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Accounting for Slower Productivity Growth in the Canadian Business Sector after 2000: The Role of Capital Measurement Issues

Author

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  • Wulong Gu
Abstract
Labour productivity growth and multifactor productivity (MFP) growth slowed in Canada and other advanced economies after 2000. This article focuses on the issues that are associated with measurement of capital and examines the roles of intangible capital, natural capital, public infrastructure capital and capacity utilization in explaining slower productivity growth. To do that, the article presents an extended growth accounting framework that is used to examine the role of the different types of capital in labour and multifactor productivity growth. It finds that about one quarter of the decline in multifactor productivity growth in the Canadian business sector between 1980-2000 and 2000-2015 was due to an increase in the use of produced capital required to extract natural resources in the oil and gas and mining sector and a decline in the utilization of capital in the manufacturing sector. The decline in labour and multifactor productivity growth after 2000 is not related to intangible capital and public infrastructure capital.

Suggested Citation

  • Wulong Gu, 2018. "Accounting for Slower Productivity Growth in the Canadian Business Sector after 2000: The Role of Capital Measurement Issues," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 34, pages 21-39, Spring.
    • Handle: RePEc:sls:ipmsls:v:34:y:2018:2
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    File URL: http://www.csls.ca/ipm/34/Gu.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John R. Baldwin & Wulong Gu & Beiling Yan, 2013. "Export Growth, Capacity Utilization, and Productivity Growth: Evidence from the Canadian Manufacturing Plants," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 59(4), pages 665-688, December.
    2. Cette, Gilbert & Fernald, John & Mojon, Benoît, 2016. "The pre-Great Recession slowdown in productivity," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 3-20.
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    7. Baldwin, John R. & Gu, Wulong & Macdonald, Ryan & Wang, Weimin & Yan, Beiling, 2014. "Revisions to the Multifactor Productivity Accounts," The Canadian Productivity Review 2014035e, Statistics Canada, Economic Analysis Division.
    8. Timmer,Marcel P. & Inklaar,Robert & O'Mahony,Mary & Ark,Bart van, 2013. "Economic Growth in Europe," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107412446, September.
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    17. Gu, Wulong & Wang, Weimin, 2013. "Productivity Growth and Capacity Utilization," Economic Analysis (EA) Research Paper Series 2013085e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
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    19. Mas Ivars Matilde, 2006. "Infrastructures and New Technologies as Sources of Spanish Economic Growth," Working Papers 201045, Fundacion BBVA / BBVA Foundation.
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    21. Baldwin, John R. & Gu, Wulong & Macdonald, Ryan, 2012. "Intangible Capital and Productivity Growth in Canada," The Canadian Productivity Review 2012029e, Statistics Canada, Economic Analysis Division.
    22. Nadim Ahmad & Paul Schreyer, 2016. "Are GDP and Productivity Up to the Challenges of the Digital Economy?," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 30, pages 4-27, Spring.
    23. Baldwin, John R. Gu, Wulong Lafrance, Amélie Macdonald, Ryan, 2009. "Investment in Intangible Assets in Canada: R&D, Innovation, Brand, and Mining, Oil and Gas Exploration Expenditures," The Canadian Productivity Review 2009026e, Statistics Canada, Economic Analysis Division.
    24. John R. Baldwin & Wulong Gu, 2004. "Trade Liberalization: Export-market Participation, Productivity Growth, and Innovation," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(3), pages 372-392, Autumn.
    25. Vernon Topp & Tony Kulys, 2014. "On Productivity: The Influence of Natural Resource Inputs," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 27, pages 64-78, Fall.
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    27. Pat Adams & Weimin Wang, 2016. "Accounting for Natural Capital in Productivity of the Mining and Oil and Gas Sector," Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, in: William H. Greene & Lynda Khalaf & Robin Sickles & Michael Veall & Marcel-Cristian Voia (ed.), Productivity and Efficiency Analysis, edition 1, chapter 0, pages 211-232, Springer.
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    29. Berndt, Ernst R. & Fuss, Melvyn A., 1986. "Productivity measurement with adjustments for variations in capacity utilization and other forms of temporary equilibrium," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1-2), pages 7-29.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jeff Mollins & Pierre St-Amant, 2018. "The Productivity Slowdown in Canada: an ICT Phenomenon?," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 35, pages 95-112, Fall.
    2. Wulong Gu & Michael Willox, 2023. "The Post-2001 Productivity Growth Divergence between Canada and the United States," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 45, pages 27-60, Fall.
    3. Wulong Gu & Michael Willox, 2018. "Productivity Growth in Canada and the United States: Recent Industry Trends and Potential Explanations," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 35, pages 73-94, Fall.
    4. Oliver Loertscher & Pau S. Pujolas, 2024. "Canadian productivity growth: Stuck in the oil sands," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(2), pages 478-501, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Canada. Productivity; Productivity Slowdown; Capital Measurement; Measurement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O51 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - U.S.; Canada
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence

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