Of Yeast and Mushrooms: Patterns of Industry-Level Productivity Growth

In this paper we analyse labour productivity growth in the United States, four European countries (France, Germany, the Netherlands and United Kingdom), Australia and Canada between 1987 and 2003 from an industry perspective. Rather than analysing broad industry groups, we compare the pattern of growth in all industries through Harberger diagrams. We introduce new summary measures, which indicate the pervasiveness of growth patterns. These indicators show that investment in both information and communication technology (ICT) and non-ICT capital is fairly balanced or 'yeasty', driven by overall macro-economic conditions. However, growth of total factor productivity (TFP) is much more localized or 'mushroom-like'. In particular we find a clear distinction between countries in continental Europe, in which TFP is decelerating after 1995 and becoming more localized, and Anglo-Saxon countries in which TFP growth is accelerating and becoming more broad-based, especially after 2000. The increased breadth of Anglo-Saxon TFP growth is consistent with delayed effects of intangible investments that are complementary to ICT investments. Copyright Verein für Socialpolitik and Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2007.