Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Andrew Sharpe Author-Email: andrew.sharpe@csls.ca Title: Editor’s Overview Abstract: This 22nd issue of the International Productivity Monitor published by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards contains five articles. The topics addressed are: a comparative industry perspective on productivity and economic growth in Europe; a detailed analysis of labour productivity growth in the transportation equipment industry in Canada; a portrait of the productivity performance of the Canadian provinces from a growth accounting perspective; a review of productivity experience and challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean and insights for Canada; and a discussion of the relationship between ageing and productivity. Classification-JEL: Y2 Keywords: productivity Journal: International Productivity Monitor Pages: 1-2 Volume: 22 Year: 2011 Month: Fall File-URL: http://www.csls.ca/ipm/22/IPM-22-editoroverview.pdf File-Format: Application/pdf Handle: RePEc:sls:ipmsls:v:22:y:2011:0 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Don Drummond Author-Email: don.drummond@queensu.ca Title: Confessions of a Serial Productivity Researcher Abstract: With an ageing population and declining labour force growth productivity is becoming increasingly important as a source of economic growth. Despite this importance, governments fear the productivity word because of public misunderstanding of its meaning. For many years the author believed that Canada’s weak productivity performance reflected inappropriate public policy. Despite most of the public policy agenda that was put forward to improve productivity being implemented, productivity growth in this country since 2000 has actually deteriorated. This suggests that the private sector bears more responsiblity for Canada’s productivity malaise than previous thought. A research agenda with a focus on firm behaviour from a micro approach is needed to obtain a deeper understanding of Canadačs terrible productivity record and to develop actions to boost productivity growth. Classification-JEL: Keywords: Journal: International Productivity Monitor Pages: 3-10 Volume: 22 Year: 2011 Month: Fall File-URL: http://www.csls.ca/ipm/22/IPM-22-Drummond.pdf File-Format: Application/pdf Handle: RePEc:sls:ipmsls:v:22:y:2011:1 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Pierre Therrien Author-Email: Pierre.Therrien@ic.gc.ca Author-Name: Petr Hanel Author-Email: Petr.Hanel@USherbrooke.ca Title: Innovation and Productivity: Summary Results for Canadian Manufacturing Establishments Abstract: Lagging innovation performance is seen as a key factor explaining weak productivity growth in Canada. This article uses data from the Canadian Survey of Innovation 2005 and the Annual Survey of Manufactures and Logging (ASML) to estimate an econometric model linking innovation and productivity in manufacturing firms. Our main findings are that firms with higher innovation output (measured by innovation sales per employee, i.e. sales of new and improved products per employee) achieve higher labour productivity, even when size of firm, intensity of human and physical capital, and labour productivity at the beginning of the period are taken into account. Classification-JEL: Keywords: Journal: International Productivity Monitor Pages: 11-28 Volume: 22 Year: 2011 Month: Fall File-URL: http://www.csls.ca/ipm/22/IPM-22-Therrien-Hanel.pdf File-Format: Application/pdf Handle: RePEc:sls:ipmsls:v:22:y:2011:2 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Daniel Lind Author-Email: daniel.lind@unionen.se Title: The Myths and Reality of Deindustrialization in Sweden: The Role of Productivity Abstract: This article analyzes three possible hypotheses behind deindustrialization in Sweden. The main conclusion is that deindustrialization is both a myth and a reality. There has been a decrease in manufacturing employment in both relative and absolute terms in the post-war period, and the share of nominal GDP has gone in the same direction. However, the high productivity growth in manufacturing has lead to an increase in its share of real GDP since the beginning of the 1990's. Using input-output analysis, it is shown that the loss of employed who work with satisfying final demand for manufactured goods is less pronounced than what is shown by official statistics. The explanation for this is a deeper interaction with the rest of the economy, particularly in relation to knowledge-intensive service industries. Classification-JEL: Keywords: Journal: International Productivity Monitor Pages: 29-43 Volume: 22 Year: 2011 Month: Fall File-URL: http://www.csls.ca/ipm/22/IPM-22-Lind.pdf File-Format: Application/pdf Handle: RePEc:sls:ipmsls:v:22:y:2011:3 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Michael-John Almon Author-Email: michael-john.almon@ic.gc.ca Author-Name: Jianmin Tang Author-Email: jianmin.tang@ic.gc.ca. Title: Industrial Structural Change and the Post-2000 Output and Productivity Growth Slowdown: A Canada-U.S. Comparison Abstract: Changing foreign and domestic supply and demand conditions have resulted in shifting industrial structures in the Canadian and U.S. economies. This article examines the contribution of individual industries to real GDP and labour productivity growth in the business sector in 1987-2000 and 2000-2008 in the two countries. It highlights the differences that have emerged through a new decomposition technique that is able to decompose real GDP expressed in chained dollars instead of constant dollars. The contribution of each industry is further decomposed in order to identify the role of quantity and price effects in real economic growth and pure productivity and shift effects in the case of labour productivity. This decomposition is able to more precisely identify the sectors and the underlying forces that have either propelled or hindered economic and productivity growth. Classification-JEL: Keywords: Journal: International Productivity Monitor Pages: 44-81 Volume: 22 Year: 2011 Month: Fall File-URL: http://www.csls.ca/ipm/22/IPM-22-Almon-Tang.pdf File-Format: Application/pdf Handle: RePEc:sls:ipmsls:v:22:y:2011:4 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Ricardo de Avillez Author-Email: ricardo.avillez@csls.ca Title: A Half-Century of Productivity Growth and Structural Change in Canadian Agriculture: An Overview Abstract: The primary agriculture sector in Canada experienced impressive productivity growth over the 1961-2007 period, outperforming by far productivity growth seen in the Canadian business sector as a whole. In the period in question, the agriculture sector also experienced profound structural changes, from the massive decline in the use of labour input due to mechanization, to the increased use of intermediate inputs (such as fertilizers and pesticides) in the production process. The objective of this article is to highlight some of the most important structural changes observed by Canadian agriculture over the past 50 years, and link them to the robust productivity growth in the sector. Classification-JEL: Keywords: Journal: International Productivity Monitor Pages: 82-99 Volume: 22 Year: 2011 Month: Fall File-URL: http://www.csls.ca/ipm/22/IPM-22-Avillez.pdf File-Format: Application/pdf Handle: RePEc:sls:ipmsls:v:22:y:2011:5