Peter Gal

I am an economist interested in empirical analysis and research. I have been working at the intersection of micro and macroeconomics, with the aim to provide a more granular picture for macroeconomic analysis and to contribute to public policy.

I am at the OECD, in Paris, since 2011, currently as Deputy Head of Division and Senior Economist in the Structural Policy Research Division of the Economics Department. I focus mainly on productivity, digital technologies and other structural issues. My previous work experience includes the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund and the Central Bank of Hungary.

I completed my PhD and MPhil degrees in Economics at the Tinbergen Institute (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) and an MSc in Economics from Corvinus University (Budapest, Hungary).

For details, please see my CV, LinkedIn or Google Scholar page.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Productivity, labor- and capital market frictions at the micro and macro level; structural policies

CV
VoxEU
LinkedIn
Google Scholar

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS, RESEARCH AND POLICY PAPERS

Productivity, innovation, trade

Miracle or Myth? Assessing the macroeconomic productivity gains from Artificial Intelligence (with Francesco Filippucci and Matthias Schief)
OECD Artificial Intelligence Papers No. 29
VoxEU column: Miracle or Myth: Assessing the macroeconomic productivity gains from artificial intelligence | CEPR
EcoScope Blog: Miracle or Myth? Assessing the macroeconomic productivity gains from Artificial Intelligence – ECOSCOPE
Reviving productivity growth: A review of policies (with Christophe Andre)
OECD Economics Department Working Papers No. 1882
EcoScope Blog: A policy framework for reviving productivity growth
Enhancing productivity and growth in an ageing society: Key mechanisms and policy options (with Christophe Andre and Matthias Schief)
OECD Economics Department Working Papers No. 1807
SUERF Policy Brief: Enhancing productivity and growth in an ageing society: Key mechanisms and policy options
The impact of Artificial Intelligence on productivity, distribution and growth: Key mechanisms, initial evidence and policy challenges (with Francesco Filippucci, Cecilia Josa-Lasinio, Alvaro Leandro and Giuseppe Nicoletti)
OECD Artificial Intelligence Papers No. 15
VoxEU column: Should AI stay or should AI go: The promises and perils of AI for productivity and growth
EcoScope Blog: Artificial Intelligence: Promises and perils for productivity and broad-based economic growth
The role of telework for productivity during and post-COVID-19: Results from an OECD survey among managers and workers (with Chiara Criscuolo, Timo Leidecker, Francesco Losma and Giuseppe Nicoletti)
Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, 539, 51–72.
OECD Productivity Working Papers No. 31
VoxEU column
OECD ECOSCOPE blog
Discussed in Bloomberg (1, 2) and LesEchos
Gender diversity in senior management and firm productivity: Evidence from nine OECD countries (with Clara Kögel, Chiara Criscuolo and Cyrille Schwellnus)
OECD Productivity Working Papers 34
The Human Side of Productivity: Uncovering the role of skills and diversity for firm productivity (with Chiara Criscuolo, Timo Leidecker and Giuseppe Nicoletti)
OECD Productivity Working Papers No. 29
VoxEU column
OECD ECOSCOPE blog
Portuguese Economy Research Report
The Best versus the Rest: the Global Productivity Slowdown, Divergence across Firms and the Role of Public Policy (with Dan Andrews and Chiara Criscuolo)

Revise and Resubmit to the Journal of Political Economy. Latest version as LSE CEP Discussion Paper No. 1645Previous versions: OECD Productivity Working Papers No. 5, November 2016Brookings Institution Hutchins Center Working Papers No. 24, September 2016 VoxEU and OECD ECOSOPE Blog: The Best vs. the Rest: The Global Productivity Slowdown Hides an Increasing Performance Gap across FirmsCited and discussed in The Economist's Schumpeter column ("The Great Divergence") and in the Free Exchange colum ("Superstar cities have a big advantage in attracting high-paying jobs").and in Les Echos: "A la recherche de la croissance perdue"

A genie in a bottle? Globalisation, competition and inflation (with Dan Andrews and William Witheridge),

OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1462, 2018.VoxEU column and OECD EcoScope Blog column: A genie in a bottle: Inflation, globalisation, and competition

Digitalisation and productivity: In search of the Holy Grail – Firm-level empirical evidence from EU countries (with Giuseppe Nicoletti, Theodore Renault, Stéphane Sorbe and Christina Timiliotis)

International Productivity Monitor, No. 37, Fall 2019OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1533, OECD Publishing, Paris, 2019. OECD EcoScope Blog column: Are digital technologies the new Holy Grail?

Like it or not? The impact of online platforms on the productivity of service providers (with Alberto Bailin Rivares, Valentine Millot and Stéphane Sorbe)

OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1548, OECD Publishing, Paris, 2019. VoxEU column

Can productivity still grow in service-based economies? Literature overview and preliminary evidence from OECD countries (with Stéphane Sorbe and Valentine Millot)

OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1531, December 2018.

The Global Productivity Frontier and the Role of Public Policies: Micro Level Evidence (with Dan Andrews and Chiara Criscuolo)

OECD Productivity Working Papers No. 2, July 2015Cited in Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, FED Vice President Stanley Fischer's speechRecommended reading by Marginal Revolution blog editor Prof. Tyler Cowen

Sectoral and regional distribution of export shocks (with Rafal Kierzenkowski, Gabor Fulop, Dorothee Flaig and Frank van Tongeren )

OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1501, Aug 2018

Where to get the best bang for the buck in the United Kingdom?: Industrial strategy, investment and lagging regions (with Rafal Kierzenkowski and Gabor Fulop)

OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1426, Nov 2017.EcoScope Blog

Measuring Productivity at the Firm Level Using ORBIS,

OECD Economics Department Working Papers No. 1049, May 2013

Capital, financial constraints

Capital over the Business Cycle: Renting versus Ownership (with Gabor Pinter),

Published in Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Volume 49, Issue 6, September 2017, Pages 1299–1338.Previous version appeared as Bank of England Working Paper No. 478, August 2013, Awarded Cambridge Finance Best Student Paper Award, June 2012 VoxEU: "How to get around credit constraints? The role of renting and leasing during financial crises"

Employment, firm dynamics, entrepreneurship

Do Micro Start-Ups Fuel Job Creation? Cross-Country Evidence from the DynEmp Express Database (with Chiara Criscuolo and Carlo Menon)

Published in Small Business Economics (2017), 48(2), 393-412

DynEmp: a Stata routine for distributed micro-data analysis of business dynamics (with Chiara Criscuolo and Carlo Menon)

Published in The Stata Journal, Volume 15 Number 1: pp. 247-274, 2015

The Dynamics of Employment Growth: New Evidence from 18 Countries (with Chiara Criscuolo and Carlo Menon)

OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Papers no. 14, May 2014VoxEU: "DynEmp: New cross-country evidence on the role of young firms in job creation, growth, and innovation"Blog post and recommended reading by Journal of Economic Perspectives managing editor Timothy Taylor

Firm Dynamics and Public Policy: Evidence from OECD Countries (with Dan Andrews, Chiara Criscuolo and Carlo Menon)

Published in Small Business Conditions and Finance, Proceedings of a Conference, Reserve Bank of Australia, Sydney, 19-20 March 2015

Structural reforms and policy reports

Productivity gains from teleworking in the post COVID-19 era: How can public policies make it happen? (with Chiara Criscuolo, Timo Leidecker and Giuseppe Nicoletti)
OECD Policy Responses to Coronavirus (COVID-19), September 2020
Digital dividend: Policies to harness the productivity potential of digital technologies (with Stéphane Sorbe, Giuseppe Nicoletti and Chiristina Timiliotis)

OECD Economic Policy Paper No. 26, 2019, OECD Publishing, Paris.

The short-term impact of product market reforms: a cross-country firm-level analysis (with Alexander Hijzen)

IMF Working Paper No. 16/116, 2016 andOECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1311, OECD Publishing, Paris, 2016OECD Blog: ECOSCOPE and VoxEU: "Product market reforms under the microscope"

The Quantification of Structural Reforms in the OECD: A New Framework (with Balázs Égert)

OECD Economic Studies, No. 4, Volume 2016, Issue: 1, andCESifo Working Paper No. 6420, and Published in Chapter 3 in "Structural Reforms: Moving the Economy Forward" (ed. by Jakob de Haan and Jante Parlevliet), Springer Publishing, 2018LSE Business Review blog column

Structural policy indicators database for economic research (SPIDER) (with Balázs Égert and Isabelle Wanner)

OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1429, OECD Publishing, Paris, 2017.

Reducing regional disparities in productivity in the United Kingdom (with Jagoda Egeland)

OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1456, Jan 2018.

Contributions to the OECD Economic Surveys: United Kingdom 2017, OECD Publishing, Paris.

The macroeconomic impact of structural policies on labour market outcomes in OECD countries: A reassessment (with Adam Theising),

OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1271, OECD Publishing, Paris, 2015.OECD Blog ECOSCOPE: "Revisiting policy options for more jobs" (with Alain De Serres)

What Makes Labour Markets Resilient During Recessions?

in OECD Employment Outlook 2012, Chapter 2, OECD Publishing (with Alexander Hijzen and Zoltan Wolf)