1: Introduction

The US productivity slowdown is generally known to refer to the period of time when total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the private business sector in the United States was declining. The decline came in two waves. The first was in the early 1970s and the second wave was in the late 1970s and early 1980s. By most accounts, those in the US Congress dismissed the slowdown in the early 1970s as being little more than an industrial reaction to the global energy shortage and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) embargo.¹ When the productivity slowdown reared its head again in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the US Congress was more diligent in terms of the timing and scope of its responses.