Measurement and Interpretation of Productivity (1979) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
9 International Comparisons of Productivity
9 International Comparisons of Productivity
Pages 181-205
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 181... ...
Clark compared total and per-capita real national income, and national income per hours worked, in all countries for which even fragmentary information was available, in a variety of time periods. Clark knew that a valid comparison of the national income or product of two countries requires price comparisons; it cannot be obtained by converting values in the two countries, expressed in their own national
|
From page 182... ...
In comparing the real value of incomes in the two countries we must therefore allow something between 19.8 and 0.9 per cent for the difference in purchasing power of money. The ideal formula gives us the result that the comparative real income per head can be obtained from the geometrical mean of these two ratios, or Average real income in America Average real income in Germany = ~ / Cc,st of American ponds at (-,erman prices V (cost of German goods at American prices Average money income in America Average money income in Germany = 0819 x1/0991 0.320 V 1.198 The ratio is seen to be 2.33 as against the 2.56 which we obtained from a crude comparison of money incomes.
|
From page 183... ...
Comparisons of national income were also made by deduction of depreciation estimates from GNP at factor cost. It was almost two decades before funds could be assembled for a new study.3 In the meantime, various researchers and agencies, including OEEC itself, were forced to adopt the expedient of extrapolating the 1950 data by national income or product series for each country, valued in its own prices of some base year, or a variant of this method.
|
From page 184... ...
Second, for rents and some durable goods, so called hedonic regression methods of international price comparisons have been employed.... These methods, made feasible by the advances in economic theory and statistics and the advent of computers since the OEEC studies, allow us to hold constant across currencies a number of different quality variables and thus to improve price comparability.
|
From page 185... ...
Except for Canada, and for Japan in 1950, the data are benchmarked to the OEEC and ice data and interpolated or extrapolated by series based on countries' own price weights. Because only countries with satisfactory benchmark data are included and extrapolations forward from the latest benchmark cover no more than 6 years (except for Canada)
|
From page 186... ...
186 o A, z Cat r ~ ~ O O ~ O ~ ON ~ ~ ~ ~ 00 t~ to ~A)
|
From page 187... ...
bExcluding the Saar and West Berlin in 1950 and 1955. SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Office of Productivity and Technology, "Comcarative Real Gross Domestic Products Real GDP ner Canita and Real GDP ner Em .
|
From page 188... ...
= 100) Based on Purchasing Power Parities Based on Exchange Rates Country 1970 1974 1975 1976 1970 1974 1975 1976 United States 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Canada 83 91 93 91 80 100 100 105 France 75 81 NA NA 58 76 89 83 Belgium 72 79 79 NA 55 83 90 87 Sweden 78 78 78 77 86 103 118 104 West Germany 75 76 76 76 64 92 95 92 Netherlands 72 76 75 75 51 79 84 82 Denmark 72 72 72 72 66 90 98 96 Norway 63 67 71 71 60 87 99 98 Japan 62 68 71 70 39 62 62 62 United Kingdom 60 61 61 59 46 51 57 49 NA = not available.
|
From page 189... ...
The interest of various international agencies in such data was also helpful; it led early in the postwar period to a standardized system of national accounts, a follow-up to an agreement on treatment of debatable items that had been reached earlier among national income accountants of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The United Nations, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the European Economic Community regularly publish time series for their member countries.
|
From page 190... ...
.6 Major changes in the standardized system of national accounts a few years ago have made it difficult to extract continuous series for even such basic aggregates as national income and gross national product. BES compiles annual indexes of real GDP total, per capita, and per civilian employed in each country's own prices for the years and countries covered in Table 9-2 (see, for example, Boner and Neef 1977~.
|
From page 191... ...
Denison also estimated the sources of the difference in the level of national income per person employed in 1960 between the United States and each of the other countries, based on United States price weights. Walters soon thereafter developed comparable estimates for Canada, with the sources of growth estimates eventually covering 195()
|
From page 192... ...
192 as; ~ c: ·= to to 11 _~ cr o Cal a' ._ 5~ o ._ Ct Cal ._ o ~4 so Q o Cal 1 m Em ~ ~ or ~ Go at ~ via ~ up Do ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ .
|
From page 195... ...
195 \0 ~ ~D _oo o ...
|
From page 196... ...
Table 9-6 summarizes the level estimates. The top line shows the percentage by which national income per worker in each of the other countries fell below that of the United States.
|
From page 197... ...
The ccs analysis stresses the importance of the growth of capital stock resulting from saving and capital formation and the associated growth in capital services as a component of factor input. The cc estimates are based on an internally consistent treatment of capital in four sets of accounts production, income, savings, and wealth ins current and constant prices and thus incorporate the determinants of capital formation.
|
From page 198... ...
198 Ct Ct :^ 5 o ~ 5 _ o~ ·- c ~ ._ :^ 3 o z _ ~ 7 ce ~: _ ~ C~ $_ 3 v C~ Ct L~ ~ == o ~ £ ~ a' £ ° _ ~ ° £ o o .= Ct o o :: ~ ~: ._ ~ C~ C: ~C)
|
From page 199... ...
199 ~ C ~ Z ~ ~_ z o _ o o o ~o o ~ Z ~o _ o 0 cr .
|
From page 200... ...
. The cc estimates are limited to the private domestic sector of each country, except that government enterprises (economic activities similar to private enterprises, not government administration)
|
From page 201... ...
201 ~ , ~ Ct to 3 o o £ 5 o ._ ~ ._ Cal by Ct , o it: Cal :^ Ct £ V C)
|
From page 203... ...
has drawn up a proposal that includes the following statement: Before the intended system of international compansons of real GDP and purchasing power of currencies can be adopted on a global basis, the existing methodology needs further improvement and extension involving empirical work in a number of directions. Accordingly it is proposed to devote one more five-year period, Phase IV, during which time the Statistical Office intends to undertake the following substantive activities: (a)
|
From page 204... ...
The ice data allow for comparisons of expenditure categories, such as detailed components of consumption like food and apparel, but they do not allow for comparisons of output and productivity by individual industries. Some international productivity comparisons by industry have been made by private researchers, but these are limited in the number of industries or countries they cover.
|
From page 205... ...
6. For convenient sources of long time series on national accounts in constant dollars, see the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (1976)
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.