Productivity Convergence

Edward Wolff is a Professor of Economics at New York University. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He served as managing editor of the Review of Income and Wealth from 1987 to 2004 and was a council member of the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth from 1987 to 2012. He is the author (or co-author) of numerous books, including: Growth, Accumulation, and Unproductive Activity (Cambridge University Press, 1987), The Transformation of the American Pension System: Was It Beneficial for Workers? (2011) and Productivity Growth: Industries, Spillovers and Economic Performance (with Thijs ten Raa, 2012). He received his PhD from Yale University.

• 1. Introduction; 2. An overview of modern growth theory; 3. The measurement and estimation of productivity growth; 4. The long-term record among the advanced industrial countries; 5. Postwar record on productivity performance on the aggregate level among the advanced industrial countries; 6. Further details on the role of education and technology in the productivity performance among the advanced industrial countries; 7. Productivity performance on the industry level among the advanced industrial countries; 8. The productivity slowdown; 9. Postwar economic performance among countries of the world; 10. Recapitulation and future prospects for growth.