A Century of Growth and Improvement
American Economic Review
vol. 106,
no. 5, May 2016
(pp. 52-56)
Abstract
The fact that actual economic advance over time normally means producing and consuming different things is usually left implicit in modern models of economic growth. By contrast, qualitative change--new goods and services, and better versions of what already existed--is central to Robert Gordon's history of the improvement of American living standards since 1870. A major contribution of his fine-grained account of this experience is to make clear what this improvement has meant, and why it has mattered to ordinary citizens.Citation
Friedman, Benjamin M. 2016. "A Century of Growth and Improvement." American Economic Review, 106 (5): 52-56. DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20161069Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- E23 Macroeconomics: Production
- E32 Business Fluctuations; Cycles
- E65 Studies of Particular Policy Episodes
- I31 General Welfare; Well-Being
- N11 Economic History: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations: U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
- N12 Economic History: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations: U.S.; Canada: 1913-
- O33 Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes