The composition of the working-age population can influence aggregate employment and average
productivity because both employment rates and productivity levels vary across population groups. This
paper assesses the quantitative importance of the working-age population broken down by age, gender and
education in explaining differences in employment and productivity levels across countries. Differences in
population structure are found to contribute importantly to variations in both labour utilisation and
productivity performances. Combining these effects in a mechanical way, differences in the composition of
the working-age population account for around a third of the gap in GDP per capita for Europe (EU15) vis-à-vis the United States, mainly due to differences in educational attainment.
