Of Yeast and Mushrooms: Patterns of Industry-Level Productivity Growth
Abstract
In this paper we analyse labour productivity growth in the United States, four European countries (France, Germany, the Netherlands and United Kingdom), Australia and Canada between 1987 and 2003 from an industry perspective. Rather than analysing broad industry groups, we compare the pattern of growth in all industries through Harberger diagrams. We introduce new summary measures, which indicate the pervasiveness of growth patterns. These indicators show that investment in both information and communication technology (ICT) and non-ICT capital is fairly balanced or 'yeasty', driven by overall macro-economic conditions. However, growth of total factor productivity (TFP) is much more localized or 'mushroom-like'. In particular we find a clear distinction between countries in continental Europe, in which TFP is decelerating after 1995 and becoming more localized, and Anglo-Saxon countries in which TFP growth is accelerating and becoming more broad-based, especially after 2000. The increased breadth of Anglo-Saxon TFP growth is consistent with delayed effects of intangible investments that are complementary to ICT investments. Copyright Verein für Socialpolitik and Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2007.Download Info
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Verein für Socialpolitik in its journal German Economic Review.
Volume (Year): 8 (2007)
Issue (Month): (05)
Pages: 174-187
Contact details of provider:
Email:
Web page: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1465-6485
More information through EDIRC
Order Information:
Web: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/subs.asp?ref=1465-6485
Related research
Keywords:References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Inklaar, Robert & Timmer, Marcel & van Ark, Bart, 2006.
"Mind the gap! International Comparisons of Productivity in Services and Goods Production,"
GGDC Research Memorandum
GD-89, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen.
- Robert Inklaar & Marcel P. Timmer & Bart van Ark, 2007. "Mind the Gap! International Comparisons of Productivity in Services and Goods Production," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 8, pages 281-307, 05.
- Robert Inklaar & Marcel P. Timmer & Bart van Ark, 2006. "Mind the gap! International comparisons of productivity in services and goods production," Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series d06-175, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
- Marcel P. Timmer & Bart van Ark, 2005. "Does information and communication technology drive EU-US productivity growth differentials?," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 57(4), pages 693-716, October.
- Lucia Foster & John Haltiwanger & C. J. Krizan, 2006. "Market Selection, Reallocation, and Restructuring in the U.S. Retail Trade Sector in the 1990s," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(4), pages 748-758, November.
- Theo Eicher & Oliver Röhn, 2007. "Sources of the German Productivity Demise – Tracing the Effects of Industry-Level ICT Investment," CESifo Working Paper Series 1896, CESifo Group Munich.
- Susanto Basu & John G. Fernald & Nicholas Oulton, 2004. "The Case of the Missing Productivity Growth, or Does Information Technology Explain Why Productivity Accelerated in the United States But Not in the United Kingdom?," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2003, Volume 18, pages 9-82 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Marcel P. Timmer & Robert Inklaar & Mary O'Mahony & Bart van Ark, 2011. "Productivity and Economic Growth in Europe: A Comparative Industry Perspective," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 21, pages 3-23, Spring.
- Susanto Basu & John G. Fernald, 2008.
"Information and communications technology as a general purpose technology: evidence from U.S. industry data,"
Economic Review,
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, pages 1-15.
- Susanto Basu & John Fernald, 2007. "Information and Communications Technology as a General-Purpose Technology: Evidence from US Industry Data," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 8, pages 146-173, 05.
- Susanto Basu & John Fernald, 2006. "Information and communications technology as a general-purpose technology: evidence from U.S industry data," Working Paper Series 2006-29, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
- Alexander Schiersch & Heike Belitz & Martin Gornig, 2012. "Is Technical Progress Sectorally Concentrated?: An Empirical Analysis for Western European Countries," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1217, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
Lists
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.Statistics
Access and download statisticsCorrections
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:germec:v:8:y:2007:i::p:174-187For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Wiley-Blackwell Digital Licensing) or (Christopher F. Baum).
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

