Productivity and Economic Growth in Japan and the United States
比较1960-1979年日本和美国的经济增长来源，发现资本投入是两国增长的最主要因素，在日本贡献更大。适合关注经济增长驱动因素的学者。
During the period from 1960 to 1973, the economic growth rate in Japan was at the rate of 10 or 11 percent per year. Japan was not the only country that grew rapidly during that period. France and Germany grew at 5.9 and 5.4 percent per year between 1960 and 1973 and Italy grew at 4.8 percent per year. Even the United Kingdom grew at a respectable 3.8 percent per year. The United States grew at 4.3 percent per year during this period. To fill out the roster of the seven major industrialized countries, Canada grew at 5.1 percent per year.' After the first oil crisis in 1973, and even more so after the second oil crisis in 197879, there was a dramatic decline of economic growth among industrialized countries. Growth in the OECD countries dipped to 2.6 percent per year between 1973 and 1979. Japanese growth dropped from the doubledigit levels of the 1960's and the early 1970's to 3.8 percent per year from 1973 to 1979. In the United States, the growth rate dropped to slightly above the OECD average at 2.8 percent per year. The rate of economic growth in Germany dropped to 2.4 percent and in France to 3.1 percent. In every major industrialized country there was a precipitous fall in the rate of economic growth. The sources of economic growth in Japan and the United States over the whole period from 1960 to 1979 are given in Table 1. If we compare Japan and the United States during the period 1960-79, we see that the growth of output over the whole period was 8.3 percent in Japan and only 3.5 percent in the United States. We can allocate this growth in output in the two countries among its three sources, namely, the contribution of capital input, the contribution of labor input and the rate of technical change. By far, the most important contributor to economic growth in both countries is the growth of capital input. This growth source accounts for about 5 percentage points of the Japanese economic growth rate and about 1.5 percentage points of the U.S. economic growth rate. This amounts to 60 percent of Japanese growth and 40 percent of U.S. growth. Labor input in the two countries is a major contributor to economic growth, accounting for 1.5 percent of the Japanese growth rate and 1.2 percent of the U.S. growth rate. The rate of technical change is an important contributor as well, at nearly 2 percent in Japan and 0.7 percent in the United States. I conclude that by far the most important contributor to economic growth in the two countries is the growth of capital input. The relative importance of capital input is much greater in Japan than in the United States. Focusing attention on the period from 1973 to 1979 after the energy crisis, we can see that capital input retained its lead as a source of economic growth in both countries. However, the decline in the growth of tDiscussants: John W. Kendrick, George Washington University; J. Randolph Norsworthy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Rolf R. Piekarz, National Science Foundation.