This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Review
  4. March 2002
  5. Sources of U.S. Economic Growth in a World of Ideas

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Sources of U.S. Economic Growth in a World of Ideas

  • Charles I. Jones
American Economic Review
vol. 92, no. 1, March 2002
(pp. 220–239)
Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

Rising educational attainment and research intensity in recent decades suggest that the U.S. economy is far from its steady state. This paper develops a model reconciling these facts with the stability of U.S. growth rates. In the model, long-run growth arises from the worldwide discovery of ideas, which depends on population growth. Nevertheless, constant growth can temporarily proceed at a faster rate, provided research intensity and educational attainment rise steadily over time. Growth accounting reveals that these factors explain 80 percent of recent U.S. growth, with less than 20 percent coming from world population growth. (JEL O40, E10)

Citation

Jones, Charles, I. 2002. "Sources of U.S. Economic Growth in a World of Ideas ." American Economic Review, 92 (1): 220–239. DOI: 10.1257/000282802760015685

JEL Classification

  • O47 Measurement of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence