Sectoral Productivity in the United States

As the step-up in U.S. productivity growth in the mid-1990s became evident, research on productivity surged. Initially, the new work concentrated on estimating the contribution of information technology (IT) to the productivity pickup, with similar results obtained using industry-level or broad macroeconomic time-series data (Jorgenson and Stiroh 2000, Oliner and Sichel 2000, respectively). Later, studies exploited more detailed data and showed that, while multi-factor productivity (MFP) growth in the IT-producing industries was very high, many services industries also had substantial MFP growth in the late 1990s (Triplett and Bosworth 2004 Jorgenson, Ho, and Stiroh 2005a, 2005b).

Productivity Measurement and Analysis

Sectoral Productivity in the United States

Recent Developments and the Role of IT