The measurement of productivity is a complex task. The OECD has recently released a comprehensive manual or guide to the measurement of industry-level and aggregate productivity. In the fifth article, Paul Schreyer from the OECD and the author of the OECD productivity manual provides an overview of the manual. He highlights a number of the key issues addressed in the manual, including: the choice of gross output versus value added productivity measures; the need for independence of output from input measures; the importance of adjusting for quality change in existing goods and accounting for new goods in price indices; methods of capturing the skill composition of labour; measurement of capital input; and the interpretation of productivity measures. In terms of the research and development agenda for productivity statistics, Schreyer identifies four priorities: better price indices for output measures by industry, particularly for high technology industries and difficult-to-measure services industries; better data on hours worked by industry; improvement in the quality of data on capital input; and improved input-output tables.
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Find related papers by JEL classification: B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology C82 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Macroeconomic Data C81 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Microeconomic Data D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Capital and Total Factor Productivity; Capacity D57 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Input-Output Tables and Analysis J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity O47 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Measurement of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
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