(FORTUNE Magazine) – Even as its economies start to grow anew, Europe's average unemployment is expected to stay close to 12%, more than double the U.S. rate. Traditionally, economists have blamed high minimum wages, generous unemployment benefits, and restrictive job protection laws. But recent studies published by the the McKinsey consulting firm and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development point to a different cause: national barriers to new products and businesses.

The French are particularly guilty. The 1984 Loi Royer, for instance, protects small shopkeepers. Since its enactment, France has built only 12,000 stores on 16 million square feet of property, vs. 124,000 U.S. stores built on 430 million square feet over the same period. The result: For every 25 retailing jobs created in the U.S., France has lost 3.6. Carrefour has almost stopped constructing its retail hypermarches at home, preferring to focus on less-regulated markets -- like China. Complains CEO Daniel Bernard: "We say we want to create jobs, and then we block the most dynamic service sectors."

William Lewis, director of McKinsey's Global Institute, says, "Europe has missed opportunities to move into new fields." Olivetti CEO Carlo de Benedetti complains that state telephone monopolies in Italy and Spain prevented his new joint venture with Hughes Electronics from creating hundreds of new jobs. And while the U.S. deregulated its financial services, Germany didn't even allow money market checking accounts until last summer. Says Lewis: "It's no accident Deutsche Bank is moving all its investment bank jobs out of Germany" -- to London, where financial innovation is easier.

Overall, the U.S. almost doubled its number of jobs in the past 30 years --while Europe added 10%, two-thirds in the public sector. "The U.S. has created a lot of high-paying jobs and a lot of low-paying jobs," says the OECD's John Martin. "Europe simply hasn't created jobs."- - William Echikson