--- canonical_url: "https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-44/capital-measurement-and-productivity-growth-across-international-databases/" title: "Capital Measurement and Productivity Growth Across International Databases" author: name: "CSLS" url: "https://csls.ca/author/cslc/" date_published: "2026-07-13T08:14:56+00:00" date_modified: "2026-07-13T08:14:56+00:00" post_type: "ipm" summary: "" ipm_issue_period: - "Spring 2023" ipm_keyword: - "11 countries" - "2000-2007" - "capital measurement" - "databases" - "EU KLEMS" - "Groningen" - "harmonization" - "MFP" - "OECD" - "Penn World Table" ipm_research_theme: - "Measurement and methodology" ipm_country_focus: - "International" - "OECD" featured_image: "https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/IPM_50_banner.webp" status: "publish" --- # Capital Measurement and Productivity Growth Across International Databases Canonical URL: https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-44/capital-measurement-and-productivity-growth-across-international-databases/ # Capital Measurement and Productivity Growth Across International Databases [Download full PDF article](https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/IPM-Issue-44-3-Gouma-Inklaar.pdf) Cite this article × Cite this article as: Gouma, Reitze, and Robert Inklaar. 2023. “Capital Measurement and Productivity Growth Across International Databases.” International Productivity Monitor, No. 44 (Spring 2023): 67–88. https://www.csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-44/capital-measurement-and-productivity-growth-across-international-databases/ ## Authors: - Reitze Gouma University of Groningen / The Productivity Institute - Robert Inklaar University of Groningen; The Conference Board ## IPM Issue 44 Spring 2023 pp. 67–88 ## Related IPM articles [Is the SNA Still Useful? 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Catherine Mann Fall 2024 | IPM Issue 47 | pp. 3–19](https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-47/could-domestic-industrial-policies-even-with-global-fragmentation-revive-productivity/) [Employment, Output and Productivity Adjustment During the Great Recession: The Role of Managerial Quality Gilbert Cette, Jimmy Lopez, Jacques Mairesse, Giuseppe Nicoletti Spring 2024 | IPM Issue 46 | pp. 101–108](https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-46/employment-output-and-productivity-adjustment-during-the-great-recession-the-role-of-managerial-quality/) [IPM Issue 47 Editors’ Overview Andrew Sharpe, Bart van Ark Fall 2024 | IPM Issue 47 | pp. 1–2](https://csls.ca/ipm-archive/ipm-issue-47/) ## Abstract ## Résumé EN FR Copy link Email LinkedIn A country’s multifactor productivity (MFP) growth, the growth of GDP that is not accounted for by growth of factor inputs, is of great interest as an indicator of living standards and technological progress. Yet different well-established databases show markedly different MFP growth rates for the same country and period. In this article, we show that differences in the measurement of capital input can account for one-third of the range of MFP growth rates across databases. Harmonizing a series of methodological choices for capital measurement substantially reduces variation across databases, but sizeable differences remain. This work highlights the continued relevance of these choices and can inform users who try to understand differences between databases and assess the robustness of differences in MFP growth across countries to measurement choices. La croissance de la productivité multifactorielle (PMF) d’un pays — la croissance du PIB non imputable à la croissance des intrants de facteurs — est d’un grand intérêt en tant qu’indicateur du niveau de vie et du progrès technologique. Pourtant, différentes bases de données bien établies présentent des taux de croissance de la PMF très différents pour un même pays et une même période. Dans cet article, nous montrons que les différences dans la mesure des intrants en capital peuvent expliquer un tiers de l’éventail des taux de croissance de la PMF entre les bases de données. L’harmonisation d’une série de choix méthodologiques pour la mesure du capital réduit considérablement la variation entre les bases de données, mais des différences importantes subsistent. [Download full PDF](https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/IPM-Issue-44-3-Gouma-Inklaar.pdf)