chicagobooth.edu/review | In contrast to many other sectors of the economy, the construction sector in the US has experienced a dramatic decline in productivity in recent decades, find Chicago Booth’s Austan D. Goolsbee—currently president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago—and Chad Syverson. The researchers are able to rule out a number of potential causes for this trend, but suggest more study is needed to identify exactly what’s behind it. Whatever the source of the decline, the sector’s slowdown is so great it represents a drag on the economy overall.