Must-Read: Bradley A. Hansen: The Rise and Fall of American Economic Growth

Must-Read: Bradley A. Hansen: The Rise and Fall of American Economic Growth: “Robert Gordon’s Rise and Fall of American Economic Growth… is an excellent… expansion of Lebergott’s Pursuing Happiness…

…It describes the many ways in which the material conditions of life (what they consumed, how they worked, and their health) were transformed from 1870 to 1970. Gordon argues that economic growth this period essentially created modern economic life: comfortable homes with electricity and clean water, cars parked out front, and all of this purchased with less labor hours and less onerous labor….

Gordon’s argument that current innovations in information and communication are not transforming life the way the earlier changes did and that the rate of growth is unlikely to return to the rapid pace experienced for most of the twentieth century… actually occupies a relatively small part of the book…. I do tend to disagree with Gordon and others who underplay the transformation brought about by information technology…. I agree with Gordon that attempts to make predictions about future innovations are speculative, but I tend to be somewhat more optimistic than he is. In part, my optimism stems from the dismal performance of dire predictions about the future. Read Jevon’s on the Coal Question, or Alvin Hansen on secular stagnation….

The chief weakness…. It tells the story strictly from an American standpoint…. Increased economic freedom and access to education in Asia have the potential to dramatically increase the pool of innovators…