Productivity Trends: A Canada-U.S. Comparison

Centre for the Study of Living Standards

No 1999-01, CSLS Research Reports from Centre for the Study of Living Standards

Abstract: This article examines Canada's productivity performance relative to the United States in the 1990s. In 1997, GDP per person employed in Canada was 80.3 per cent of the U.S. level, and growth in output per worker over the 1990s (0.8 per cent per year) lagged behind the United States (1.0 per cent per year). Canada's relative productivity performance in manufacturing was even worse, with output per hour falling from 78.3 per cent of the U.S. level in 1989 to 71.7 per cent in 1997. The article considers two hypotheses to explain this deterioration: structural factors (low R&D, poor literacy, high taxes) and weak macroeconomic performance. It concludes that a pro-growth approach that is pro-technology, pro-investment, and pro-education is the best avenue to productivity improvement.

Keywords: labour productivity; Canada-US comparison; manufacturing productivity; output per hour; productivity gap; macroeconomic performance; structural factors; GDP per capita; 1990s (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999-01
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