Productivity

• December 8, 2006

  Perspectives on Productivity and Potential Output Growth: A Summary of the Joint Banque de France/Bank of Canada Workshop, 24–25 April 2006

  Bank of Canada Review - Winter 2006-2007 Gilbert Cette, Donald Coletti

  A nation's productivity is the prime determinant of its real incomes and standard of living, as well as being a major determinant of its potential output. In the short run, deviations of actual output from potential output are a useful indicator of inflationary pressures. This article is a short summary of the proceedings of the workshop, which focus on productivity and potential output growth among industrialized countries. The research is organized under three main themes: estimating potential growth; productivity and growth; and institutions, policies, and growth.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): International topics, Potential output, Productivity

• Working Time over the 20th Century

  Staff Working Paper 2006-18 Alexander Ueberfeldt

  From 1870 to 2000, the workweek length of employed persons decreased by 41 per cent in industrialized countries.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Labour markets, Productivity JEL Code(s): E, E1, E13, E2, E24, O, O1, O11

• Do Exchange Rates Affect the Capital-Labour Ratio? Panel Evidence from Canadian Manufacturing Industries

  Staff Working Paper 2005-12 Danny Leung, Terence Yuen

  Using industry-level data for Canadian manufacturing industries from 1981 to 1997, the authors find empirical evidence of a negative relationship between the capital-labour ratio and the user cost of capital relative to the price of labour.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Exchange rates, Productivity JEL Code(s): F, F4

• The Effect of Adjustment Costs and Organizational Change on Productivity in Canada: Evidence from Aggregate Data

  Staff Working Paper 2004-1 Danny Leung

  A basic neoclassical model of production is often used to assess the contribution of investment to output growth. In the model, investment raises the capital stock and output growth increases in proportion to the growth in capital.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Productivity JEL Code(s): O, O3, O31, O4, O49
• December 23, 2003

  The Comparative Growth of Goods and Services Prices

  Bank of Canada Review - Winter 2003-2004 Edith Gagnon, Patrick Sabourin, Sébastien Lavoie

  For several decades, the prices of services have been rising more rapidly than the prices of goods in Canada and the other major industrialized countries. In 2002, this gap between the growth rates of these two components of the consumer price index (CPI) widened considerably, leading researchers to ask if this was the beginning of a trend. Analysis reveals, however, that the gap is based on short-term dynamics and that it appears to be independent of the trend in the development of the overall price level. Evidence also shows that the gap is eventually reabsorbed. The authors examine a number of potential causes for the prices of services to rise faster than those of goods. These include the more rapid pace of productivity growth in the goods sector, the greater openness of goods to foreign trade, and stronger growth in the demand for services.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Inflation and prices, International topics, Productivity
• May 20, 2002

  Trends in Productivity Growth in Canada

  Bank of Canada Review - Spring 2002 Allan Crawford

  This article describes the major trends in the growth of labour productivity in Canada since the early 1960s and summarizes our current knowledge about the causes of the historical patterns. Particular attention is given to the period since the mid-1990s during which productivity growth has been significantly higher in the United States than in Canada. The author reviews the empirical evidence on the contribution of information and communication technology to the recent difference between Canadian and U.S. rates of productivity growth. Other determinants of a country's productivity performance, such as human capital formation and openness to international trade, are also examined. The article concludes with an assessment of the prospects for an increase in the trend rate of productivity growth in Canada over the coming years.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Productivity

• Restructuring in the Canadian Economy: A Survey of Firms

  Staff Working Paper 2002-8 Carolyn Kwan

  The regional offices of the Bank conducted a survey of 140 Canadian companies (representing all non-government sectors of the economy) to study the effects of restructuring (defined as a major change in the way firms do business).

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Labour markets, Productivity, Regional economic developments JEL Code(s): O, O5, O51

• Contribution of ICT Use to Output and Labour-Productivity Growth in Canada

  Staff Working Paper 2002-7 Hashmat Khan, Marjorie Santos

  There is ample evidence that information and communication technologies (ICT) contributed significantly to the surge in output and labour-productivity growth in the United States in the late 1990s.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Productivity JEL Code(s): O, O4, O5
• August 15, 2000

  Restructuring in the Canadian Economy: A Survey of Firms

  Bank of Canada Review - Summer 2000 Carolyn Kwan

  Towards the end of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, the Canadian economy experienced a number of structural changes. These included free trade agreements (both the FTA and NAFTA), significant technological advances, deregulation in many sectors of the economy, the arrival of large, U.S.-based retailers, and the introduction of the GST.

  Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review articles Topic(s): Labour markets, Productivity, Regional economic developments

• Non-Linearities in the Output-Inflation Relationship: Some Empirical Results for Canada

  Staff Working Paper 1998-14 Chantal Dupasquier, Nicholas Ricketts

  This paper analyzes the short-run dynamic process of inflation in Canada and examines whether a systematic variation in the relationship between inflation and output can be detected over time. In the theoretical literature, different models of price-setting behaviour predict that the slope of the Phillips curve will be a function of macroeconomic conditions, implying a […]

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Inflation: costs and benefits, Productivity