other industrial production ( i. e., mining and quarrying ; electricity, gas and water supply ; construction ; agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing ) ; distr = wholesale and retail trade ; sale, maintenance and repair of motor vehicles ; retail sales of fuel ; finbu = finance and business service sectors, except real estate ( includes financial intermediation ) ; pers = personal services ( including hotels and restaurants ; other community, social and personal services, employees of private households ) ; nonmar = non - market services ( public administration, education and health ) and real estate activities. figure 3 : labour productivity growth in the u. s., 1980 - 2004 ( average annual percentage growth rates ) source : eu klems database. key : tot = total economy ; elecom = electrical machinery, post and communications sector ( representing the ict - producing industries ) ; mexelec = manufacturing, excluding electrical industry ; otherg = other industrial production ( i. e., mining and quarrying ; electricity, gas and water supply ; construction ; agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing ) ; distr = wholesale and retail trade ; sale, maintenance and repair of motor vehicles ; retail sales of fuel ; finbu = finance and business service sectors, except real estate ( includes financial intermediation ) ; pers = personal services ( including hotels and restaurants ; other community, social and personal services, employees of private households ) ; nonmar = non - market services ( public administration, education and health ) and real estate activities. figure 4 : labour productivity growth and regulatory restrictions source : " the conference board and groningen growth and development centre, total economy database, january 2007, and oecd. note : the equation displays the coefficients of a regression of the change in labour productivity growth on the inward - oriented policy index with standard errors in parentheses. figure 5 : revisions in estimates of euro area potential output source : european commission, imf, oecd and ecb calculations. note : for the ec, calculations are based on trend growth projections and estimates.

- ict - producing manufacturing sector, and especially market services, including distribution, financial and business services ( figure 2 - 3 ). these are also the sectors driving the decline in labour productivity growth in comparison with the 1980 - 1995 period. in the u. s. case, the increase in labour productivity growth over the 1996 - 2004 period was more broad - based. with a few exceptions, most u. s. sectors show labour productivity growth rates that are very significant, above 2 % per year, and higher than in the 1980 - 1995 period. this evidence is broadly in line with the hypothesis that information and communication technologies have the largest impact on productivity growth indirectly, namely by sparkling further innovations in managerial processes, procedures and organizational structures, and by facilitating complementary innovations. for example, ict reduces communication costs see the economist, 7th june 2007. various authors have emphasised to different degrees the role of the it - producing sector in the u. s. productivity revival. see e. g. r. j. gordon ( 2000 ), “ does the new economy measure up to the great inventions of the past? ”, journal of economic perspectives 14, p. 49 - 74 ; s. d. oliner and d. e. sichel ( 2000 ), “ the resurgence of growth in the late 1990s : is information technology the story? ”, journal of economic perspectives 14, p. 3 - 22 ; k. stiroh ( 2002 ), “ information technology and the u. s. productivity revival : what to the industry data say? ”, american economic review 92, pp. 1559 - 1576. european innovation scoreboard 2006, available from http : / / www. proinno - europe. eu / inno - metrics. html. the innovation scoreboard figures refer to the eu - 25 composition. and allows for more flexible and decentralized organizational structures. however, the full benefits of the availability of new technologies can only be reaped if computers are adopted as part of mutually reinforcing organizational changes. 5 one of the slogans of the organisational reengineering wave of the u. s. in the 1990s was : “ don ’ t automate, obliterate ”, to convey the need for breaking away from old business processes, rather than just trying to speed them up. 6 these effects are particularly difficult to measure at the aggregate level, but some studies have suggested that the contribution from the use of information technology capital – including