MADISON — After years of keeping pace with or outperforming the national economy, a new study from the MacIver Institute and the Center of the American Experiment Wisconsin has fallen to the bottom of the barrel over the last decade.
The report, Accounting for Growth in Wisconsin: Performance and Prospects, reveals that since 2014, Wisconsin’s per-person economic output — a measure of economic prosperity — has grown more slowly than the national average every single year. This performance ranks Wisconsin at the bottom of all 50 states on this key benchmark.
Per capita economic growth comes from three sources: growth in human capital, the quantity and quality of the labor provided; growth in physical capital, the tools those workers have to use; and growth in Total Factor Productivity (TFP), which is the efficiency with which these factors are combined. Wisconsin ranked in the bottom half of all states in each category.
The research underscores several policy priorities that could help reverse Wisconsin’s economic lag, including:
- Strengthening education and workforce training to boost skills and human capital;
- Encouraging investment in businesses and infrastructure to expand physical capital; and
- Promoting entrepreneurship and regulatory reforms that increase productivity.
You can read the full report here.
