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Intangibles, Markups, and the Measurement of Productivity Growth

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  • Nicolas Crouzet
  • Janice C. Eberly

Abstract

In recent years, measured TFP growth in the US has declined. We argue that two forces contributed to this decline: the mismeasurement of intangible capital, and rising markups. Markups affect input shares, while intangibles omitted from measures of investment affect measured capital growth, each potentially generating downward bias in measured TFP growth. Most importantly, when both forces are simultaneously present, their effects reinforce each other and amplify the downward bias in measured TFP growth. Using input-output data, we estimate that this mechanism could account for one-third to two-thirds of the decline in measured TFP growth.

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  • Nicolas Crouzet & Janice C. Eberly, 2021. "Intangibles, Markups, and the Measurement of Productivity Growth," NBER Working Papers 29109, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29109
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    Cited by:

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    2. Ian Goldin & Pantelis Koutroumpis & François Lafond & Julian Winkler, 2024. "Why Is Productivity Slowing Down?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(1), pages 196-268, March.
    3. Boppart, Timo & Li, Huiyu, 2021. "Productivity slowdown: reducing the measure of our ignorance," CEPR Discussion Papers 16478, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Liu, Yajie & Cui, Lijuan & Xiong, Yanyan & Yao, Xianguo, 2023. "Does the development of the Internet improve the allocative efficiency of production factors? Evidence from surveys of Chinese manufacturing firms," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 161-174.
    5. Dennis J. Fixler & Eva de Francisco, 2022. "Understanding the uneven growth of Intellectual Property Products investment in the U.S," BEA Working Papers 0198, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
    6. NAKAMURA Tsuyoshi & OHASHI Hiroshi, 2022. "Japanese Firms' Markups and Firm-to-firm Transactions," Discussion papers 22083, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    7. Carter Davis & Alexandre Sollaci & James Traina, 2022. "Profit Puzzles or: Public Firm Profits Have Fallen," Papers 2201.09160, arXiv.org.
    8. Diego Comin & Javier Quintana & Tom Schmitz & Antonella Trigari, 2021. "Measuring TFP: The role of profits, adjustment costs, and capacity utilization," Working Papers 2143, Banco de España.
    9. Comin, Diego & Quintana Gonzalez, Javier & Schmitz, Tom & Trigari, Antonella, 2020. "Revisiting Productivity Dynamics in Europe: A New Measure of Utilization-Adjusted TFP Growth," CEPR Discussion Papers 15402, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Shenhai Huang & Chao Du & Xian Jin & Daini Zhang & Shiyan Wen & Yu’an Wang & Zhenyu Cheng & Zhijie Jia, 2022. "The Boundary of Porter Hypothesis: The Energy and Economic Impact of China’s Carbon Neutrality Target in 2060," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-18, December.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • D4 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design
    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies

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