What were the drivers of US economic growth in the long run?

Résumé du document

The economic history of the United States is a story of impressive economic growth and development. The USA, as we know it today, is the result of major alterations, among which is the successful transformation of high levels of economic growth and major improvements in the well-being of its citizens. America's amazing economic growth, and the increase in value of the production of its goods and services, started as soon as the Colonial Period and went on for several decades. Between the end of the 17th century and the proclamation of Independence, output increased by about ten times. Despite some phases in which the situation was much less flourishing, such as the Great Depression of the 1930s, the overall American economic history is a great "success story". It is thus entirely justified to raise the question of the drivers of American economic growth in the long-run. The question this document will address is: which factors allowed the United States to become the current most powerful economy in the world?

Extraits

[...] Theory claims that a country's institutions are the result of a struggle that took place between the powerful and the powerless. This might suggest that appropriate institutions are merely a question of luck and that the United States was lucky enough to have a powerful social group who cared about such things as property rights and put pressure on the government to implement them. Conclusion To sum up and conclude, we can say that the United States combined all the factors essential to economic growth. [...]

[...] The so-called “Fordism” is one of the most famous examples of revolutionary production processes. It was characterized by division of labor and thus specialization, as well as standardization of products. By allowing mass production as well as mass consumption, the Fordism certainly greatly contributed to the “Glorious Thirty” (1945-1975). Constant improvements in productivity have thus been the main driver of economic growth since the Civil War. These improvements were made possible by the constant development of new technologies, new managerial techniques and by highly-skilled workers. [...]

[...] Enforcing contracts, making information available at low cost, ensuring competition are among the key institutional instruments to guarantee economic growth. In the case of the United States, the main achievement, the one which probably made a difference, was the implementation of property rights and patent laws which were introduced as soon as 1789 in the American Constitution. As a result, companies were encouraged to pursue risky Research and Development, because they knew they would be able to appropriate the whole benefit of their work. [...]

[...] The USA indeed enjoyed a significant rate of population growth, more than of growth per year on average from the Colonial Period to the Revolution. In most countries, this phenomenon would have caused a decrease of the quantity of land per inhabitant and thus a major decline in the agricultural productivity. We might then think that population growth was not very helpful to economic growth. Yet, the American situation was very specific: while land is usually ignored because it is relatively fixed, it played a major role in the USA. [...]

[...] What were the drivers of US economic growth in the long run? Introduction The economic history of the United States is a story of impressive economic growth and development. The USA, as we know it today, is indeed the result of major alterations, among which the successful transformation of high levels of economic growth in major improvements in the well-being of its citizens. American amazing economic growth, the increase in value of its production of goods and services, started as soon as the Colonial Period and went on for several decades: between the end of the 17th century and the proclamation of Independence, output increased by about ten times. [...]