[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-324512-105":59,"doc-detail-324512-en":131},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":124,"head_meta":126,"extra_data":128,"updated_unix":130},105,"en","unbalanced-growth-and-the-us-productivity-slowdown","Unbalanced Growth and the U.S. Productivity Slowdown","","Explains why the long-run productivity growth rate in the United States slowed markedly over the past two decades and how this affected living standards. Contrasts common explanations that blame failed resource management with an alternative view that unbalanced growth can naturally shift resources from higher-productivity sectors (like farming and manufacturing) to lower-productivity sectors (like services), reducing overall gains.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/unbalanced-growth-and-the-us-productivity-slowdown/324512/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/unbalanced-growth-and-the-us-productivity-slowdown/324512.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Lucas Martin","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-09-21",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",11,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What factor most determines a nation's long-run standard of living, according to the document?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"The document states that long-run standard of living is primarily determined by the productivity of a nation’s resources, especially labor and capital.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"How does the document describe the trend in U.S. productivity growth since around 1970?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"It describes a dramatic slowdown over the past two decades, with cyclical fluctuations but a gradual downward arc in the trend rate estimated from a fitted curve.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"What alternative explanation does the Economic Commentary propose for the productivity slowdown?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"It argues that at least part of the slowdown is a natural response to unbalanced growth, where resources shift from sectors with higher productivity growth to sectors with lower productivity growth.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},324512,1790466585,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":24,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},8796095360427,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_994ba38a5ba835b3df7d355c54d3ed8d","by Paul W.Bauer  \nTne singe mostimporan factorindetermining a nation's standard of livingin the long run is the productivity of itsresources (primarily labor and capital).Ifmaintained over time,even relativelysmall productivity growth rates can havelarge effects on living standards.For ex-ample,if productivity grew at a moder-ate 2.0 percent each year,the overallstandard of living would double in only35 years  \nPrivate business productivity,thoughincreasing in the postwar years,hasslowed over time(see figure 1).Thedeceleration is especially easy to detectafter 1970.Obviously,productivitygrowth displays a great deal of cyclicalvariation,tending to rise during expan-sions and fall during recessions.Ofconcern is the trend productivity growthrate,which is estimated by the fittedcurve in figure 1.Its gradual arc overthe past two decades indicates a dra-matic drop-off in the growth of privatebusiness productivity.  \nGiven its large potential impact on thequality of life,this slower trend rate ofproductivity growth in recent years is aserious concern.Indeed,if the rate hadbeen only half a percent higher from1970 to the present,GNP would havebeen $600 billion more in 1991 alone—roughly twice the current defense budget.  \nUnderstanding why the productivitygrowth rate has been decreasing is crucialin order to formulate public policy to at-tempt to reverse the trend.The standard  \n# Unbalanced Growth andthe U.S.Productivity Slowdown\n\nexplanations attribute the slowdown toa failure of U.S.resource management.Examples include declines in laborquality,slower capital accumulation(due in part to a historically low per-sonal saving rate),expanded govem-ment regulation,a decline in the rate ofinvestment in public infrastructure,andshortcomings by both private andpublic managers(for example,failureto implement new manufacturing tech-niques such as just-in-time inventoriesat a sufficiently rapid pace).The sloweraccumulation of new capital is consid-ered particularly important,becausetechnological advances are oftenembodied in new capital goodsInshort,these explanations argue thatsome economic institutions,in eitherthe public or private arenas,are per-forming worse now than they were inprevious years.  \nInstead of blaming the downtum onsome institutional failure,this EconomicCommentary presents the case that atleast some ofthe long-run U.S.produc-tivity growth slowdown is a naturalresponse to unbalanced growth.Thisexplanation contends that structural is-sues are at the root of slower productivitygrowth as the economy evolves.Specifi-cally,unbalanced growth appears to beshifting resources from sectors in whichthe productivity growth rate is higher(such as farming and manufacturing)tosectors in which that rate is lower(suchas services),thus driving down overallproductivity gains  \nJanuary 1,1992  \nThe trend rate of U.S.productivitygrowth has slowed dramatically overthe past two decades,leading to aslower improvement in our standardof living.Although many would at-tribute thistrend to failed resourcemanagement,some of the slowdownmay be a natural response to unbal-anced growth.In this scenario,re-sources are shifted from sectors withhigher productivity growth rates tothose with lower rates—such as therapidly expanding service sector一thus slowing overall productivity gains.  \n## ■ What Causes Growth\n\nto Be Unbalanced?  \nAlthough the downtum in private busi-ness productivity growth over time isclearly evident,not all sectors of theeconomy have shared in the decline.Specifically,manufacturing productiv-ity growth has been fairly steady in thelong run despite its short-run cyclicalvariability(see figure 2).This sug-gests that the problem is not economy-wide,but is instead related to thechanging composition of the economy.  \nTo illustrate how unbalanced growthcan lead to an overall productivityslowdown,consider an economy inwhich there are only two sectors,a pro-gressive one that experiences produc-tivity growth and a stagnant one thatdoes not.²(We can si","cbCaih08tEhnLt58","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaih08tEhnLt58","pdf",1117241,"English","# Unbalanced Growth and the U.S. Productivity Slowdown\n## What Causes Growth To Be Unbalanced?","[{\"question\":\"What factor most determines a nation's long-run standard of living, according to the document?\",\"answer\":\"The document states that long-run standard of living is primarily determined by the productivity of a nation’s resources, especially labor and capital.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the document describe the trend in U.S. productivity growth since around 1970?\",\"answer\":\"It describes a dramatic slowdown over the past two decades, with cyclical fluctuations but a gradual downward arc in the trend rate estimated from a fitted curve.\"},{\"question\":\"What alternative explanation does the Economic Commentary propose for the productivity slowdown?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that at least part of the slowdown is a natural response to unbalanced growth, where resources shift from sectors with higher productivity growth to sectors with lower productivity growth.\"}]","Unbalanced Growth and the U.S. Productivity Slowdown | PDF",1789968116,13]