BISWorkingPapers No1185 Allocativeefficiencyandtheproductivityslowdown byLinShaoandRongshengTang MonetaryandEconomicDepartment May2024 JELclassification:O47,E23. Keywords:productivityslowdown;allocativeefficiency;volatility;adjustmentcosts. BISWorkingPapersarewrittenbymembersoftheMonetaryandEconomicDepartmentoftheBankforInternationalSettlements,andfromtimetotimebyothereconomists,andarepublishedbytheBank.Thepapersareonsubjectsoftopicalinterestandaretechnicalincharacter.TheviewsexpressedinthemarethoseoftheirauthorsandnotnecessarilytheviewsoftheBIS. ThispublicationisavailableontheBISwebsite(www.bis.org). ©BankforInternationalSettlements2024.Allrightsreserved.Briefexcerptsmaybereproducedortranslatedprovidedthesourceisstated. ISSN1020-0959(print) ISSN1682-7678(online) AllocativeEfficiencyandtheProductivitySlowdown∗ LinShao†RongshengTang‡ April2024 Abstract Thispaperevaluatesthecontributionofcross-sectorallocativeefficiencytothepro-ductivityslowdownintheUSduringthe1970sand2000s.WeextendtheframeworkofOberfield(2013)toderivesufficientstatisticsforallocativeefficiencyanddecomposeaggregateproductivitygrowthinamulti-sectoreconomywithorwithoutinput-outputlinkages.Wefindapproximatelytwo-thirdsoftheproductivityslowdowncanbeex-plainedbythelackofimprovementinallocativeefficiency.Furthermore,datashowsthatincreasedsector-levelvolatilityisassociatedwiththedeteriorationofallocativeefficiency. JELcodes:O47;E23. Keywords:productivityslowdown;allocativeefficiency;volatility;adjustmentcosts. ∗WethankSusantoBasu,BrianBergfeld,NicolasCrouzet,GeoffDunbar,GabrielaGalassi,Oleksiy Kryvtsov,MarkusPoschke,B.Ravikumar,DiegoRestuccia,AliSen,FaisalSohail,DanTrefler,andtheaudiencesatBIS-CCAresearchconference,CEA2019,ESAsianMeeting2019,EEA2020,MEA2021,WorldKLEMSConference,NAProductivityWorkshopandtheBankofCanadaforhelpfulcomments.TheviewsexpressedinthispaperaresolelythoseoftheauthorsandmaydifferfromtheofficialBankofCanadaview.Errorsareourown. †Correspondingauthor,BankofCanada,lin.j.shao@gmail.com. ‡ShangUniversityofFinanceandEconomics,rstang@outlook.com. 1Introduction GrowthinUSrealoutputperworkerdecreasedsignificantlyinthe1970sandthe2000s(seeFigure1).Theslowdowninproductivitygrowthisamongthemostsignificantmacroeco-nomicdevelopmentsinthepastfewdecadesandhascapturedtheattentionofacademicresearchersandpolicymakers.Thispaperevaluatestheroleofallocativeefficiencyacrosssectorsinexplainingaggregateproductivitydynamicsduringtheseperiods.Weshowthatallocativeefficiencyacrosssectors—ormoreprecisely,thelackofimprovementinit—isthecommonfactorbehindbothepisodesofslowproductivitygrowth. Figure1:LaborproductivityintheUS 4.6 .04 4.4 .03 4.2 .02 4 .01 3.8 3.6 19601970 198019902000 0 20102020 loglaborproductivitygrowthinlaborproductivity Notes:ThisfigureplotsthelogarithmsandgrowthofrealoutputperworkerintheUnitedStatesbusinesssector.Thegrowthrateiscomputedasthehp-filteredlogdifferenceinrealoutputperworker.Theslowgrowthduringthe1970sand2000sisalsodocumentedusingrealoutputperhour(Figure1ofVandenbroucke,2021)andTFP(Figure1ofAumetal.,2018).Thegraybarsindicatethetwoproductivityslowdownepisodes. Webeginbydocumentingtwokeyfactsofallocativeefficiencyacrosssectors.Todoso,weuseamulti-sectormodel,withandwithoutinput-outputlinkages,andsector-leveldatafromtheKLEMSdatabaseandtheWorldInput-OutputTabletomeasureallocativeefficiency.First,wefindthatthegradualimprovementinallocativeefficiencyisasignificantdriverofoverallproductivitygrowthinthelongrun.From1960to2007,allocativeefficiencygraduallyimproved,contributingtoapproximately20percentoftheaggregatelaborproductivitygrowthduringthisperiod.Second,theperiodsofproductivityslowdowninthe1970sand 2000sstandoutastwoexceptionstothislong-runtrend.Allocativeefficiencydeclinedduringthe1970sandthenstagnatedinthe2000s,followingtwodecadesofcontinuousimprovement. Fromabroaderperspective,productivitygrowthisdrivenbyeither(i)enhancementsinfundamentalproductivity(i.e.,duetotechnologicaladvancements)or(ii)improvedresourceallocationacrosssectors.Ifthereisastagnationordeclineinallocativeefficiency,itcanleadtoslowerproductivitygrowth.Whiledatashowthatthegrowthratesofobservedlaborproductivityinthe1970sand2000sdeceleratedcomparedtothoseofthe1960sand1990s,ouranalysisattributesapproximatelytwo-thirdsofthesedecelerationstoeitherstagnationordeclineinallocativeefficiency.Consequently,fundamentalproductivitycontributestoonlyaboutathirdoftheobservedslowdowninproductivitygrowth. Next,weinvestigatethevolatilityofsectoralproductivityasapotentialcontributortothelackofimprovementinallocativeefficiencyduringthe1970sand2000s.Previoustheoreticalandempiricalresearchhashighlightedamechanismlinkinghighertime-seriesvolatilitytoadeclineinallocativeefficiencywhen(non-convex)adjustmentcostsarepresent.Theoptionvalueassociatedwithmakinganadjustmentresultsinaninactionregioninwhichfirmsadoptawait-and-seeapproachinadjustingtheirinputsratherthanchoosinginputquantitiesthatwouldmaximizeoutputineveryperiod.Thisinactionregionbroadenswithhighervolatilityastheoptionvalueofwaitingi