A Century of Growth and Improvement

Benjamin M. Friedman

American Economic Review, 2016, vol. 106, issue 5, 52-56

Abstract: The fact that actual economic advance over time normally means producing and consuming different things is usually left implicit in modern models of economic growth. By contrast, qualitative change--new goods and services, and better versions of what already existed--is central to Robert Gordon's history of the improvement of American living standards since 1870. A major contribution of his fine-grained account of this experience is to make clear what this improvement has meant, and why it has mattered to ordinary citizens.

JEL-codes: E23 E32 E65 I31 N11 N12 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20161069
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