Talking about thresholds like: >The 2012 paper suggests that when private sector debt passes 100% of GDP, that point is reached. Another way of looking at the

Talking about thresholds like: >The 2012 paper suggests that when private sector debt passes 100% of GDP, that point is reached. Another way of looking at the same topic is the proportion of workers employed by the finance sector. Once that proportion passes 3.9%, the effect on productivity growth turns negative. Does not make any sense. Each economy is different, and the available data is probably not enough to give such accurate numbers. >Ireland and Spain are cases in point. During the five years beginning 2005, Irish and Spanish financial sector employment grew at an average annual rate of 4.1% and 1.4% respectively; output per worker fell by 2.7% and 1.4% a year over the same period. Using Spain as an example for "output per worker" is not a very good idea, they somehow broke productivity growth in 1994 and it's been stucked since then [1]. Productivity is affected by many factors, so conducting a ceteris paribus analysis is very complicated if not impossible. There is a really interesting book written by a journalist about productivity: The power of productivity [2] [1] http://www.gapminder.org/world/#$majorMode=chart$is;shi=t;ly=2003;lb=f;il=t;fs=11;al=30;stl=t;st=t;nsl=t;se=t$wst;tts=C$ts;sp=5.59290322580644;ti=2006$zpv;v=0$inc_x;mmid=XCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj1jiMAkmq1iMg;by=ind$inc_y;mmid=YCOORDS;iid=rcTO3doih5lvJCjgLSvlajA;by=ind$inc_s;uniValue=8.21;iid=phAwcNAVuyj0XOoBL_n5tAQ;by=ind$inc_c;uniValue=255;gid=CATID0;by=grp$map_x;scale=log;dataMin=194;dataMax=96846$map_y;scale=lin;dataMin=536;dataMax=64150$map_s;sma=49;smi=2.65$cd;bd=0$inds=i211_t001980,,,,;i105_t001980,,, http://www.gapminder.org/world/#$majorMode=chart$is;shi=t;ly..., [2] http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Productivity-Poverty-Stability/dp/0226476987 http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Productivity-Poverty-Stabili...