The sources of growth in a technologically progressive economy: the United States, 1899‐1941

Gerben Bakker, Nicholas Crafts and Pieter Woltjer

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: We develop new aggregate total factor productivity (TFP) growth estimates for the USA between 1899 and 1941, and sectoral estimates at the most disaggregated level so far, 38 industries. We include hard-to-measure services, and a refined measure of sectoral labour quality growth. The resulting data set supersedes Kendrick (1961), showing TFP growth lower than previously thought, broadly based across industries, and strongly variant intertemporally. The four ‘great inventions’ that Gordon (2016) highlighted were important but less dominant in TFP growth than their predecessors in the British industrial revolution. The findings also make it unlikely the 1930s had the twentieth century's highest TFP growth.

Keywords: productivity growth; total factor productivity; great inventions; spillovers; United States history (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2019-08-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-gro and nep-his
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in The Economic Journal, 1, August, 2019, 129(622), pp. 2267 - 2294. ISSN: 0013-0133

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Sources of Growth in a Technologically Progressive Economy: The United States, 1899–1941 (2019)
Working Paper: The Sources of Growth in a Technologically Progressive Economy: the United States, 1899-1941 (2017)
Working Paper: The sources of growth in a technologically progressive economy: the United States, 1899-1941 (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:89507

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