2007 ). conway, nicoletti, de rosa and steiner ( 2006 ). see, for instance, crepon, duguet and mairesse ( 1998 ). esser, villalba and tarantola ( 2007 ). forsling & lindstrom ( 2004 ). organisation important for productivity growth it is available all around the world at roughly the same price, but the differences are substantial with regard to how different countries and sectors use this technology to make their production more efficient ( see figure 5 ). the united states and europe have experienced a similar productivity growth in the it - producing sectors, but the americans have had stronger growth in sectors with intensive use of it. this includes, for instance, the wholesale and retail trade sectors and financial services. studies indicate that one of the explanations for the united states ’ relative productivity advantage over europe is that the us companies have been quicker and better at adapting their organisations to the new technology. 7 one factor that might contribute to this difference is that the stricter regulations in the labour market in europe mean that it takes longer time and costs more money to reorganise. sweden is an exception in this context. we have seen a strong growth in productivity in the sectors using it at the same time as we have a relatively regulated labour market. given this, the riksbank has initiated a research project to obtain more information on how investment and use of it as well as reorganisation affects productivity growth in sweden. the project is in two parts. the first sub - project is a micro study which examines whether companies that have reorganised and invested in it will have higher productivity growth. the second part of the project is based on an own survey study in collaboration with statistics sweden, which covers the years 1997 - 2005. the first, preliminary results of this study were presented at a conference organised by the riksbank at the end of last year on the theme of productivity. 8 they indicate that the companies that made organisational changes at the same time as investing more in it than the average company experienced a substantial increase in productivity growth. 9 the study also shows that it was not possible to find any significant effects on productivity growth from it investments in the companies that had not reorganised. it is therefore important to take into account investments in " organisational capital ” when analysing productivity growth. other investments in knowledge capital such as staff training and r & d should also be important to productivity. this is also confirmed by studies

there has recently been a debate on the objective of monetary policy. some have said that we should have several objectives, while others have considered that we already strive to achieve too many. this indicates that we have not quite succeeded in explaining how we work, despite the fact that we are considered one of the most open central banks in the world. let me therefore now be extra clear – there is one objective for monetary policy and that is to maintain price stability. however, this objective does not rule out taking into account the real stability of the economy. this possibility is allowed by the legislation on the riksbank ’ s activities and is something we always bear in mind. this is something that i and my colleagues will continue to work on explaining over the coming year. at the same time, it should be emphasised that this is a complex task and that it is therefore quite natural that there is a debate on monetary policy. nor are we executive board members always unanimous on which interest rate decision will be the best one in a given situation, despite the fact that we are agreed on the objective of our monetary policy. credibility demands openness and clarity in order to combine confidence in price stability in the longer term with flexible inflation targeting, it is important that we are open and clear when conducting our monetary policy. this is also a necessary condition for the legitimacy of the riksbank ’ s objective, independence and actions. important elements of this endeavour include publishing the analyses on which interest rate decisions are based in the form of inflation reports. in addition, after every monetary policy meeting a press release is published, which gives an account of the reasons behind the decision made. moreover, when an inflation report is published or the repo rate is adjusted, the riksbank holds a press conference. the executive board ’ s monetary policy discussions are reported in separate minutes of the monetary policy meetings, which are published around two weeks after each meeting. in this way, all those who wish can closely follow our reasoning and a basis for evaluating our assessments and decisions is created. i can also mention that the governor of the riksbank appears before the riksdag committee on finance twice a year for a discussion on monetary policy. in addition, we executive board members hold around thirty speeches a year, in which we present our own views of the economic situation. all this means that there is ample opportunity for the general public to obtain an understanding of how monetary policy decisions are made and it creates conditions for a serious debate.