The Danish Parliament has debated whether to implement a new EU directive requiring member states to establish independent national productivity boards. Proponents in the Folketing argue that Denmark should transpose the directive promptly because countries with long-established productivity boards, such as Austria and Belgium, have consistently outperformed the EU average in total factor productivity growth over the past decade. Therefore, establishing such a board will improve Denmark's productivity performance.
The argument depends on which of the following assumptions?
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Spiegazione
Negation test applied: if productivity boards did NOT cause the superior productivity growth in Austria and Belgium — i.e., the correlation is spurious or driven by other factors — then citing those countries' performance provides no basis for concluding that establishing a board will improve Denmark's performance. The argument requires the causal link. Choice B might seem attractive but the argument does not depend on Denmark being below average — even a country performing at average might wish to outperform. Choice C introduces binding authority, which is not part of the argument. Choice D about other Nordic countries is irrelevant to the logical structure. Choice E concerns transferability, which is a separate potential gap but is not the primary causal assumption the argument rests on; the core gap is the causation vs. correlation problem.
