IPM archive

Labour productivity and multifactor productivity (MFP) growth rates have been declining in advanced economies for several decades, and the decline in labour productivity growth has extended to emerging economies over the past fifteen years. Global MFP growth has flatlined since 2007 in both advanced and emerging economies. While many explanations for these trends have been advanced,…

There is increasing recognition of the relevance of integrating environmental considerations within standard macroeconomic measures including GDP and national wealth and, by extension to measures of multifactor productivity (MFP). A range of approaches to measuring environmentally adjusted MFP (EAMFP) have been developed over the past decade which variously adjust the measure of output or recognize explicitly…

This article explores the links between climate change and productivity. It finds that while much debate has focused on labour and multifactor productivity growth, improving productivity in the use of energy and materials is crucial to achieving net zero and requires much greater emphasis in productivity analysis. Although complementary productivity measures are available, these have not…

The article looks at the Canadian experience with industrial policy, and whether those industries that have been the principal focus of industrial policy have performed better than comparable sectors. It outlines the history of industrial policy in Canada and examine the empirical performance of four sectors: steel mills, aluminum smelting, auto assembly and aerospace. It finds…

The number of industrial policy interventions and the scale of the public expenditure involved is on the increase globally. The United Kingdom has a history of churn with respect to industrial policies, and has largely been averse to policy activism in this area since 1980. This article presents case studies of three UK sectors – life…

Many policymakers are using industrial policies more actively, while also pursuing policies tending to fragment global markets. Can this combination revive productivity growth? This essay starts with noting that an average productivity measure used to assess macroeconomic performance often masks important distributions of productivity outcomes, which matter economically, socially, and politically. It then reviews the frameworks…

Issue 47 features two symposia: one on industrial policy and productivity (three articles: Mann on global fragmentation and domestic industrial policy; Coyle & Alayande on UK ‘accidental’ industrial policy in three sectors; Sargent on Canadian industrial policy in four sectors) and one on climate change and productivity (three articles: Pilat on the climate-productivity nexus; Obst on…