The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has in recent years devoted considerable resources to the study of productivity trends in the OECD area. In this article, Dirk Pilat, a senior economist at the OECD provides an overview of the key results of this research effort....

Asia has become the economic powerhouse of the world. This article provides a detailed discussion of trends in output, labour and capital inputs, and labour, capital and total factor productivity (TFP) in Asian countries since 1980. The author finds that TFP growth has been quite rapid in most...

Danny Leung of the Bank of Canada provides support for the hypothesis that organizational change is a necessary condition for the full realization of the productivity gains associated with ICT. Using aggegate data, the author finds econometric evidence that the impact of computer investment is...

The third issue of the International Productivity Monitor produced by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards contains six articles that deal with a wide range of issues in the productivity area. Topics covered are the contribution of the information and communications technology sector to...

Innovation is widely recognized as a key ingredient of productivity success. This article by Someshwar Rao, Ashfaq Ahmad, William Horsman, and Phaedra Kaptein-Russell of Industry Canada provides support for this view by finding a strong positive relationship between measures of fundamental...

This article by Jeffrey I. Bernstein of Carleton University and the NBER discusses the use of total factor productivity for price setting in regulated industries. He argues that the longterm, industry-wide productivity experience that is not subject to strategic manipulation by regulated firms...

The objective of this paper is to develop a more comprehensive understanding, from a policy perspective, of key drivers of labour productivity in selected OECD countries and their impact on enhanced productivity performance. The paper first presents some general lessons from the productivity...

The productivity performance of the construction sector in Canada over the last quarter century has been dismal, with output per hour lower in 2000 than in 1977. In this article Andrew Sharpe from the Centre for the Study of Living Standards examines productivity trends in this sector and...

In this article we investigate the effect of product market regulation on the international diffusion of productivity shocks. The results indicate that regulations that restrict competition slow the process of adjustment through which best practice production techniques diffuse across borders...

This eleventh issue of the International Productivity Monitor, published by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards, contains seven articles on a range of topics: policies to improve productivity growth in Canada; the causes of lower information and communications technology investment in...