Is the Productivity of the US Economy Slowed Down in the 19th Century?

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There's a wide spread belief among economists, and you echo i n your book, that starting around 19 70, the productivity and innevation in the us. Economy slowed downo, and im, i'm sceptic about that. I think of that claim as not very aconometrically sophisticated or satisfying. But when i look around and see the access of everyday people to the extraordinary set of things we have now, compared to what they were in 19 70, i wonder if some of our measurement problems are behind it.

Edmund Phelps of Columbia University, Nobel Laureate in economics, and author of Mass Flourishing talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in the book. Phelps argues that human flourishing requires challenges, struggles, and success and goes beyond material prosperity. He argues that in recent decades, policy has discouraged innovation and mass flourishing resulting in a slow-down in growth rates. Phelps emphasizes the non-material benefits of economic growth and the importance of small innovations over big inventions as key to that growth.