Canada's productivity performance / P. Someshwar Rao, Tony Lemprière.: EC22-187/1992E-PDF

"Someshwar Rao and Tony Lemprière were asked to undertake a detailed analysis of the productivity performance of Canadian industries. In this study, the authors show that Canada experienced a dramatic slowdown in both labour and total factor productivity growth in the post-1973 period in almost all industries. In addition, their analysis reveals that Canadian manufacturing productivity growth lagged behind that of the other large industrial countries during the 1974-90 period. In particular, the gap between Canadian and U.S. manufacturing productivity levels widened considerably during the 1980s. The authors then examine the possible causes of the slowdown in Canadian productivity growth in the post-1973 period. They also analyse the causes of the growing gap between Canadian and U.S. productivity performance in manufacturing. They find that the poor Canadian productivity performance relative to other major countries was largely due to the failure of the Canadian economy to make quick and strong structural adjustments to shocks (e.g., oil price increases) and to competitive pressures. Therefore, the authors argue that achieving good productivity growth in the future will require an improved ability to adjust quickly and flexibly"--Foreword, page ix.

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