"The relationship between structural reform and macroeconomic policy underlies the widespread perception that the large European economies have underperformed in the recent past in comparison both with their own standards and with the contemporaneous performance of the United States. Nobel Laureate Robert M. Solow introduces the book by observing that, within European financial and governmental institutions and among European economists, the most common response is a call for structural reforms, primarily deregulation of the labour market, to make it more like a spot market for a perishable commodity, with the implicit presumption that essentially nothing else is needed. This book takes a more inclusive view and provides analyses that might be useful in a more coordinated and simultaneous approach on all three fronts - labour and product markets, and also the demand side."--BOOK JACKET