Productivity Trends in the Canadian Transport Sector: An Overview

Matthew Calver () and Fanny McKellips

No 2016-04, CSLS Research Reports from Centre for the Study of Living Standards

Abstract: In recent decades, the overall growth in productivity of many subsectors of the Canadian transportation and warehousing sector has been above average. In particular, while labour productivity (real GDP per worker) grew an average of 0.64 per cent per year between 2000 and 2014 in the transportation and warehousing sector, labour productivity grew an average of 1.83 per cent per year in the truck transportation subsector, 3.25 per cent per year in the air transportation subsector and 2.09 per cent in the train transportation subsector for the same period. Conversely, in the urban transit subsector, labour productivity decreased an average of 0.76 per cent per year between 2000 and 2014. This report provides a detailed analysis of output, input and productivity trends in four subsectors of the Canadian transportation and warehousing sector. It also examines drivers of the productivity growth for each subsector as well as policies that could enable faster growth. Given the impact that the transportation sector has on many Canadian industries as well as the Canadian economy, maintaining productivity growth is important.

Keywords: Transportation; Canada; Productivity; Rail Transportation; Air Transportation; Trucking Transportation; Urban Transit; Public Policy; Technological Change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L90 L91 L92 L93 L98 O33 R41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-lma, nep-reg, nep-tre and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.csls.ca/reports/csls2016-04.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sls:resrep:1604

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.csls.ca

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CSLS Research Reports from Centre for the Study of Living Standards 170 Laurier Ave. W, Suite 604, Ottawa, ON K1P 5V5. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CSLS ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).