The collapse of U.S. productivity growth since the late 1960s has been the most severe and persistent of recent economic problems. This volume reviews the extent of the growth slowdown, evaluates several contributing factors, and suggests strategies for improvement. The authors find that inflation, recessions, oil price fluctuations, and other economic disruptions in the 1970s had an averse effect on economic performance, but, they suggest, a slowing in the pace of innovation and a failure to exploit the benefits of innovation also contributed to the weakness in productivity. Baily and Chakrabarti provide a comprehensive assessment of U.S. technology policy and its importance to growth. They argue for continued support of basic science, even though strength in this area does not give the U.S. economy an immediate competitive advantage, and advocate increased support for "middle ground" and commercial research. They conclude that this support must be structured to preserve the advantages of the market.
Well-timed and targeted innovation boosts productivity, increases economic growth and helps solve societal problems. But how can governments encourage more people to innovate more of the time? And how can government itself be more innovative? The OECD Innovation Strategy provides a set of principles to spur innovation in people, firms and government. It takes an in-depth look at the scope of innovation and how it is changing, as well as where and how it is occurring, based on updated research and data.
Innovations and related knowledge are important drivers of corporate success in modern economies. However the crisis of 2008 strongly influenced investment decisions including R&D expenditure. This may be explained by the fact that the crisis has changed a transformation of corporate resources into economic benefit. Innovation activity is found to be a survival factor during the downturn. The aim of this study is to investigate how the crisis has changed relations between innovation and firm performance in western Europe. We apply a structural framework of the CDM model which takes into account endogeneity and selection bias. The study is based on new balanced panel data of 429 western European manufacturing firms.
Enthusiasts look forward to a time when tiny machines reassemble matter and process information but is their vision realistic? 'Soft Machines' explains why the nanoworld is so different to the macro-world that we are all familar with and shows how it has more in common with biology than conventional engineering.
It is argued that productivity gains should be maintained during times of severe financial and economic crises so that the economy gets back on track and does not get trapped in a state of underperformance. Innovation is an important factor in productivity improvement. We use historical patent data going back to 1883 and standard economic indicators to investigate the impact of major crises on innovation. Data are drawn from the World Intellectual Property Organization on patents in the United States and patents are used as a proxy for innovation. We find that crisis spur innovation with the effect being noticeable for up to three years after the crisis. As a by-product of our analysis we provide empirical evidence that innovation has a positive effect on growth.
This book addresses the rising productivity gap between the global frontier and other firms, and identifies a number of structural impediments constraining business start-ups, knowledge diffusion and resource allocation (such as barriers to up-scaling and relatively high rates of skill mismatch).
The COVID-19 pandemic struck the global economy after a decade that featured a broad-based slowdown in productivity growth. Global Productivity: Trends, Drivers, and Policies presents the first comprehensive analysis of the evolution and drivers of productivity growth, examines the effects of COVID-19 on productivity, and discusses a wide range of policies needed to rekindle productivity growth. The book also provides a far-reaching data set of multiple measures of productivity for up to 164 advanced economies and emerging market and developing economies, and it introduces a new sectoral database of productivity. The World Bank has created an extraordinary book on productivity, covering a large group of countries and using a wide variety of data sources. There is an emphasis on emerging and developing economies, whereas the prior literature has concentrated on developed economies. The book seeks to understand growth patterns and quantify the role of (among other things) the reallocation of factors, technological change, and the impact of natural disasters, including the COVID-19 pandemic. This book is must-reading for specialists in emerging economies but also provides deep insights for anyone interested in economic growth and productivity. Martin Neil Baily Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution Former Chair, U.S. President’s Council of Economic Advisers This is an important book at a critical time. As the book notes, global productivity growth had already been slowing prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and collapses with the pandemic. If we want an effective recovery, we have to understand what was driving these long-run trends. The book presents a novel global approach to examining the levels, growth rates, and drivers of productivity growth. For anyone wanting to understand or influence productivity growth, this is an essential read. Nicholas Bloom William D. Eberle Professor of Economics, Stanford University The COVID-19 pandemic hit a global economy that was already struggling with an adverse pre-existing condition—slow productivity growth. This extraordinarily valuable and timely book brings considerable new evidence that shows the broad-based, long-standing nature of the slowdown. It is comprehensive, with an exceptional focus on emerging market and developing economies. Importantly, it shows how severe disasters (of which COVID-19 is just the latest) typically harm productivity. There are no silver bullets, but the book suggests sensible strategies to improve growth prospects. John Fernald Schroders Chaired Professor of European Competitiveness and Reform and Professor of Economics, INSEAD
This forward-thinking book examines the potential impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on productivity. Productivity and the Pandemic features 21 chapters authored by 46 experts, examining different aspects of how the pandemic is likely to impact on the economy, society and governance in the medium- and long-term. Drawing on a range of empirical evidence, analytical arguments and new conceptual insights, the book challenges our thinking on many dimensions. With a keen focus on place, firms, production factors and institutions, the chapters highlight how the pre-existing challenges to productivity have been variously exacerbated and mitigated by the pandemic and points out ways forward for appropriate policy thinking in response to the crisis.
This volume uses the study of firm dynamics to investigate the factors preventing faster productivity growth in Latin America and the Caribbean, pushing past the limits of traditional macroeconomic analyses. Each chapter is dedicated to an examination of a different factor affecting firm productivity - innovation, ICT usage, on-the-job-training, firm age, access to credit, and international linkages - highlighting the differences in firm characteristics, behaviors, and strategies. By showcasing this remarkable heterogeneity, this collection challenges regional policymakers to look beyond one-size-fits-all solutions and create balanced policy mixes tailored to distinct firm needs. This book is open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO license.
This monograph is a collection of articles on productivity and related topics submitted by speakers at an interdisciplinary November 2017 conference sponsored by, among others, the CFA Institute Research Foundation, with additional articles solicited by the editors from noted experts on the field.
