I recently posted on Americans, Europeans, and work. My post commented on recent economic research that:

  • found Americans and Europeans actually worked comparable amounts; and  
  • attributed differences in employment to a scarcity of service jobs (because Europeans performed the services themselves, rather than buying them on the market).


This post elicited a couple of comments. Both offer food for thought.


One contested the difference as a red herring and pointed to automation as the salient, long-term trend. A hundred years ago, there were clerks, assistants, and servants aplenty. But today, whether doing basic banking or pumping gas, people interact and work with machines.


The other contested the characterization of Americans as service-buyers and Europeans as do-it-yourselfers, offering two anecdotes, both centered on France:

  • First, there’s a flourishing market for child care in France (not just in Paris, but throughout the country). The market is robust, although a big part of it is in the public sector or publicly subsidized. Even if the price is low (because of subsidies or a public provider), people are buying these services massively, not doing them directly. This leads to a comparatively large share of households with young children where both parents are in the workforce.
  • Second, there are services in France that simply do not exist in the US. Small-business foodsellers provide the best illustrations. For example, unlike a US supermarket produce section (which admittedly does have its counterpart in French hypermarkets), French greengrocers serve their clients (who generally do not handle fruits or vegetables themselves). Outside of a few, small exceptions, the French market experience, with a heavy service component, simply does not exist in the US.