Productivity Growth in Japan and the United States

by Charles R. Hulten

Overview

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.'

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226360591
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	06/06/1994
Series:	National Bureau of Economic Research Studies in Income and Wealth , #53
Edition description:	1
Pages:	455
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Charles R. Hulten is professor of economics at the University of Maryland and chairman of the executive committee of the Conference on Research in Income and Wealth.

Table of Contents

Prefatory Note
Introduction
Charles R. Hulten
1. Productivity and International Competitiveness in Japan and the United States, 1960-1985
Dale W. Jorgenson and Masahiro Kuroda
Comment: Robert M. Schwab
2. Bilateral Models of Production for Japanese and U.S. Industries
Dale W. Jorgenson, Hikaru Sakuramoto, Kanji Yoshioka, and Masahiro Kuroda
3. Productivity Growth in the Motor Vehicle Industry, 1970-1984: A Comparison of Canada, Japan, and the United States
Melvyn Fuss and Leonard Waverman
4. Comparison and Analysis of Productivity Growth and R&D Investment in the Electrical Machinery Industries of the United States and Japan
M. Ishaq Nadiri and Ingmar R. Prucha
5. Decisions of Firms and Productivity Growth with Fixed Input Constraints: An Empirical Comparison of U.S. and Japanese Manufacturing
Catherine Morrison
Comment: Ingmar R. Prucha
6. Energy Price Shocks and Productivity Growth in the Japanese and U.S. Manufacturing Industries
Ernst R. Berndt, Shunseke Mori, Takamitsu Sawa, and David O. Wood
Comment: Kanji Yoshioka
7. Productivity Growth and Changes in the Terms of Trade in Japan and the United States
Catherine Morrison and W. Erwin Diewert
8. Alternative Measures of Capital Inputs in Japanese Manufacturing
Edwin Dean, Masako Darrough, and Arthur Neef
Comment: Masahiro Kuroda
9. The Taxation of Income from Capital in Japan: Historical Perspectives and Policy Simulations
Tatsuya Kikutani and Toshiaki Tachibanaki
10. Taxes and Corporate Investment in Japanese Manufacturing
Fumio Hayashi
11. R&D and Productivity Growth: Comparing Japanese and U.S. Manufacturing Firms
Zvi Griliches and Jacques Mairesse
Comment: Edwin Mansfield
Reply: Zvi Griliches and Jacques Mairesse
12. Compositional Change of Heterogeneous Labor Input and Economic Growth in Japan
Hajime Imamura
Comment: Walter Y. Oi
13. Technical Change and Human Capital Acquisition in the U.S. and Japanese Labor Markets
Hong W. Tan
Comment: Romesh Diwan
14. Labor Disputes and Productivity in Japan and the United States
Alice C. Lam, J. R. Norsworthy, and Craig A. Zabala
Comment: Mary Jean Bowman
List of Contributors
Author Index
Subject Index