The Quantity and Quality of Schooling and U.S. Labor Productivity Growth (1870–2000)

This paper accounts for the contribution of the quantity and quality of schooling to worker productivity growth in the United States from 1870 to 2000. Schooling investments rose dramatically over the period before leveling off around 1970. Schooling likely caused 30 to 40 percent of the fivefold rise in worker productivity from 1870 to 1970 and produced a “wave pattern” in productivity growth (previously attributed solely to the timing and diffusion of important technological innovations). The results suggest that about 1 percent of the century-long 1.6-percent growth rate in worker productivity is sustainable. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: O47, J24.