Investment growth in the OECD area has been higher in the second half of the 1980s than in the 1970s. However, the ratio of net investment to GDP has remained low by past cyclical standards. This paper first reviews the evolution of business-sector fixed investment and addresses measurement...

A recent study by David Aschauer suggested a novel explanation for the slowdown of private-sector total factor productivity (TFP) in the United States in the early 1970s. He argues that it is due to the roughly contemporaneous slowdown in the rate of investment in public-sector infrastructure....

In the 1980s, real consumption wages fell relative to labour efficiency in OECD countries, although there has been some pressure on wages recently. The persistent moderation of wages was due to labour-market slack, as well as rising non-wage labour costs and slower increases in output prices...