Presentation Title: IS SLOW ECONOMIC GROWTH THE 'NEW NORMAL' FOR EUROPE? Not so long ago, people were excited by the promise of a ‘new economy’ based on the computer and the internet. Now, after a major financial crisis and many years of sluggish performance, estimates of the trend rate of economic growth in western European economies have become increasingly downbeat –the implication seems to be that we are stuck in a world of ‘secular stagnation’. Pessimists think all the economically important innovations have already been made some time ago. Yet, optimists see a future of accelerating technological progress based on driverless cars, robots etc. which can sustain an era of rapid labour productivity growth and there is much speculation about the labour-market adjustment problems and issues of economic inequality that may ensue as low-wage jobs disappear. Both these views cannot simultaneously be right but which is the more plausible? This partly depends on how well European countries do in diffusing technological advances and embracing creative destruction – the exit of the old and the entry of the new - while redeploying workers rather than consigning them to economic inactivity or unemployment. In most European countries, this has not been a strength in the recent past; indeed, a major reason for their slow pre-crisis productivity growth was the failure to exploit effectively the opportunities of the information and communications technology (ICT) revolution. So what is the right policy framework to allow economic growth in Europe to speed up in the new technological era and are necessary reforms likely to be adopted?

Biography: Dr. Nicholas Crafts is Professor of Economics and Economic History and Director of the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) Research Centre on Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE), at the University of Warwick. His main fields of interest are long-run economic growth, why growth rates differ, British economic performance and policy in the 20th century, and the industrial revolution. In addition to many publications He has also contributed to research by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.