During the past few years, the United States economy has performed beyond most expectations. A shrinking budget deficit, low-interest rates, a stable macroeconomic environment, expanding international trade with fewer barriers and effective private-sector management are all credited with playing a role in this healthy economic performance.

Commercial bank investment in information technology (IT) equipment has grown rapidly, from $104 million in 1960 to more than $10 billion in 1994. These investments in “hard” technologies (computer hardware, software, telecommunications equipment, etc.) have been accompanied by increases in "soft" technologies, for example, complex financial innovations that were infeasible on a large scale...

The U.S. CPI is based on the Laspeyres price index, an index type that has an upward "substitution bias." Thus, the CPI tends to overstate increases in the cost of living. To address this bias, the Advisory Commission to Study the Consumer Price Index recommended adopting for the CPI a "superlative" price index, e.g., the Fisher or Tornqvist indices. Under the assumption of homothetic preferences...

From 1970 through 1991, the United States led other OECD countries in overall labor productivity, a key measure of national competitiveness. During this period, labor productivity in these countries converged, both towards the mean OECD labor productivity and the U.S. level of labor productivity. This suggests living standards among the OECD countries are becoming more alike. In the latter half of...

From 1970 through 1991, the United States led other OECD countries in overall labor productivity, a key measure of national competitiveness. During this period, labor productivity in these countries converged, both towards the mean OECD labor productivity and the U.S. level of labor productivity.

Since 1984, the U.S. telecommunications services industry has experienced profound changes caused by deregulation and rapid technological change. Competition now exists in almost all segments of the domestic industry. Local services, the only sector of the industry that remains monopolistic, currently face the prospect of increased competition as changes in technology and law enable various...

Service Industries and Economic Performance addresses three questions that have troubled economists for more than a decade: whether service-oriented economies can sustain high rates of output growth; whether they can generate large numbers of good jobs; and whether they can compete effectively in global markets.

This study assesses the widely-held belief that manufacturing industries are uniquely important to the process of national economic growth. The study’s related purpose is to describe structural changes in the U.S. manufacturing sector and the organization of U.S. manufacturing firms that are helping to determine the pace of economic growth and the creation of economic opportunity. Taken together...