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Overview
Shrinking productivity growth in the United States, and to a lesser extent in all other industrialized nations after 1973, has had profound effects upon the relative performance of countries in the international market. This pathbreaking volume conveys the "state of the art" of contemporary research on productivity growth and international competitiveness--arguably the two most important problems facing contemporary economics. Adopting a worldwide perspective that features comparative analyses of both industrialized and developing countries, the book is composed of chapters from an international roster of leading scholars who cover a wide range of complementary topics and approaches. Among the common themes, which are highlighted in the editor's overview chapter, are the measurement of labor and total factor productivity, accounting for the sources of productivity growth, the worldwide productivity slowdown, the extent of productivity convergence among developed economies, the primacy of exchange rate fluctuations in short-term movements of competitiveness since the early 1970s, and the causes of the apparent loss of U.S. competitiveness during the 1980s. International Productivity and Competitiveness will be essential reading for government officials interested in international productivity, as well as scholars and students of comparative international economics.Synopsis
This pathbreaking volume conveys the "state of the art" of contemporary research on productivity growth and international competitiveness—arguably the most important problems facing contemporary economics. Adopting a worldwide perspective that features comparative analyses of both industrialized and developing countries, the book assembles papers from an international roster of leading scholars who cover a wide range of complementary topics and approaches. A number of the papers attempt to increase the clarity of thinking about "competitiveness" by developing formal definitions of the concept and relating it to more conventional economics concepts such as productivity. Some provide a macroeconomic perspective whereas others compare cross-sections of individual industries across countries or analyze the efficacy of industrial policies to promote competitiveness. Among the common themes, which are highlighted in the editor's overview chapter, are the measurement of labor and total factor productivity, accounting for the sources of productivity growth, the use of purchasing power parity indexes in international comparisons of productivity levels, the worldwide productivity slowdown, the extent of productivity convergence among developed economies, the primacy of exchange rate fluctuations in short-term movements of competitiveness since the early 1970's, and the causes of the apparent loss of U.S. competitiveness during the 1980's.