TY - UNPB
T1 - The Sources of Growth in a Technologically Progressive Economy
T2 - the United States, 1899-1941
AU - Bakker, Gerben
AU - Crafts, Nicholas
AU - Woltjer, Pieter
PY - 2017/9/1
Y1 - 2017/9/1
N2 - We develop new aggregate and sectoral Total Factor Productivity (TFP) estimates for the United States between 1899 and 1941 through better coverage of sectors and better-measured labor quality, and find TFP-growth was lower than previously thought, broadly based across sectors, and strongly variant intertemporally. We then test and reject three prominent claims. First, the 1930s did not have the highest TFP-growth of the twentieth century. Second, TFP-growth was not predominantly caused by four ‘great inventions’. Third, TFP-growth was not driven indirectly by spillovers from great inventions such as electricity. Instead, the creative-destruction-friendly American innovation system was the main productivity driver.
AB - We develop new aggregate and sectoral Total Factor Productivity (TFP) estimates for the United States between 1899 and 1941 through better coverage of sectors and better-measured labor quality, and find TFP-growth was lower than previously thought, broadly based across sectors, and strongly variant intertemporally. We then test and reject three prominent claims. First, the 1930s did not have the highest TFP-growth of the twentieth century. Second, TFP-growth was not predominantly caused by four ‘great inventions’. Third, TFP-growth was not driven indirectly by spillovers from great inventions such as electricity. Instead, the creative-destruction-friendly American innovation system was the main productivity driver.
UR - https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/html_publications/memorandum/gd156.pdf
M3 - Working paper
T3 - GGDC Research Memoranda
SP - 1
EP - 69
BT - The Sources of Growth in a Technologically Progressive Economy
PB - University of Groningen
CY - Groningen
ER -