. Relative prices are then decomposed into relative unit costs of factors of production. The analysis goes further by replacing relative unit labour cost with relative hourly wages and relative productivity. Finally, relative produc-tivity is replaced with relative capital deepening, relative labour composition effect and relative total factor productivity. All data are coming from the EUKLEMS database, March 2008 release.

Marktaandelen, concurrentievermogen en de lopende rekening [20/05/2009]

La position relative de l’économie belge en Europe [15/04/2009]

Foreign trade in Modtrim [20/09/2007]

This working paper gives an overview of the Modtrim team’s recent research in the field of Belgian exports and export markets. In the first chapter a new leading indicator is introduced as a supplementary tool to determine a growth profile for Belgium’s potential export markets in the first quarters of the forecasting period. In the second chapter, an attempt is made to improve forecasts of Belgium’s exports by breaking down the model equation into a goods and a services component. Finally, the third chapter reveals that (a lack of) competitiveness is probably not the only reason for the losses of export market share in Belgium and in some of its main trading partners in the past 25 years.