For example, households in the lowest fifth of the income distribution hold only 3 percent of all household debt. Widening the scope to the entire lower half of the income distribution, these households have only about 20 percent of outstanding debt.
There are significant productivity gains to be had in Europe by removing the considerable barriers to competition that still remain at the national and EU levels. Further efforts should therefore be made to reduce firms’ entry costs, such as the administrative burden on start-ups and – more generally – to reduce red tape.