Intertemporal and interspatial productivity comparisons of manufacturing industries for 53 SMSA's, 1963-1978

Economists of all persuasions agree that the growth and efficiency of all regional economies within a nation contribute vitally to the overall performance of the national economy. Therefore the recent economic decline of some regions in the U.S. has taken on increasing concern.

During the past decade there have been a number of important contributions to regional productivity analysis. However, this research has been marred by significant flaws in at least one of the following three categories: (1) measurement of productivity, (2) comparison of efficiency, and (3) identifying sources of the differences.

Using the multilateral comparison index based on Caves et al., the phenomena of efficiency in manufacturing industries in 53 SMSA's for 1963-1978 have been examined with a series of questions including: (1) Does a spatial regional economist's argument of stability and divergence of regional efficiency hold? (2) What has been the important sources of different performance in the high growth and low growth areas? (3) What is the prescriptive public policy action to improve overall performance in efficiency inferred from the preceding arguments?

One of the contributions, and perhaps most difficult part of the present study, is the development of the physical capital series of the manufacturing sector for 53 SMSA's, which would enable the ranges of the research in regional/urban economics circles to be broadened.