Professor Alexander Field’s research in productivity, suggesting that economic crisis could give advantage to some businesses now as it did in the 1930s, was noted by The Economist in a special report about the economy’s revival.
Field's research has found that the fastest efficiency improvements occurred in Depression-era America, leading some to believe that the most recent fiscal crisis could have a silver lining in productivity advance.
Although it's difficult to predict which industries could accelerate efficiencies, Field's research suggests that large scale, capital-intensive industries--like the railroads in the 1930s--may be the most likely to achieve productivity gains by responding to economic adversity.
Read the full article in The Economist:
http://www.economist.com/node/17173903?story_id=17173903&CFID=150195917&CFTOKEN=68627155
Read Professor Field’s biography:
http://www.scu.edu/business/economics/faculty/field.cfm
Alexander Field: Faster productivity growth an important part of economy' s revival : The Economist
