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Title: Growth, Accumulation, and Unproductive Activity: An Analysis of the Postwar U.S. Economy by Edward N. Wolff ISBN: 0-521-25151-6 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 1986 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $70.00

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)

Rating: 5
Summary: U.S. uses its resources poorly. Could eliminate poverty.
Comment: Wolff's estimate of the efficiency of the U.S. economy is 20%, spelled out on his p. 135. His study has been kibitzed on ideological grounds, but there has been no substantive criticism, as far as I know. It is a monumental, book length study, by a respected economist, and no other person is likely to duplicate it. He found that over the 30 year period from 1947 to 1976, literally 80 percent of our work force could have stopped working and the same amount of goods and services could have continued to be produced and distributed. That means we lost 120 years of output over that 30 year time period that we could have had, in an efficient economy, just by working smarter, not harder. Recent studies, using a tool called Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) have confirmed Wolff's results, showing that the U.S. is last but for Greece among the developed [OECD] nations in one measure of effective use of its resources [Brockett, Golanyi and Li 1999], and that less efficient national [OECD] governments produce, on average, 58% less income per person than the most efficient ones [Lovell, Pastor and Turner 1995]. Dowd 1989 showed that the efficiency of the U.S. auto industry was about 10%, roughly confirming Wolff's estimate for the whole U.S. economy. The potential for eliminating poverty [e.g., Ackerman and Alstott 1999; Colbert 2000], and reversing the devastating and ominous failure of our society to foster a thriving labor force [Cohen 1995] should be obvious. Wolff has a very brief comment on that last point on his p. 78. Full, specific citations are available from the reviewer by email: [email protected]