Productivity and U.S. Economic Growth

Although the level of U.S. per capita output was higher than that of any other industrialized country at the end of World War II, output has increased by more than four times and per capita output has more than doubled. Empirical evidence has shifted the terms of professional debates over the importance of investment and productivity as sources of postwar growth. This volume traces this outstanding growth performance to investments in tangible assets and human capital. The distinctive feature of investment as a source of economic growth is that returns can be internalized by the investor. The most straightforward application of this idea is to investments that create property rights. These include rights to transfer the resulting assets and benefit from the incomes that are generated. This volume broadens the meaning of capital formation to include the investments in education and training. The contributions of these investments to economic growth can be identified from their...