TY  - JOUR
AU  - Levitt,Steven D.
AU  - List,John A.
AU  - Syverson,Chad
TI  - Toward an Understanding of Learning by Doing: Evidence from an Automobile Assembly Plant
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 18017
PY  - 2012
Y2  - April 2012
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18017
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18017.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Steven D. Levitt
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
1126 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL  60637
Tel: 773/834-1862
Fax: 773/702-8490
E-Mail: slevitt@midway.uchicago.edu

John List
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
1126 East 59th
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 301/405-1288
Fax: 301/314-9091
E-Mail: jlist@uchicago.edu

Chad Syverson
University of Chicago
Booth School of Business
5807 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Chicago, IL  60637
Tel: 773/702-7815
Fax: 773/702-8490
E-Mail: chad.syverson@chicagobooth.edu
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 2012-08-01
AB  - Productivity improvements within establishments (e.g., factories, mines, or retail stores) are an important source of aggregate productivity growth. Past research has documented that learning by doing–productivity improvements that occur in concert with production increases–is one source of such improvements. Yet little is known about the specific mechanisms through which such learning occurs.  We address this question using extremely detailed data from an assembly plant of a major auto producer.  Beyond showing that there is rapid learning by doing at the plant, we are able to pinpoint the processes by which these improvements have occurred.
ER  -