Comparing Productivity Growth

This paper compares and analyzes the growth of productivity in the manufacturing industries and firms in France and the U.S. based on newly assembled comparable data sets in both countries. Three explanations of the recent productivity slowdown are reviewed: shortfall in physical investment, rise in materials prices, and a decline in the intensity or fecundity of R&D investment, and found not to bear on the differences in productivity growth between and within the two countries, either at the industry or the firm levels.