Technological Change
Our great-grandparents would have regarded today’s standard
of living in most industrialized countries as unattainable. An
apparently modest rate of increase in productivity of 2 percent
per year leads to a doubling of per capita output every 36
years.Because of the importance of productivity growth in raising
long-run material living standards, it is not surprising that
explaining the sources of technological progress has become a
very active area of research among both academic and
government economists.(measured by Real GDP: Source: Based on data from Statistics Canada, CANSIM database. Output asSeries V3862685, Table 380-0017. Employment: Series
V2091072.)*