Size and Productivity in the U.S. Milling and Baking Industries

From the late 1950s through mid‐1990s, productivity growth in U.S. grain milling and feed manufacturing has been consistently strong and positive. In grain milling, approximately 15% of the growth is due to size economies. Technical change has been capital‐using, increasingly material‐saving, and, in recent years, decreasingly labor‐saving or increasingly labor‐using. The quality of capital has risen relative to that of labor and materials. In all but the baking industry, capital intensification and incentives for plant size growth remain unabated.