The comparative growth performance of the U.S. economy in the postwar period

Productivity growth is the single most important determinant of improvements in a country's living standards over time. Accordingly, the U.S. productivity slowdown of the past two decades has caused great concern and sparked much debate. ; In this article, Mark A. Wynne argues that the problems associated with the U.S. slowdown may be overstated. Wynne shows that the rates of productivity growth experienced in the immediate postwar period were extraordinary in comparison with historical standards. Thus, some slowdown was probably unavoidable. U.S. productivity performance in comparison with that of other countries, especially Japan's, is also perceived as poor. But this perception may be flawed, Wynne suggests, because higher growth rates abroad reflected convergence of foreign productivity to U.S. levels.