I should stress that, although I have listed several likely contributors, the ultimate cause or causes of this post-1973 productivity slowdown have eluded researchers. Productivity continued to grow at an annual pace of about 1-1/2 percent from 1973 to 1995.
We can divide this period into several subperiods, yet the results are essentially the same: continued gains in labor productivity but well below the pre-1973 pace. From 1995 to 2001, labor productivity grew at an annual pace of 2-1/4 percent. Research by my colleagues at the Federal Reserve--Steve Oliner and Dan Sichel--sheds some light on the sources of this faster productivity growth.