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Productivity and Machinery Investment: A Long Run Look 1870-1980

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  • J. Bradford De Long

Abstract

Over the past century the long-run growth of six economies shows a strong association between investment in machinery and economic growth that holds both within and across nations and periods. A similar strong association holds for the post-world War II period for a broader cross section of nations. A number of considerations suggest that this association is causal, and that a high rate of machinery investment is a necessary prerequisite for rapid long-run productivity growth - a hypothesis also supported by narratives from the history of technology.

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  • J. Bradford De Long, 1991. "Productivity and Machinery Investment: A Long Run Look 1870-1980," NBER Working Papers 3903, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:3903
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