GDP per em-ployed person, France and Ger- many improve their relative standing. Even so, substantial dif-ferences in productivity remain.
To get a better picture of what is going on, the authors focus on the market economy (leaving out government, health, and educa- tion). This shows the United States still the leader in GDP per employed person, with Japan, surprisingly, pulling up the rear (with productivity in 1989 only 61 percent that of the United States). The explanation? While Japanese manufacturing...