--- canonical_url: "https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-32/firm-level-productivity-differences-insights-from-the-oecds-multiprod-project/" title: "Firm-level Productivity Differences: Insights from the OECD’s MultiProd Project" author: name: "CSLS" url: "https://csls.ca/author/cslc/" date_published: "2026-07-13T07:42:33+00:00" date_modified: "2026-07-13T07:42:33+00:00" post_type: "ipm" summary: "" ipm_issue_period: - "Spring 2017" ipm_keyword: - "18 countries" - "2001-2012" - "dispersion" - "firm-level productivity" - "frontier firms" - "heterogeneity" - "manufacturing" - "MultiProd" - "OECD" - "services" ipm_research_theme: - "Sectoral and firm-level dynamics" ipm_country_focus: - "International" - "OECD" featured_image: "https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IPM_50_banner.webp" status: "publish" --- # Firm-level Productivity Differences: Insights from the OECD’s MultiProd Project Canonical URL: https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-32/firm-level-productivity-differences-insights-from-the-oecds-multiprod-project/ # Firm-level Productivity Differences: Insights from the OECD’s MultiProd Project [Download full PDF article](https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/IPM-Issue-32-6-Berlingieri-Blanchenay-Calligaris-Criscuolo.pdf) Cite this article × Cite this article as: Berlingieri, Giuseppe, Patrick Blanchenay, Sara Calligaris, and Chiara Criscuolo. 2017. “Firm-level Productivity Differences: Insights from the OECD’s MultiProd Project.” International Productivity Monitor, No. 32 (Spring 2017): 97–115. https://www.csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-32/firm-level-productivity-differences-insights-from-the-oecds-multiprod-project/ ## Authors: - Giuseppe Berlingieri OECD; University of Toronto - Patrick Blanchenay OECD; University of Toronto - Sara Calligaris OECD; University of Toronto - Chiara Criscuolo OECD ## IPM Issue 32 Spring 2017 pp. 97–115 ## Related IPM articles [Is the SNA Still Useful? 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Productivity differences, for instance, explain a large share of the differences in income per capita across countries. This article investigates the role of productivity heterogeneity across 18 countries over the period 2001-2012. In particular, it analyses the evidence that emerges from the distributed micro-data approach carried out in the OECD MultiProd project. The main outcome of the project is a unique dataset of harmonized crosscountry moments that are representative for the population of firms and comparable across countries even at a detailed industry level. We look at the 90-10 percentile ratio of labour productivity and multifactor productivity and show that: i) productivity dispersion is high in both manufacturing and non-financial market services; ii) it has increased over time, especially in services; iii) a substantial part of this dispersion comes from differences among firms within the same sector of activity in each country; iv) this within-sector dispersion remains the most important component of the overall dispersion for the entire period. One of the main objectives of economic La productivité joue un rôle central dans la formation du bien-être des sociétés et la compétitivité des pays. Les différences de productivité expliquent, par exemple, une grande partie des différences de revenu par habitant entre les pays. Cet article examine le rôle de l’hétérogénéité de la productivité dans 18 pays sur la période 2001-2012, en analysant les données issues de l’approche micro-données distribuées menée dans le projet MultiProd de l’OCDE. Le principal résultat du projet est un ensemble de données unique de moments harmonisés entre pays qui sont représentatifs de la population des entreprises et comparables entre pays même à un niveau industriel détaillé. Nous montrons que la dispersion de la productivité est élevée tant dans le secteur manufacturier que dans les services marchands non financiers, et qu’elle a augmenté. [Download full PDF](https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/IPM-Issue-32-6-Berlingieri-Blanchenay-Calligaris-Criscuolo.pdf)