Problems arise if budgets for services are held constant whilst prices rise. Education, cultural activities and health services are under constant budgetary pressure. The authors argue that the price of commodities is linked to demand and price increases would therefore seem to threaten the very...

The age structure of capital plays an important role in the measurement of productivity.It has been argued that the slowdown in the 1970 s can be ascribed to the aging of the stock of capital.In this paper we incorporate the age structure in productivity measurement.One proposition proves that...

Manufacturing productivity growth recovered during the 1980s and 1990s, while other sectors, particularly services, did not. In the same period U.S. manufacturing has engaged in the "outsourcing" or "contracting-out" of service functions. Has the recovery of manufacturing been accomplished by...

There is good reason to believe that R&D influences on TFP growth in other sectors are indirect.For R&D to spill over, it must first be successful in the home sector.Indeed, observed spillovers conform better to TFP growth than to R&D in the upstream sectors.Sectoral TFP growth rates are thus...