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Emerging from the ruins of the Second World War, the Japanese economy has grown at double-digit rate throughout much of the 1950s and 1960s, and, when the oil crisis of the 1970s slowed growth throughout the industrialized world, Japanese growth throughout the industrialized world, Japanese growth rates remained relatively strong. There have been many attempts by scholars from a wide range of disciplines to explain this remarkable history, but for economists interested in the quantitative analysis of economic growth and the principal question addressed is how Japan was able to grow so rapidly.The contributors focus their efforts on the accurate measurement and comparison of Japanese and U.S. economic growth. Assuming that any sustained increase in real GNP must be due either to an increase in the quantity of capital and labor used in production or to the more efficient use of these inputs, the authors analyze the individual contributions of various factors and their importance in the process of output growth.These essays extend the methodology of growth analysis and offer many insights into the factors leading to the superior performance of the Japanese economy. They demonstrate that growth is a complex process and no single factor can explain the Japanese 'miracle.'
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This Page Intentionally Left Blank Productivity Growth in Japan and the United States Studies in Income and Wealth Volume53 National Bureau of Economic Research Conference on Research in Income and Wealth Productivity Growth in Japan and the United States Edited by Charles R. Hulten The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London CHARLE~ R. HULTENis professor of economics at The University of Maryland, chairman of the executive committee of the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London 0 1990 by the National Bureau of Economic Research All rights reserved. Published 1990 Printed in the United States of America 03020100999897969594 5432 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Productivity growth in Japan and the United States /edited by Charles R. Hulten. p. cm. -(Studies in income and wealth ; v. 53) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-226-36059-8 (cloth) 2. Industrial 1. Industrial productivity-Japan-Congresses. productivity-United States-Congresses. I. Hulten, Charles R. 11. Series. HC106.3.C714 vol. 53 [HC465.152] 330 s 4 c 2 0 [338'.06'0952] 90-46002 CIP 8 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI 239.48-1984. National Bureau of Economic Research Ofiicers George T. Conklin, Jr., chairman Paul W. McCracken, vice chairman Martin Feldstein, president and chief executive ojicer Geoffrey Carliner, executive director Charles A. Walworth, treasurer Sam Parker, director offinance and administration Directors at Large John H.Biggs Andrew Brimmer Carl F. Christ George T. Conklin, Jr. Kathleen B. Cooper Jean A. Crockett George C. Eads Morton Ehrlich Martin Feldstein George Hatsopoulos Lawrence R. Klein Franklin A. Lindsay Paul W. McCracken Leo Melamed Michael H. Moskow James J. O’Leary Robert T. Parry Peter G.Peterson Robert V. Roosa Richard N. Rosett Bert Seidman Eli Shapiro Donald S . Wasserman Directors by University Appointment Jagdish Bhagwati, Columbia William C. Brainard, Yale Franklin Fisher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Jonathan Hughes, Northwestern Saul H.Hymans, Michigan Marjorie B. McElroy, Duke James L. Pierce, California, Berkeley Andrew Postlewaite