QUOTE (Conquistador @ Mar 11 2008, 2:41 pm) 
As far as regulation's effect on an economy, GDP figures also present an incomplete picture, particularly when you take into account the fact the UK economy is rather more significantly tied to services and consumer spending than the German economy is. Regulation is bound to affect the two economies in somewhat divergent ways.
Point taken. Then again, one could argue that then it's better for the Germany economy to remain regulated since it's less service/finance oriented.
Thanks for the OECD suggestion; their website has indeed a lot of data. I'll take a look later, it looks like one can build a interesting queries on the website.
Every economy needs a certain amount of regulation, but I think there is near unanimity among economists, business owners, and top managers that less, not more, regulation is needed. Germany's service sector is underdeveloped, and while ameliorating that will require more than simpler and fewer regulations, such changes would be helpful to the service sector.