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Expanding Economic Opportunity for More Americans, and Longform

Creating Economic Opportunity for More Americans Through Productivity Growth

February 4, 2019

Author

Chad Syverson

, Eli B. and Harriet B. Williams Professor of Economics, University of Chicago Booth School of Business

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Abstract

The U.S. economy in recent years has been characterized by slow average productivity growth and increasing productivity dispersion within industries. These trends have coincided with analogous changes in wages—slow average wage growth and greater wage inequality between workers. In this essay, I discuss research into the potential causes of these patterns and outline several policy changes that would yield expected productivity and wage benefits under general conditions.

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