Symposium on Labour Force Participation in Canada in the 1990s: An Introduction and Overview

A major development in the Canadian labour market in the 1990s has been the decline in labour force participation. This issue of Canadian Business Economics consists of a symposium of articles that explore this issue. The idea for this symposium came out of a December 1997 workshop on labour force participation organized by the Canadian Employment Research Forum. The Centre for the Study of Living Standards and Human Resources Development Canada then organized two sessions on labour force participation at the annual meeting of the Canadian Economics Association in May 1998 where these papers were first presented. The papers were then refereed and revised for publication. This introduction sets the context for the symposium that follows by presenting basic data on labour force participation rate trends and summarizing and synthesizing the key findings of the five articles.Labour Force Participation, Labor Force Participation, Participation Rate, Labour Force Participation Rate, Labor Force Participation Rate, Canada, Living Standards, Standard of Living, Output Gap, Potential Employment, Potential Output, Potential Growth

Exploring the Linkages between Productivity and Social Development in Market Economies

This paper explores the linkages between productivity and social development from the perspective of synthesizing the findings of projects undertaken by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards in three related areas. The first is a project exploring the linkages between productivity and social well-being involving researchers from around the world and culminating in the edited volume Toward a Social Understanding of Productivity. Contributions discuss both linkages from productivity to social well-being, as in the case of productivity's role in improving fiscal balances; and from social well-being to productivity, as in the case of social and cultural factors surrounding the desire and capacity of families to invest in the education of children having powerful long-term consequences in a knowledge-driven economy. The second area is the Index of Economic Well-being developed by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards. Each of the four components - consumption, stocks of wealth, equality and economic security - are positively affected by productivity, and some in addition can in turn positively affect productivity. The third area is statistical research into the relationship between productivity and poverty in developing countries. It is found that this relationship is even stronger than that between economic growth and poverty reduction, and about as important as that between GDP per capita growth and poverty reduction. It is also found that the level of income inequality mediates the relationship between productivity growth and poverty reduction. The greater the level of inequality and any increase in inequality, the less an increase in productivity and income will reduce poverty.Productivity, Social Well-being, Social, Economic, Index of Economic Well-being, IEWB, Inequality, Poverty, Developing Countries, Market Economies, Development, Social Development, Growth

Overview of the Festschrift

Festschrift literally means “celebration-writing” in German. And that is what this volume is. It celebrates the remarkable career of David Slater, which in the best Queen’s University tradition of John Deutsch and Clifford Clark spanned academia and public service, on the occasion of his 80th birthday. It follows an old academic tradition that at an appropriate stage in the career of an eminent scholar a volume be put together in their honour containing the writings of colleagues. Usually, the writings must have something to do with the scholar’s life work. In David Slater’s case, this was an easy task as his research and interests have been omnivorous. Finding contributors was also easy as over David’s long career he had many colleagues, friends and students who jumped at the chance to honour him and to participate in this endeavour. The topics covered by the papers in this volume include: fiscal federalism, taxation, pensions, international economics, globalization, regional issues, environmental economics, and labour economics. This overview provides a brief summary of each paper.fiscal federalism, taxation, pensions, international economics, globalization, regional issues, environmental economics, labour economics, David Slater

Can Sectoral Reallocations of Labour Explain Canada’s Absymal Productivity Performance?

This report presents a framework for decomposing aggregate productivity growth into within-sector effects and sectoral reallocation effects. This framework is used to analyze productivity growth in 12 Canadian industries for the 1961-2007 period and for several subperiods. The results do not support the common view that Canada’s weak post-2000 productivity performance is attributable to a reallocation of labour toward mining, oil and gas, a sector with low productivity growth. Rather, it was the fall in labour productivity growth in manufacturing that accounted for all of the slowdown in business sector productivity growth after 2000.productivity growth, sectoral reallocation, labour productivity growth, industry, Canada

Editor’s Overview

This 22nd issue of the International Productivity Monitor published by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards contains five articles. The topics addressed are: a comparative industry perspective on productivity and economic growth in Europe; a detailed analysis of labour productivity growth in the transportation equipment industry in Canada; a portrait of the productivity performance of the Canadian provinces from a growth accounting perspective; a review of productivity experience and challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean and insights for Canada; and a discussion of the relationship between ageing and productivity.productivity

Future Productivity Growth in Canada and Implications for the Canada Pension Plan

This is organized into three main parts. The first section provides a perspective on future productivity growth in Canada. It discusses key productivity concepts, looks at current productivity trends, examines the forces affecting future productivity growth, and reviews productivity projections in Canada and the United States. The second section discusses the relationship between productivity growth and the real earnings of workers, and examines the implications of different productivity assumptions for CPP financial projections. The third part examines the relationship between productivity growth and other key variables affecting CPP financial projections, namely the real rate of return on investments, price increases, participation rates, retirement rates, migration rate, mortality rate, fertility rate, and disability rates.Productivity growth, Real earnings, Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Investment return, Price, Retirement, Migration.

Editor’s Overview

THIS MARKS THE 20th issue of the International Productivity Monitor (IPM). The Centre for the Study of Living Standards would like to thank Industry Canada for the financial support that has made the publication of the IPM possible over the past decade. This issue contains five articles on: the impact of the economic crisis on potential output and productivity growth in Canada; the sensitivity of estimates of Canada-U.S. capital intensity and multifactor productivity gaps to depreciation assumptions; a sectoral and provincial decomposition of Canada’s post-2000 labour productivity slowdown; the role of creative destruction in Finnish productivity performance; and the influence of public policy on manufacturing productivity growth in India.productivity, potential output, growth, capital intensity, multifactor productivity, depreciation, labour productivity, creative destruction, public policy

Editor’s Overview

THIS 18TH ISSUE OF THE International Productivity Monitor published by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards contains seven articles. Topics covered are the relationship between education, productivity and economic growth, new estimates of multifactor productivity for the Canadian provinces, the World Productivity Database developed by the United National Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and a symposium on the recently released Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel report on business innovation in Canada.Productivity, Education, Growth, Multifactor productivity, Innovation,

A Comparison of Canadian and U.S. Labour Market Performance, 1989-2000

The gap between Canadian and U.S. living standards widened considerably in the 1990s. Americans, on average, were 16 per cent better off in terms of real personal income per capita in 2000 than in 1989, while Canadians experienced a 5 percent increase in real incomes. The thesis of this paper is that this divergence to a large degree, particularly in the first half of the 1990s, has its roots in part in the different labour market and productivity performance of the two economies and that Canada's inferior income performance reflected cyclical factors associated with poor macroeconomic policy management rather than structural factors. The paper is divided into three main parts. The first section examines general economic and labour market developments in Canada and the United States in the 1989-2000 period, looking at trends in real income, population, labour force, employment, unemployment, output and productivity. The second section looks at the common trends in the two labour markets, including the concentration of employment growth in services and in managerial and professional occupations; growing wage inequality; and the downward trend in the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment. The third section examines divergent trends in the two labour markets, including the widening of the unemployment rate gap; the emergence of a participation rate gap; and greater self-employment and part-time employment growth in Canada.Canada, United States, Income, Income Growth, Productivity, Productivity Growth, Labour Force Participation, Labor Force Participation, Labor, Employment, Unemployment

Editor’s Overview

THIS ISSUE OF THE International Productivity Monitor contains five articles on: recent productivity developments in the world economy; aggregate measures of income and their implications for productivity and living standards; the role of sectoral employment shifts in aggregate productivity growth in Canada; productivity trends in regulated industries in Canada and the United States; and international productivity comparisons in the financial and business services sectors.Productivity, Living Standards, Aggregate Measures of Income, Sectoral Employment, Productivity Growth,