Technological Progress, Capital Deepening, and Manufacturing Productivity Growth in the USA: A Regional Analysis

Abstract

According to the Verdoorn law productivity rises faster in expanding economic sectors. The validity of the Verdoorn law has been investigated primarily for industries. Does the law also hold with respect to areal aggregates? Specifically, in the USA, are productivity gains larger in regions in which jobs and population expand faster? In this paper a technique for separating productivity gains associated with capital deepening, economies of scale, and neutral technological progress is discussed and is then applied to investigate, in a US setting, the ‘spatial’ validity of the Verdoorn law.