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Output Measurement in the Service Sectors

Is the fall in overall productivity growth in the United States and other developed countries related to the rising share of the service sectors in the economy? Since services represent well over half of the U.S. gross national product, it is also important to ask whether these sectors have had a slow rate of growth, as this would act as a major drag on the productivity growth of the overall economy and on its competitive performance. In this timely volume, leading experts from government and academia argue that faulty statistics have prevented a clear understanding of these issues.

Table of Contents

Introduction, Zvi Griliches
I. What is Being Done
Recent and Planned Improvements in the Measurement and Deflation of Services Outputs and Inputs in BEA’s Gross Product Originating Estimates, Michael F. Mohr Productivity Measurement in Service Industries, Edwin R. Dean and Kent Kunze Improvement in Measuring Price Changes in Consumer Services: Past, Present, and Future, Paul A. Armknecht and Daniel H. Ginsburg
II. Alternative Approaches
Productivity in the Distributive Trades: The Shopper and the Economies of Massed Reserves, Walter Y. Oi The Real Output of the Stock Exchange, Timothy F. Bresnaham, Paul Milgrom, and Jonathan Paul
IIIA. Measuring the Output of Banking and Other Services User Costs, Shadow Prices, and the Real Output of Banks, Dennis J. Fixler and Kimberly D. Zieschang Measurement and Efficiency Issues in Commercial Banking, Allen N. Berger and David B. Humphrey
IIIB. Selected Industries
The Output of the Education Sector, Dale W. Jorgenson and Barbara M. Fraumeni Measurement of Output and Quality Adjustment in the Day-Care Industry, Swati Mukerjee and Ann Dryden Witte Productivity in the Transportation Sector, Robert J. Gordon Purchased Services, Outsourcing, Computers, and Productivity in Manufacturing, Donald Siegel and Zvi Griliches Dispersion and Heterogeneity of Firm Performances in Nine French Service Industries, 1984-1987, Elizabeth and Jacques Mairesse IV. International Aspects
Measuring Final Product Services for International Comparisons, Alan Heston and Robert Summers Measuring Public-Sector Output: The Swedish Report, Richard Murray

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