Sectoral Productivity in the United States: Recent Developments and the Role of IT

Abstract

This paper introduces new estimates of recent productivity developments in the United States, using an appropriate theoretical framework for aggregating industry MFP to sectors and the total economy. Our work sheds light on the sources of the continued strong performance of U.S. productivity since 2000. We find that the major sectoral players in the late 1990s pickup were not contributors to the more recent surge in productivity. Rather, striking gains in MFP in the finance and business service sector, a resurgence in MFP growth in the industrial sector, and an end to drops elsewhere more than account for the aggregate acceleration in productivity in recent years. Further, some evidence is found for a link between IT intensity and the recent productivity acceleration.

Green Growth and Net Zero Policy in the UK: Some Conceptual and Measurement Issues

“…Investigation has focused on the development and deployment of ICT (see, e.g. Jorgenson and Stiroh, 2000;Oliner and Sichel, 2000, Jorgenson et al 2006, Corrado et al, 2007. Nicoletti and Scarpetta (2003) takes another perspective on the issue; suggesting that the stringency of product market regulation and other competition enhancing policies might be responsible for the fall in productivity.…”