This paper explores the quantitative plausibility of three candidate explanations for the European productivity slowdown with respect to the US. The empirical plausibility of the common wisdom on the topic (the usage hypothesis) is found to crucially depend on how IT-using industries are defined. If a narrow definition is chosen, the usage hypothesis no longer explains the whole of the EU productivity slowdown but just about 55% of it, with the remaining part to be attributed to other factors than IT, as argued in the IT irrelevance view. No room is left for IT-producing industries as another potential vehicle for the US-EU productivity growth gap, instead.