Tracking Midwest manufacturing and productivity growth
In this article, we explore the reasons for the
so-called takeoff in Midwest manufacturing
productivity, tracing its growth to significant
modernization efforts in several key industries.
Investment data and estimates of production
models both suggest that productivity gains were
higher in the region than in the rest of the nation.
We then use the mixed-frequency MMI to assess
the quantitative significance of the increased
productivity growth for current estimates of
Midwest output.