Determinants of long-run labor productivity growth: a selective survey with some new empirical results

Using cross-country data, we review the empirical evidence concerning long-term labor and total factor productivity growth. We find that the conclusions one can draw from cross-country data are surprisingly modest. Nevertheless, we confirm the crucial role for physical capital accumulation in enhancing labor productivity growth and develop a role for human capital in an endogenous growth framework. We also find that the performances of so-called "ancillary variables" are rather insignificant in the presence of proxies for physical and human capital stocks.