productivity

pro·duc·tiv·i·ty (prō'dŭk-tĭvʹĭ-tē, prŏd'ək-) n.

1. The quality of being productive.

2. Economics. The rate at which goods or services are produced especially output per unit of labor.

3. Ecology. The rate at which radiant energy is used by producers to form organic substances as food for consumers.

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In economics, a measure of productive efficiency calculated as the ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it.

Any of the traditional factors of production

land, labour, or capital

can be used as the denominator of the ratio, though productivity calculations are actually seldom made for land or capital since their capacity is difficult to measure. Labour is in most cases easily quantified

for example, by counting workers engaged on a particular product. In industrialized nations, the effects of increasing productivity are most apparent in the use of labour. Productivity can be seen not only as a measure of efficiency but also as an indicator of economic development. Productivity increases as a primitive extractive economy develops into a technologically sophisticated one. The pattern of increase typically exhibits long-term stability interrupted by sudden leaps that represent major technological advances. Productivity in Europe and the U.S. made great strides following the development of such technologies as steam power, the railroad, and the gasoline motor. Later in the 20th century, advances in productivity stemmed from a number of innovations, including assembly lines and automation, computer-integrated manufacturing, database management systems, just-in-time manufacturing, and just-in-time inventory management. Increases in productivity have tended to lead to long-term increases in real wages.

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▪ economics

Introduction

      in economics, the ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it. Usually this ratio is in the form of an average, expressing the total output of some category of goods divided by the total input of, say, labour or raw materials.

      In principle, any input can be used in the denominator of the productivity ratio. Thus, one can speak of the productivity of land, labour, capital, or subcategories of any of these factors of production. One may also speak of the productivity of a certain type of fuel or raw material or may combine inputs to determine the productivity of labour and capital together or of all factors combined. The latter type of ratio is called “total factor” or “multifactor” productivity, and changes in it over time reflect the net saving of inputs per unit of output and thus increases in productive efficiency. It is sometimes also called the residual, since it reflects that portion of the growth of output that is not explained by increases in measured inputs. The partial productivity ratios of output to single inputs reflect not only changing productive efficiency but also the substitution of one factor for another—e.g., capital goods or energy for labour.

      Labour is by far the most common of the factors used in measuring productivity. One reason for this is, of course, the relatively large share of labour costs in the value of most products. A second reason is that labour inputs are measured more easily than certain others, such as capital. This is especially true if by measurement one means simply counting heads and neglecting differences among workers in levels of skill and intensity of work. In addition, statistics of employment and labour-hours are often readily available, while information on other productive factors may be difficult to obtain. Although ratios of output to persons engaged in production or to labour-hours are referred to as labour productivity, the term does not imply that labour is solely responsible for changes in the ratio. Improvements in output per unit of labour may be due to increased quality and efficiency of the human factor but also to many other variables discussed later. There is special interest in labour productivity measures, however, since human beings are the end as well as a means of production.

      The productivity of land, though it receives considerably less attention than the productivity of labour, has been of historical interest. In ancient and preindustrial times the products of the soil constituted the bulk of total output, and land productivity thus constituted the major ingredient in a people's standard of living. Soil of low productivity could, and over much of the Earth still does, mean poverty for a region's inhabitants. It is, however, no longer generally believed, as it was in past centuries, that a country's economic well-being is inevitably tied to the productive powers of the land, and the productive potential of the land itself has proved to be not fixed but greatly expandable through the use of modern agricultural methods. Moreover, industrialization, where it has taken place, has greatly reduced people's dependence on agriculture (agricultural economics). These circumstances, together with expanding opportunities for trade, have enabled some countries to overcome in substantial degree the handicaps of a meagre agricultural endowment.

      The productivity of capital (capital and interest)—plant, equipment, tools, and other physical aids—is a subject of long-standing interest to economists, though concern with its empirical aspects is of more recent origin. Improved statistical reporting and the availability of data in some industrially advanced countries, notably since World War II, have encouraged systematic efforts to measure the productivity of this factor. Compared with achievements in measuring labour productivity, however, the progress realized has been quite limited. There are considerable theoretical and practical difficulties to be overcome.

Uses of productivity measurement

Index of growth (economic growth)

      A nation or an industry advances by using less to make more. Labour productivity is an especially sensitive indicator of this economizing process and is one of the major measures used to chart a nation's or an industry's economic advance. An overall rise in a nation's labour productivity signifies the potential availability of a larger quantity of goods and services per worker than before and, accordingly, a potential for higher real income per worker. Countries with high real wages (wage and salary) are usually also those with high labour productivity, while those with low real wages are generally low in productivity. If, for the moment, other productive factors are neglected, one can see that the wage level will then be equal to the total national product divided by the number of workers; that is, it will be equal to the level of labour productivity.

      The change in a nation's overall labour productivity during any given interval represents the sum of changes in the major economic sectors and industries. Some sectors and industries move ahead more rapidly than the overall average while others may gain more slowly or even decline. In the movement of a country from a level of low productivity and low income to one of high productivity and high income a strategic role is played by the industrial, rather than by the agricultural and other, sectors. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries the effect of the Industrial Revolution was felt first in the manufacture of woolen and cotton textiles, power generation, the metal trades, and machine-making industries. Along with the development of new processes came the development of new products and services that formed the basis for new industries. An outstanding feature of these changes was an increased labour productivity that in turn laid the foundations for an enormous expansion of output. Technological change exerted its influence irregularly and unevenly and continues to do so.

      In the compilation of overall averages this diversity is concealed because high rates in some industries offset low rates in others. Thus, the rate of increase of productivity for the economy as a whole varies within narrower limits than the spread of rates among individual industries would suggest. Aside from erratic short-term movements, the rate of growth of productivity may appear to be fairly stable over extended periods. A surge of labour-saving innovations would cause the overall average rate to move higher, while a technological lull would depress the average rate. History suggests that the surges tend to be associated with basic technological changes such as, for example, the steam engine, the gasoline engine, the electric motor, and the concept of the standardization of parts. Once introduced, such inventions or developments are used in many different industries. These surges tend also to be associated with such developments as, for instance, employment of the open-hearth furnace in steel manufacture or the introduction of the steam railroad.

      Productivity is valuable also as an indicator of comparative rates of change among industries and products. Growth in general can be better understood if the relative contributions of individual industries and the circumstances underlying productivity changes in each of these industries are understood.

Measure of efficiency

      Productivity is also used to measure efficiency, as an aid in economic planning and forecasting (economic forecasting), and as a means of assessing the uses to which resources are being put. As to the first of these, the efficiency of industrial operations, for instance, may be evaluated by the yardstick of output per worker or machine, and such a yardstick may also provide the basis for supplemental or premium payments for workers. When pay is based on piecework alone, labour productivity becomes the sole determinant. Productivity may also serve as a standard for grading and evaluating any group of workers performing common tasks, distinguishing the more from the less productive. And applied to equipment, productivity standards can indicate when a machine is performing poorly and is in need of service. In forecasting, productivity estimates are useful when it is necessary to be able to project the performance of the economy at some future date, given the probable size of the working force. A variant of this is common in planning for developing countries that want to increase their productivity; information about target levels of productivity, together with expectations as to the growth of the labour force and some understanding of the relation between capital per worker and output per worker, helps in estimating the amount of capital investment needed to reach the target. Again, estimates of the probable annual gain in labour productivity together with estimates of the probable annual increase in output allow one to estimate how many jobs will become available at some time in the future. Finally, productivity is a helpful analytical tool in studying the possible allocation of resources among different uses. The extent to which resources flow to various uses depends, among other things, on their productivity in each of those uses. Changes in productivity in the course of time alter the pattern of use and cause the quantities of resources required in particular uses to change. The resulting trends depend on several things. On the one hand, an increase in the productivity of, for instance, labour, since it means a decrease in labour requirements per unit of output, will tend to reduce the demand for labour. But it will also imply a cheapening of labour relative to the cost of other competing factors of production. Hence there will be a tendency to substitute labour for other factors. When labour cost represents a large fraction of total cost, a productivity increase will contribute toward a reduction in the price of the product, thereby expanding sales and with them the demand for labour. The net result will depend upon the sum total of all of these separate effects. It is by no means uncommon to find that the expansionary effects predominate, and many economists consider this to be the normal outcome. In any event, the productivity concept and data on productivity trends can contribute to an understanding of resource and output flows.

Wage (wage and salary) and price analysis

      Real average labour compensation has increased over the long run at about the same pace as labour productivity. The association of these two variables must be close so long as the labour share of total cost does not change much. If nominal average earnings were to increase more than labour productivity, labour cost per unit of output would rise and so would prices unless profit margins were reduced to compensate. In general, prices rise by less than wage rates and other input prices to the extent that total productivity rises. Productivity growth is thus an anti-inflationary (inflation) factor, although inflation is basically a monetary phenomenon.

      There is a significant negative correlation between relative industry changes in productivity and in prices—when productivity rises, price tends to fall. In the industrial sector of an economy in which there is a significant price elasticity of demand (i.e., where price is relatively responsive to changes in demand), there is also a significant positive correlation between relative industry changes in productivity and in output—when productivity rises, output tends to rise as well. This is an interactive relationship, since the tendency of price to fall as productivity increases is reinforced by the tendency of economies of scale made possible by increased output to further enhance productivity.

      In dynamic economies the supply of capital has risen faster than the size of the labour force, and wage rates have risen faster than the price of capital. As a result there has been a marked tendency to substitute capital for labour in almost all industries. Yet there has been no long-term trend toward increased unemployment because real aggregate demand has tended to rise enough to absorb the growth of the labour force. Cyclical fluctuations in output and employment in capitalist countries are not the result of technological displacements of labour but rather reflect macroeconomic variables, such as growth of the money supply, that affect aggregate demand.

Factors that determine productivity levels

      The level of productivity in a country, industry, or enterprise is determined by a number of factors. These include the available supplies of labour, land, raw materials, capital facilities, and mechanical aids of various kinds. Included also are the education and skills of the labour force; the level of technology; methods of organizing production; the energy and enterprise of managers and workers; and a range of social, psychological, and cultural factors that underlie and condition economic attitudes and behaviour.

      These variables interact and mutually condition one another in determining productivity levels and their changes. Thus, in any country one expects the level of technology, the skills of the work force, the quantity of capital, and the capacity for rational economic organization to be positively correlated. A country with low productivity is likely to have deficiencies on all counts; a country with high productivity is likely to score high on all. To put it differently, the numerous productivity-determining factors behave as variables in a system of simultaneous equations, with all acting concurrently to shape the outcome. Within this system, there are no grounds for assigning causal priority to one or a few variables. All interact mutually to determine the outcome. Within certain problem frameworks, however, it may be entirely appropriate and indeed essential for explanatory purposes to emphasize certain variables over others.

      Two broad problem frameworks may be distinguished, both of them of concern to students of productivity and growth. One of these involves changes in productivity over time; the other involves differences in productivity levels among enterprises, industries, and countries at a given time. Within these frameworks are many problems and subproblems, each of which may lead to a different selection and emphasis of variables.

      Explanations of long-term productivity changes in a country, region, or industry usually stress technological (technology) change and, as an adjunct, changes in the quality and quantity of capital. Other variables are regarded as playing a passive role and are subordinate. The justification for this is that change in technological knowledge and the capital embodying it is both essential to substantial gains in productivity and the factor most immediately associated with those gains. It ordinarily is perceived as the leading and moving force in the process. When technological change occurs, the quality of capital improves and the amount available to aid each worker usually increases. The kinds of raw materials used may change, with better grades being required or the use of lower grades becoming possible. Changes occur in the way productive factors are organized and production is carried on. Although in some periods and in some circumstances work may have become harder and more tedious following technological advance and although the transition from land to factory has often entailed special hardships, the dominant trend has been toward shorter hours and a diminution of the arduousness of labour.

      Emphasis on technological change and capital accumulation as primary forces arises also from a recognition that they are essential and unique to large and systematic advances in productivity. Those gains that can be obtained solely through a reorganization of work or the use of better raw materials or the breakdown of restraining attitudes or practices may occasionally be dramatic, but they are always limited. By contrast, very substantial gains can follow in the wake of growing technological knowledge and increasing supplies of capital. If allowance is made simply for adaptive changes in other factors, the prospects for advance become almost unlimited. Only these two factors can fairly be singled out as constituting the engines of productivity growth.

      It has been noted that both the quantity of capital and its quality change as productivity increases, and it is not possible adequately to separate the two in terms of their effects. Increases in capital per worker through the accumulation of more and more of the same kinds of equipment and tools would not lead continuously to proportionate or more than proportionate increases in output per worker. They would, after a point, lead to diminishing increases and eventually even to a decline in output per worker. The onset of a decline would be far distant in an industry or economy possessed of a high level of technical knowledge but starting near the bottom of the accumulation ladder and affected by an acute scarcity of capital instruments. But an ultimate decline would be expected.

      Qualitative changes in capital, reflecting advances in knowledge and skill and leading to the design and construction of improved capital instruments, offer an escape from this principle. If capital can be steadily improved over time, its expansion need not entail diminishing returns. In countries for which data from broad sectors and many individual industries are available, there is a rough correlation between growth in the quantity of capital per worker and increases in labour productivity.

Measurement of productivity

      As a prelude to an examination of productivity trends over time, this section considers various methods of measuring the output and input components of productivity ratios and some of the difficulties and limitations of the resulting estimates.

Output

      With respect to output, ideally the numbers of units of each category of tangible commodity or service (service industry) should be counted in successive time periods and aggregated for the firm, industry, or total economy in terms of some indicator of relative importance, usually price or cost per unit as of a particular period. The unit value “weights”—price, cost, or other—must be held constant for two or more periods being compared so that changes in aggregate output reflect changes in physical volumes rather than in prices. An alternative procedure that produces the same results with ideal data is to “deflate” current values of the various items produced by index numbers that reflect relative price changes in order to eliminate the effects of price changes. Price deflation is usually employed to obtain estimates of real gross product by sector and industry to be used as numerators of productivity ratios. For tangible industrial production measures, quantities of the various commodities are generally weighted together by constant unit values.

      Unfortunately, in most countries data on quantities and prices for many outputs of the finance and service industries are deficient. In the broader real gross product estimates, changes in outputs of a portion of such services are approximated by estimating changes in inputs. Estimates so derived are not suitable for productivity measurement, however. They impart a downward bias to estimates of real product and productivity for the services sector and its affected components and hence for the economy as a whole.

      Other problems in estimating output arise in adjusting estimates of outputs to take account of quality change, measuring quantities or prices of nonstandard custom-made products, and estimating outputs of nonmarket goods and services. Partial adjustments for quality changes may be made when increases in real costs per unit are associated with the improvements. But it is generally agreed that physical-volume or real-product measures fail to capture at least part of the improvements in product quality, as distinguished from relative shifts among alternative qualities (price-lines) of a given product. Methods of estimating changes in the physical volume of custom-built products, such as buildings or other major structures, have improved in recent years. But changes in the output of nonmarket goods and services, such as those of governments, households, and nonprofit institutions, must generally be measured by changes in inputs. In consequence, productivity estimates are usually confined to the predominant business (enterprise) sector of an economy.

Inputs

      Labour input is relatively easy to measure if one is content to count heads of persons engaged in production or, preferably, hours worked. But in fact, the available hours data often relate to hours paid for, rather than hours worked, and these tend to rise in relation to hours at the workplace as the number of paid holidays and leaves are increased. Official estimates generally do not differentiate among various categories of labour. But some academic economists measure labour inputs by occupation and/or industry and possibly other categories and weight the aggregate in each category by a measure of the average compensation in some designated base period. As the average levels of education, training, skills, and experience of workers increase, the weighted measures rise relative to unweighted measures of labour input. Change in the ratio of the two indicates change in the quality of labour input, which is an important part of the explanation of change in productivity.

      Capital input is usually assumed to change in the same direction as and proportionally to changes in the real stocks of structures, equipment, inventories, and natural resources. The rates of return on those capital (capital and interest) goods in some base period are taken to be indicative of their productivity for the purpose of weighting them together with other factor inputs. Some analysts adjust the capital estimates to take into account changing rates of utilization of capacity; otherwise, changes in utilization rates are reflected in the productivity estimates.

      Interindustry purchases and sales of intermediate products—those materials, energy, and other services that are consumed in the production process—are accounted for on a value-added basis and cancel out in the national income and product estimates by industry (one industry's output being the next one's input). But if intermediate purchases are counted as an input for comparisons with gross output estimates, they are measured in the same manner as described for outputs.

Historical trends

Early industrialization

      For most of humanity's history, advances in technology, productivity, and real income per capita came very slowly and sporadically. But with the development of modern science in the 17th century and the quickening of technological innovation that it sparked, the stage was set for significant improvements in productivity. The gains remained modest until the latter part of the 19th century. For the first 50 years after the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in Britain (United Kingdom) around 1760, labour productivity grew at an average annual rate of around 0.5 percent, but it then accelerated to more than 1 percent in the 19th century. In the United States it increased at an average rate of 0.5 percent until after the Civil War.

       Phases of Growth in Labour Productivity, TableBy the latter part of the 19th century the countries of western Europe, the United States, and Japan enjoyed a marked and sustained rate of improvement in productivity generally exceeding that of Britain, the earlier leader. Growth of real gross domestic product (GDP) per hour worked in the western European countries and Japan averaged 1.6 percent from 1870 to 1950, while growth in the United States averaged 2 percent from 1870 to 1913 and almost 2.5 percent from 1913 to 1950. (See Table 1 (Phases of Growth in Labour Productivity, Table)). Data for 10 additional industrialized countries indicated that much the same range of productivity growth rates prevailed for the smaller western European countries and for Canada and Australia. But much of the rest of the world had not yet begun to experience sustained growth of productivity and real per capita income.

      Two percent per year may not seem an impressive number, but when compounded over a century it results in more than a sevenfold increase. The sustained and significant increases in productivity of industrialized countries beginning in the latter part of the 19th century were one of the most momentous developments in modern history, and it became much more widely diffused in later decades.

      Why did the acceleration begin in the late 19th century? The great improvements in transportation and communications that were made possible by the inventions of the steam and internal-combustion engines and the telephone and wireless communications led to a major expansion of trade, both domestic and international. The British example of free trade led to some liberalization by other countries. By the turn of the century, an increasing number of large companies were beginning to conduct purposeful programs of research and development so that invention and innovation became commonplace and even expected. Educational levels rose, and business schools were founded to teach the new science of management. The growth of per capita income itself tended to raise saving rates, and investment in new plants, equipment, and natural resource development rose substantially. Finally, the growth of productivity in agriculture and increased labour mobility made possible the enormous expansion of manufacturing and, later, the service industries.

       Phases of Growth in Labour Productivity, TableGrowth of productivity in countries other than the United States accelerated greatly after World War II. The five-country average rate of growth in labour productivity (Table 1 (Phases of Growth in Labour Productivity, Table)) more than tripled in the 1950–73 period compared with the preceding 80 years. After 1973 productivity growth fell by almost half in the five countries, on average, but remained well above the earlier rate. The deceleration was greater in the United States.

       Real Gross Domestic Product per Employed Person, Table Real Gross Domestic Product per Economically Active Person, TableBefore trying to explain these trends, see Table 2 (Real Gross Domestic Product per Employed Person, Table), which summarizes productivity changes from 1950 through a more recent year for a larger number of industrialized countries, and then see Table 4 (Real Gross Domestic Product per Economically Active Person, Table), which shows estimates for groups of countries composing most of the world.

       Real Gross Domestic Product per Employed Person, TableIn the 12 countries other than the United States shown in Table 2 (Real Gross Domestic Product per Employed Person, Table), real GDP per employed person grew between 1950 and 1973 at an average rate of about 4 percent, about double the rate for the United States. From 1973 to 1979 the average rate decelerated to 2.2 percent a year for the 12 industrialized nations and to virtually zero in the United States. But after 1979 (and especially after 1981) the U.S. rate accelerated significantly, while the 12-nation average rate fell further to 1.8 percent, which was nevertheless still well above the U.S. rate of 0.8 percent a year.

       Real Gross Domestic Product per Employed Person, TableDuring the entire period after 1950 there was a significant convergence of rates of productivity growth among the industrialized nations, as shown in Table 3 (Real Gross Domestic Product per Employed Person, Table). The average real GDP per person for the 11 countries rose from about 44 percent of that in the United States in 1950 to almost 80 percent in 1986. Furthermore, there is a significant negative correlation between the 1950 levels and the 1950–86 rates of productivity growth—those countries that started farthest behind grew most rapidly in productivity. There had already been some tendency toward convergence among the industrialized nations before 1950, but it was much stronger during the golden quarter-century following World War II.

       Real Gross Domestic Product per Economically Active Person, TableOf even wider importance, most nations outside the original industrialized group also began to record substantial increases in labour productivity beginning around 1950 (see Table 4 (Real Gross Domestic Product per Economically Active Person, Table)). What fragmentary information is available indicates that generally low rates of productivity growth were the norm in those countries before 1950. So World War II was a true watershed, in that after the immediate postwar period of reconstruction, most nations were able to accelerate their productivity gains markedly. Those nations, constituting all but about 5 percent of the world's population, could entertain the prospect of attaining, by or before the close of the 21st century, a standard of living comparable to that in industrial Europe in the 1980s. This prognostication assumes that productivity will continue to grow at least at post-1970 rates.

       Real Gross Domestic Product per Economically Active Person, TableThe country data underlying Table 4 (Real Gross Domestic Product per Economically Active Person, Table) do not indicate a worldwide convergence of productivity levels, although some tendency toward convergence within the several groups is evident. Note that the group of low-income countries had the lowest rates of productivity advance, while the oil exporters and relatively industrialized middle-income countries had the highest rates. Whereas the centrally planned economies had above-average rates of productivity growth in the period 1950–70, after 1970 they fell below average.

The postwar growth surge

      The virtually worldwide upsurge of productivity growth after World War II reflects in an important way the increasingly internationalist thinking and policy-making of leaders of the developed nations. The creation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and of the United Nations and associated agencies encouraged and nurtured cooperative international economic and financial relationships. Although an outgrowth of the Cold War, the Marshall Plan unleashed a major effort on the part of the United States to aid in the reconstruction and economic development of the non-Communist world. Part of the plan called for the creation of productivity centres in member countries, which sent productivity teams to the United States to study and facilitate the transfer of advanced technology. Private lending abroad was encouraged in addition to that of the World Bank and other international lending institutions. Regional trade associations were formed to reduce trade barriers among member countries, and liberalization of international trade was promoted more generally by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). As a result, world trade grew even faster than production, and most significantly it included transfers of advanced machinery and other producers' goods from the United States and other industrialized countries, which helped raise productivity of the purchasing countries.

      Multinational corporations (multinational corporation), typically based in the United States, diffused capital and managerial and technical know-how and helped train nationals of their host countries for jobs, often including upper-level positions. International licensing of patents also helped diffuse technology. An increasing proportion of students in U.S. universities, particularly in business and engineering, came from developing countries. International professional associations and journals also aided in the diffusion of knowledge.

      An important reason for the narrowing of the productivity gap between the United States and other industrialized nations after 1950 was the differential rates of saving, investment, and growth of capital per worker. In Japan the ratio of gross saving to GDP was nearly one-third, double that in the United States, and in western Europe it averaged nearly one-fourth (due in part to favourable tax laws). This higher rate of saving, creating capital for both private and public investing, was associated with a rapid decline in the average age of structures and equipment in those countries until 1973. The growth of domestic and foreign trade opened up more opportunities for achieving economies of scale in those countries as well. They also benefited more from resource reallocations, particularly the shift of labour out of agriculture and self-employment where the rates of return were lower.

      After 1960 the achievement of technological parity with the United States in the ways noted above became the most important factor promoting productivity advance in the other industrial nations and in an increasing number of advanced developing countries. But, as other nations continued to approach the U.S. level of real product per person, there would tend to be greater convergence in levels and rates of growth of productivity. This would be so because innovations requiring those countries to invest in their own research and development would be more costly than technology transferred from abroad.

      The slowdown in productivity growth after 1973 was almost universal. The oil-price shocks of 1973 and 1979 contributed to accelerating inflation in most countries, reducing economic profits and the rate of saving and investment. Some energy-intensive equipment was rendered obsolete. The growth of real research and development expenditures slowed, as did the pace of technological innovation. The beneficial effects of interindustry shifts of resources became less marked. The changing age–sex mix of the labour force tended to reduce productivity growth in the short run, especially in North America. And government regulations to protect the environment and promote health and safety proliferated in the '70s, increasing costs and inputs but not output as it was usually measured.

      The reversal in the 1980s of most of those negative factors helped to accelerate productivity growth in the United States. The continued deceleration in other industrialized countries noted above probably reflected a decline in technology transfer from abroad. There appeared to be no reason, however, why the advance of productivity in the developing countries with adequate absorptive capacity might not continue for years to come.

Additional Reading

General works dealing with productivity and its measurement include John W. Kendrick, Understanding Productivity (1977); John W. Kendrick and Elliot S. Grossman, Productivity in the United States (1980); Jean Fourastié, La Productivité, 10th ed. (1980); and Gerhart E. Reuss, Produktivitätsanalyse: Ökonomische Grundlagen und statistische Methodik (1960). See also United States. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Productivity: A Selected Annotated Bibliography (irregular); and Trends in Multifactor Productivity, 1948–81 (1983), updated annually by the news release Multifactor Productivity Measures. Estimates of the growth of output, inputs, and productivity are presented in the OECD Economic Outlook (semiannual), providing coverage for major countries of the world. In Edward F. Denison, Trends in American Economic Growth, 1929–1982 (1985), the author uses the “growth accounting” method that he pioneered. An early work on international comparisons of output and productivity is Colin Clark, The Conditions of Economic Progress, 3rd ed. (1957, reprinted 1983). Later works include Edward F. Denison, Why Growth Rates Differ: Postwar Experience in Nine Western Countries (1967)—updated by John W. Kendrick, "International Comparison of Recent Productivity Trends,” in William Fellner (ed.), Essays in Contemporary Economic Problems (1981); Angus Maddison, “Growth and Slowdown in Advanced Capitalist Economies: Techniques of Quantitative Assessment,” Journal of Economic Literature, 25(2):649–98 (June 1987), and the same author's Phases of Capitalist Development (1982). World-wide comparisons are made in Irving A. Kravis and Robert E. Lipsey, “The Diffusion of Economic Growth in the World Economy, 1950–80,” in John W. Kendrick (ed.), International Comparisons of Productivity and Causes of the Slowdown (1984). The convergence thesis is examined in William J. Baumol, “Productivity Growth, Convergence, and Welfare: What the Long-Run Data Show,” The American Economic Review, 76(5):1072–85 (December 1986).Marvin Frankel John W. Kendrick

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