IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/126077.html

Europe’s Trade Surplus, International Relative Prices, and the Productivity Growth Gap

Author

Listed:
  • Ifrim, Adrian
  • Kollmann, Robert
  • Pfeiffer, Philipp
  • Ratto, Marco
  • Roeger, Werner

Abstract

The Euro Area faces persistently weak productivity growth alongside a sustained trade surplus and a trendless real exchange rate. This column shows that persistent productivity growth differentials relative to the rest of the world, are a key driver of Europe’s external surplus. Structural trade shifts, such as declining home bias and falling import prices, have offset the appreciation pressures from the productivity-growth gap. Weak domestic investment is partly driven by global forces, highlighting the limits of purely demand-based explanations and associated policy prescriptions.

Suggested Citation

  • Ifrim, Adrian & Kollmann, Robert & Pfeiffer, Philipp & Ratto, Marco & Roeger, Werner, 2025. "Europe’s Trade Surplus, International Relative Prices, and the Productivity Growth Gap," MPRA Paper 126077, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:126077
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/126077/1/MPRA_paper_126077.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Backus, David K & Kehoe, Patrick J & Kydland, Finn E, 1994. "Dynamics of the Trade Balance and the Terms of Trade: The J-Curve?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(1), pages 84-103, March.
    2. Kollmann, Robert & Pataracchia, Beatrice & Raciborski, Rafal & Ratto, Marco & Roeger, Werner & Vogel, Lukas, 2016. "The post-crisis slump in the Euro Area and the US: Evidence from an estimated three-region DSGE model," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 21-41.
    3. Robert Kollmann & Marco Ratto & Werner Roeger & Jan in't Veld & Lukas Vogel, 2015. "What drives the German current account? And how does it affect other EU Member States?," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 30(81), pages 47-93.
    4. Ivan Jaccard & Frank Smets, 2020. "Structural Asymmetries and Financial Imbalances in the Eurozone," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 36, pages 73-102, April.
    5. Margaret Kyle & Agnès Bénassy-Quéré & Olivier Blanchard & Laurence Boone & Gilberte Cette & Chiara Criscuolo & Anne Epaulard & Jean Sebastien & Xavier Ragot & Philippe Martin & Alexandra Roulet & Davi, 2019. "Productivity and competitiveness in the euro area: A view from France [Productivité et compétitivité : où en est la France dans la zone euro ?]," Sciences Po Economics Publications (main) hal-02452575, HAL.
    6. Robert Kollmann & Beatrice Pataracchia & Rafal Raciborski & Marco Ratto & Werner Roeger & Lukas Vogel, 2017. "Drivers of the Post-crisis Slump in the Eurozone and the US," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2017-22, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    7. Adrian Ifrim & Robert Kollmann & Philipp Pfeiffer & Marco Ratto & Werner Roeger, 2025. "Persistent Global Growth Differences and Euro Area Adjustment: Real Activity, Trade and the Real Exchange Rate," Working Papers ECARES 2025-11, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    8. Margaret Kyle & Agnès Bénassy-Quéré & Blanchard Olivier & Laurence Boone & Gilberte Cette & Chiara Criscuolo & Anne Epaulard & Jean Sebastien & Xavier Ragot & Philippe Martin & Alexandra Roulet & Davi, 2019. "Productivity and competitiveness in the euro area: A view from France [Productivité et compétitivité : où en est la France dans la zone euro ?]," Post-Print hal-02452575, HAL.
    9. Ozhan, Galip Kemal, 2020. "Financial intermediation, resource allocation, and macroeconomic interdependence," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 265-278.
    10. Gita Gopinath & Şebnem Kalemli-Özcan & Loukas Karabarbounis & Carolina Villegas-Sanchez, 2017. "Capital Allocation and Productivity in South Europe," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(4), pages 1915-1967.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Adrian Ifrim & Robert Kollmann & Philipp Pfeiffer & Marco Ratto & Werner Roeger, 2025. "Persistent Global Growth Differences and Euro Area Adjustment: Real Activity, Trade and the Real Exchange Rate," Working Papers ECARES 2025-11, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    2. Sergio de Ferra, 2021. "External Imbalances, Gross Capital Flows, and Sovereign Debt Crises," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(1), pages 347-402.
    3. Ozhan, Galip Kemal, 2021. "News-driven international credit cycles," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    4. Niels Gilbert & Sebastiaan Pool, 2020. "Sectoral allocation and macroeconomic imbalances in EMU," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 156(4), pages 945-984, November.
    5. Albonico, Alice & Tirelli, Patrizio, 2020. "Financial crises and sudden stops: Was the European monetary union crisis different?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 13-26.
    6. Albonico, Alice & Calés, Ludovic & Cardani, Roberta & Croitorov, Olga & Ferroni, Filippo & Giovannini, Massimo & Hohberger, Stefan & Pataracchia, Beatrice & Pericoli, Filippo Maria & Raciborski, Rafal, 2019. "Comparing post-crisis dynamics across Euro Area countries with the Global Multi-country model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 242-273.
    7. Robert Kollmann, 2019. "Explaining International Business Cycle Synchronization: Recursive Preferences and the Terms of Trade Channel," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 65-85, February.
    8. Giovannini, Massimo & Hohberger, Stefan & Kollmann, Robert & Ratto, Marco & Roeger, Werner & Vogel, Lukas, 2019. "Euro Area and US external adjustment: The role of commodity prices and Emerging Market shocks," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 183-205.
    9. Niels Gilbert & Sebastiaan Pool, 2020. "Sectoral allocation and macroeconomic imbalances in EMU," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 156(4), pages 945-984, November.
    10. Robert Kollmann, 2017. "Explaining International Business Cycle Synchronization," 2017 Meeting Papers 1489, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    11. Albonico, Alice & Calès, Ludovic & Cardani, Roberta & Croitorov, Olga & Ferroni, Filippo & Giovannini, Massimo & Hohberger, Stefan & Pataracchia, Beatrice & Pericoli, Filippo & Raciborski, Rafal & Rat, 2017. "The Global Multi-Country Model (GM): an Estimated DSGE Model for the Euro Area Countries," JRC Working Papers in Economics and Finance 2017-10, Joint Research Centre, European Commission.
    12. Gabriel Chodorow-Reich & Loukas Karabarbounis & Rohan Kekre, 2023. "The Macroeconomics of the Greek Depression," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(9), pages 2411-2457, September.
    13. Cardani, Roberta & Hohberger, Stefan & Pfeiffer, Philipp & Vogel, Lukas, 2022. "Domestic versus foreign drivers of trade (im)balances: How robust is evidence from estimated DSGE models?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    14. Daniele Siena, 2021. "The Euro Area Periphery and Imbalances: Is it an Anticipation Story?," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 40, pages 278-308, April.
    15. Cette, Gilbert & Fernald, John & Mojon, Benoît, 2016. "The pre-Great Recession slowdown in productivity," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 3-20.
    16. Schmöller, Michaela, 2019. "Stagnant Wages, Sectoral Misallocation and Slowing Productivity Growth," VfS Annual Conference 2019 (Leipzig): 30 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall - Democracy and Market Economy 203598, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    17. Charalampidis, Nikolaos, 2020. "On unemployment cycles in the Euro Area, 1999–2018," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    18. Melina, Giovanni & Villa, Stefania, 2023. "Drivers of large recessions and monetary policy responses," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    19. Giovannini, Massimo & Hohberger, Stefan & Ratto, Marco & Vogel, Lukas, 2018. "Adjustment dynamics and business cycle heterogeneity in the EMU: Evidence from estimated DSGE models," JRC Working Papers in Economics and Finance 2018-08, Joint Research Centre, European Commission.
    20. Croitorov, Olga & Giovannini, Massimo & Hohberger, Stefan & Ratto, Marco & Vogel, Lukas, 2020. "Financial spillover and global risk in a multi-region model of the world economy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 185-218.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • E2 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment
    • E3 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles
    • F3 - International Economics - - International Finance
    • F4 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:126077. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.