Productivity Growth: Causes and Consequences

Date

Friday, November 18, 2005 – Saturday, November 19, 2005

Location

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
First Floor

 

AGENDA (PDF version – 66.8KB)
Summary—FRBSF Economic Letter 2006-02

Friday,
November 18

8:15 a.m. Continental Breakfast
8:45 a.m. Welcoming Remarks
  Frederick T. Furlong, Federal
Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Morning
Session

Chair:  John Fernald, Federal
Reserve Bank of San Francisco
9:00 a.m. “Why Did Europe’s Productivity Catch-up Sputter Out? A Tale of Tigers and Tortoises”
Presenters:  Robert Gordon and Ian Dew-Becker, Northwestern
University
Discussants:  Bart Van Ark, University
of Gronigen
and Conference Board
Susanto Basu, Boston College
10:15 a.m. Break
10:45 a.m. “The Burden of Knowledge and the Death of the Renaissance Man: Is Innovation Getting Harder”
Presenter:  Ben Jones, Northwestern
University
Discussants:  Sam Kortum, University
of Minnesota

Joel Mokyr, Northwestern University
12:00 p.m.  Lunch, Market Street Dining
Room, Fourth Floor
Afternoon
Session
Chair:  Dan Wilson, Federal Reserve
Bank of San Francisco
1:30 p.m. “The Value of Life and the Rise in Health Spending”
Presenters:  Robert Hall, Stanford
University

Chad Jones, UC Berkeley
Discussants:  Robert Topel, University
of Chicago

Joseph Paul Newhouse, Harvard University
2:45 p.m. “Increasing Global Competition and Labor Productivity: Lessons from the U.S. Automotive Industry”
Presenters:  Martin Neil Baily, Institute for International Economics
Diana Farrell, McKinsey Global Institute
Ezra Greenberg, McKinsey Global Institute
Jan-Dirk Henrich, McKinsey Global Institute
Naoko Jinjo, McKinsey Global Institute
Maya Jolles, McKinsey Global Institute
Jana Remes, McKinsey Global Institute
Discussants:  Timothy Bresnahan, Stanford
University
George Hall, Yale University
4:00 p.m. Break
4:30 p.m. “Identifying Technology Spillovers and Product Market Rivalry”
Presenters:  Nick Bloom, Stanford University
Mark Schankerman and John Van Reenen, London
School of Economics
Discussants:  C. Lanier Benkard, Stanford University
Scott Stern, Northwestern University
6:00 p.m. Reception, West Market
Street Lounge, Fourth Floor
7:00 p.m. Dinner, Market Street
Dining Room, Fourth Floor

Keynote Speaker: Dale W. Jorgenson, Harvard
University

“Information Technology and the World Economy”

Saturday,
November 19

8:30 a.m. Continental Breakfast

Morning Session

Chair:  Mark Doms, Federal Reserve
Bank of San Francisco
9:00 a.m. “Learning About a New Technology: Pineapple in Ghana”
Presenters:  Tim Conley, Chicago GSB
Christopher Udry, Yale University
Discussants:  Yaw Nyarko, New York
University

Giorgio Topa, Federal Reserve Bank of
New York
10:15 a.m. Break
10:45 a.m. “Technology Adoption From Hybrid Corn to Beta Blockers”
Presenters:  Jonathan Skinner and Douglas
Staiger, Dartmouth
Discussants:  Pete Klenow, Stanford
University

Bart Hobijn, Federal Reserve Bank of
New York
12:00 p.m. Lunch, First Floor Conference
Center
1:00 p.m. Adjourn