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Productivity Slowdown: Reducing the Measure of Our Ignorance

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  • Timo Boppart
  • Huiyu Li
Abstract
Growth accounting suggests that the bulk of the post-2004 slowdown in output growth in the U.S. is attributed to a residual called TFP. In this paper we provide a tractable accounting framework with firm heterogeneity to link this residual to innovations, markup dispersion, and potential measurement errors. Theories of creative destruction offer rich testable predictions of how the quality upgrading of products, the process efficiency of different firms, and markup dispersion in the market interact and therefore constitute a key approach to shed light on the slowdown in TFP growth. Surveying the literature on measurement, we conclude that measurement errors is unlikely to explain the recent deceleration in TFP growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Timo Boppart & Huiyu Li, 2021. "Productivity Slowdown: Reducing the Measure of Our Ignorance," Working Paper Series 2021-21, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedfwp:93024
    DOI: 10.24148/wp2021-21
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    Cited by:

    1. Li, Huiyu, 2022. "Leverage and productivity," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    growth accounting; development accounting; growth slowdown; measurement; innovation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • O51 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - U.S.; Canada

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