The outlook for productivity growth

Abstract

Productivity growth in the United States slowed dramatically during the Seventies. One measure of total factor productivity growth averaged 2.6 percent from 1948 to 1966, and 1.7 percent from 1966 to 1973, but only 0.2 percent during the 1973–81 period. Other measures of productivity growth show a similar picture. Even after adjusting for the weakness in the economy in 1981—which adds only 0.2 to 0.3 percentage points to the 1973–81 growth rate—the average annual rate of productivity growth during the mid‐ and late Seventies declined over 2 percentage points from the early postwar period, and well over 1 percentage point from the 1966–73 period.

Citation

Taub, L. (1985), "The outlook for productivity growth", Planning Review, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 12-17. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb054085