THE GROWTH OF UNITED-STATES LABOR PRODUCTIVITY 1950-1989

A quarterly model of US labour productivity growth for the 1950-1989 period is presented. The time trend over this period is insignificant, a result superficially consistent with the notion that the problem of slow productivity growth has been exaggerated. Historically, high growth of labour productivity during the 1950-64 period and its subsequent decline are shown to be the product of trends in the growth of labour quality as measured by test scores. The results suggest that it will be difficult for the US to achieve its historic growth rate of labour productivity.