Productivity in the UK and NZ
I see that Patrick Nolan has an article in Public Finance talking about UK and New Zealand productivity. Go read it, but come back here to comment as they don’t seem to have a comment system.
As we are a NZ audience, I’ll quote this bit:
While New Zealand faces different challenges, its experience can throw light on the UK’s situation. OECD research recently published by the New Zealand Productivity Commission has shown that the country has good resources – investment in physical capital and average years of schooling are broadly consistent with other countries – and policy settings. It is one of the easiest countries in the world in which to set up a business and its tax and regulation regimes are often seen as world class.
Indeed, the OECD estimates that New Zealand should have GDP per capita 20% above the OECD average. But its productivity performance means it is 20% below. In short, New Zealand poses a real challenge for standard prescriptions for what countries should do to lift their productivity performance.
– See more at: http://www.publicfinanceinternational.org/features/2014/06/solving-the-productivity-puzzle/#sthash.qZST25PS.dpuf
2 Responses to “Productivity in the UK and NZ”
The apparent high productivity of the USA workforce may be linked to the fact that while major sector productivity has increased year on year since 1948, the real wages of USA goods-producing-workers peaked around 1972 and have remained essentially the same since then
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workforce_productivity#mediaviewer/File:US_productivity_and_real_wages.jpg
Productivity is usually measured as something like GDP per hour worked. The cost of that labour input doesn’t really enter into it.