A Comparison of Canadian and U.S. Productivity Levels: An Exploration of Measurement Issues

Baldwin, John R. Maynard, Jean-Pierre Tanguay, Marc Wong, Fanny Yan, Beiling
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Beiling Yan () and John Russel Baldwin

Economic Analysis (EA) Research Paper Series from Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch

Abstract: This paper examines the level of labour productivity in Canada relative to that of the United States in 1999. In doing so, it addresses two main issues. The first is the comparability of the measures of GDP and labour inputs that the statistical agency in each country produces. Second, it investigates how a price index can be constructed to reconcile estimates of Canadian and U.S. GDP per hour worked that are calculated in Canadian and U.S. dollars respectively. After doing so, and taking into account alternative assumptions about Canada/U.S. prices, the paper provides point estimates of Canada's relative labour productivity of the total economy of around 93% that of the United States. The paper points out that at least a 10 percentage point confidence interval should be applied to these estimates. The size of the range is particularly sensitive to assumptions that are made about import and export prices.

Keywords: Statistical methods; Economic accounts; Data analysis; Productivity accounts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005-01-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/bsolc/olc-cel/olc-cel?catno=11F0027M2005028&lang=eng (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:stc:stcp5e:2005028e

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economic Analysis (EA) Research Paper Series from Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Mark Brown ().