The most regulated countries forwent more: a point plus in Canada, Norway, Portugal and Spain, and 1.8 points in Greece.

ECONOMIST: Economics focus

Already, as the post-war baby-boomers reach their 50s, Japan's lifetime-employers are carrying the cost of paying their senior workers over the odds in return for all the wages they forwent two or three decades ago.

ECONOMIST: Social conventions and demography add to the sclerosis