The Geography of U.S. Productivity
Cities and the energy belt are the most productive economic regions in America. What does that mean for the rest of the country?
From 2007 to 2016, productivity in the U.S. grew at about 1 percent—a historically low rate. In other recent periods, it’s been much higher: 2.6 percent from 2000 to 2007 and 2.2 percent in the 1990s. The divergence has left economist looking for answers about slumping productivity and how to fix it.
A host of reasons have been suggested for why productivity has been declining: slowing innovation, inefficiency in sectors that have, at the local level and how the geographical variation of productivity relates to the declining national figures.
