Productivity Dispersion, Entry, and Growth in U.S. Manufacturing Industries
August 2021
Working Paper Number:
CES-21-21
Abstract
Within-industry productivity dispersion is pervasive and exhibits substantial variation across countries, industries, and time. We build on prior research that explores the hypothesis that periods of innovation are initially associated with a surge in business start-ups, followed by increased experimentation that leads to rising dispersion potentially with declining aggregate productivity growth, and then a shakeout process that results in higher productivity growth and declining productivity dispersion. Using novel detailed industry-level data on total factor productivity and labor productivity dispersion from the Dispersion Statistics on Productivity along with novel measures of entry rates from the Business Dynamics Statistics and productivity growth data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for U.S. manufacturing industries, we find support for this hypothesis, especially for the high-tech industries.
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:
production,
productive,
industrial,
sale,
manufacturing,
productivity growth,
growth,
tech,
industry productivity,
labor productivity,
labor,
produce,
productivity measures,
factor productivity,
sector,
growth productivity,
recession,
innovation,
rates productivity,
inventory,
dispersion productivity,
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productivity dispersion,
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Bureau of Labor Statistics,
Annual Survey of Manufactures,
Total Factor Productivity,
Longitudinal Business Database,
IQR,
North American Industry Classification System,
Census Bureau Disclosure Review Board,
Business Dynamics Statistics,
Federal Statistical Research Data Center
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