--- canonical_url: "https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/issue-1/the-productivity-renaissance-in-the-u-s-service-sector/" title: "The Productivity Renaissance in the U.S. Service Sector" author: name: "CSLS" url: "https://csls.ca/author/cslc/" date_published: "2026-07-10T09:12:22+00:00" date_modified: "2026-07-13T06:38:02+00:00" post_type: "ipm" summary: "" ipm_issue_period: - "Fall 2000" ipm_keyword: - "information technology" - "IT investment" - "labour productivity" - "new economy" - "retail trade" - "service sector" - "Solow paradox" - "United States" - "wholesale trade" ipm_research_theme: - "Productivity trends and comparisons" ipm_country_focus: - "Canada" - "United States" featured_image: "https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IPM_50_banner.webp" status: "publish" --- # The Productivity Renaissance in the U.S. Service Sector Canonical URL: https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/issue-1/the-productivity-renaissance-in-the-u-s-service-sector/ # The Productivity Renaissance in the U.S. Service Sector [Download full PDF article](https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/IPM-Issue-1-2-Sharpe.pdf) Cite this article × Cite this article as: Sharpe, Andrew. 2000. “The Productivity Renaissance in the U.S. Service Sector.” International Productivity Monitor, No. 1 (Fall 2000): 6–8. https://www.csls.ca/ipm-archive/issue-1/the-productivity-renaissance-in-the-u-s-service-sector/ ## Author: - Andrew Sharpe Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS) ## IPM Issue 1 Fall 2000 pp. 6–8 ## Related IPM articles [Labour Productivity as a Measure of Technological Change Ulrich Kohli Fall 2025 | IPM Issue 49 | pp. 64–81](https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-49/labour-productivity-as-a-measure-of-technological-change/) [IPM Issue 49 Editors’ Overview Andrew Sharpe, Bart van Ark, Paul Schreyer Fall 2025 | IPM Issue 49 | pp. 1–2](https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-49/) [De-industrialization and the Great Productivity Slowdown: What Comes Next? 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The acceleration was broadly based across service industries, particularly strong in wholesale trade, retail trade, and miscellaneous professional services. The article attributes the revival to improved output measurement and payoffs from massive IT investment throughout the 1990s, and discusses implications for the new economy debate. Cet article documente une renaissance de la croissance de la productivité du travail dans le secteur des services américains après 1995, avec une production par travailleur dans le secteur des services au sens large qui a progressé à un rythme annuel moyen de 2,4 % en 1995-1998, soit près de cinq fois le taux de 0,5 % observé au cours des deux périodes précédentes. L’accélération était généralisée dans l’ensemble des industries de services, particulièrement forte dans le commerce de gros, le commerce de détail et les services professionnels divers. L’article attribue cette reprise à l’amélioration de la mesure de la production et aux retombées des investissements massifs en TI tout au long des années 1990, et examine les implications pour le débat sur la nouvelle économie. [Download full PDF](https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/IPM-Issue-1-2-Sharpe.pdf)