Abstract
This paper surveys productivity growth at a sectoral level for the United States and other countries. We begin with a discussion of the definition and measurement of productivity growth followed by a review of empirical work undertaken in its measurement.
We then take a close look at factors influencing productivity growth in twelve sectors: electric utilities; gas utilities; petroleum refining; coal mining; crude oil and gas extraction; other mining; agriculture, fishing and hunting; forestry and wood products; durable manufacturing; non-durable manufacturing; transportation; and services. The paper reports differential productivity growth rates for these industries for the United States and for subsets of these industries for other countries.
