Productivity doesn’t only depend on hard work, but also on many other factors, such as capital intensity and institutions. One example that comes to mind is th

Productivity doesn’t only depend on hard work, but also on many other factors, such as capital intensity and institutions. One example that comes to mind is that in the UK I get a new laptop every other year and whatever software licence or training I may need. My brother in Italy was given a 5 year old laptop that would crash every other hour and his budget for software and training was 0. The result is that he used to work twice as hard as me, while being half productive. EDIT: if you want data, compare the GDP for hour worked in Italy with Germany or the US: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_labour_productivity https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_labour_...