ABSTRACT

The US economy is both complex and rapidly evolving. Important issues include the changing nature of jobs, with decline in some manufacturing areas and expansion in technology and some services, as well as the growing dominance of financial institutions. To start with, the US economy is the largest in the world, producing almost 25 percent of total global economic output as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) of all the world’s countries. The three productive sectors that constitute any national economy are called primary, secondary, and tertiary. The sectoral data for different countries indicate that economic development is commonly associated with a declining share of GDP from agriculture. Agricultural production provides an important application of the notion of productivity-a concept that is important to all economic analysis. In December 2012, the US Environmental Protection Agency noted that “responsible development of America’s oil and gas resources offers important economic, energy security, and environmental benefits.