Labour-productivity Growth and Relative Wages: 1978-1994

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Labour-productivity Growth and Relative Wages: 1978-1994

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Philip Lowe (Reserve Bank of Australia)

Abstract

This paper uses industry-level data to analyse labour-productivity growth over the past decade and a half. It focuses on the role of the service sector in determining the strength of productivity growth. In particular, it examines the factors that led to falling labour-productivity in the retail and wholesale trade and the personal and other services industries over the second half of the 1980s. In both industries, wage restraint played an important role. In addition, in the retail and wholesale trade industry, measured productivity growth was retarded by the deregulation of store trading hours. At the aggregate level, a number of factors suggest that productivity growth over the second half of the 1990s is going to be considerably faster than that over the second half of the 1980s. The links between productivity growth, wages and prices are also explored using the industry level data. These data suggest that differential rates of productivity growth across industries are reflected more in relative prices than in relative wages. The wage data also suggest that productivity growth in the finance, property and business services industry suffers from considerable measurement errors.

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Paper provided by Reserve Bank of Australia in its series RBA Research Discussion Papers with number rdp9505.

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Date of creation: Sep 1995
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Handle: RePEc:rba:rbardp:rdp9505

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Morrison, Steven A & Newman, Robert J, 1983. "Hours of Operation Restrictions and Competition among Retail Firms," Economic Inquiry, Oxford University Press, vol. 21(1), pages 107-14, January.
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Martin Neil Baily & Robert J. Gordon, 1988. "The Productivity Slowdown, Measurement Issues, and the Explosion of Computer Power," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 19(1988-2), pages 347-432. [Downloadable!]
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John A. Dawson, 1993. "The Distribution Sector in the United Kingdom," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 140, OECD, Economics Department. [Downloadable!]

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