IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rba/rbardp/rdp9505.html

Labour-productivity Growth and Relative Wages: 1978-1994

Author

Listed:
  • 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.

Suggested Citation

  • Philip Lowe, 1995. "Labour-productivity Growth and Relative Wages: 1978-1994," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp9505, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    • Handle: RePEc:rba:rbardp:rdp9505
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/rdp/1995/pdf/rdp9505.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roger R. Betancourt, 1993. "An Analysis of the U.S. Distribution System," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 135, OECD Publishing.
    2. PETER B. DIXON & DAINA McDONALD, 1992. "A Decomposition of Changes in Labour Productivity in Australia: 1970‐71 to 1989‐90," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 68(2), pages 105-117, June.
    3. Phipps, A. & Sheen, J. & Wilkins, C., 1992. "The Slowdown In Australian Productivity Growth: Some Aggregated And Disaggregated Evidence," Working Papers 175, University of Sydney, School of Economics.
    4. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/7844 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Patrick A. Messerlin, 1993. "The French Distribution Industry and the Openness of the French Economy," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 138, OECD Publishing.
    6. Zvi Griliches, 1992. "Output Measurement in the Service Sectors," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number gril92-1, January.
    7. 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(2), pages 347-432.
    8. John A. Dawson, 1993. "The Distribution Sector in the United Kingdom," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 140, OECD Publishing.
    9. repec:bla:ecorec:v:68:y:1992:i:201:p:105-17 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. David, Paul A, 1990. "The Dynamo and the Computer: An Historical Perspective on the Modern Productivity Paradox," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(2), pages 355-361, May.
    11. F. J. M. Meyer & J. L. Meyer, 1994. "An International Sectoral Data Base for Fourteen OECD Countries (Second Edition)," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 145, OECD Publishing.
    12. Josef Lachner & Uwe Chr. Täger & Günter Weitzel, 1993. "The German Distribution System," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 137, OECD Publishing.
    13. repec:fth:sydnec:175 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Luca Pellegrini & Angelo M. Cardani, 1993. "The Italian Distribution System," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 139, OECD Publishing.
    15. D.H. Whitehead, 1963. "Price‐Cutting And Wages Policy," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 39(86), pages 187-195, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. mallick, Jagannath, 2016. "Investigating the Relationship of Disparity in Income, Private investment and wage rate in Indian states: A Panel Cointegration Approach," MPRA Paper 87736, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 09 Aug 2017.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Philip Lowe, 1995. "Labour-Productivity Growth and Relative Wages: 1978-1994," RBA Annual Conference Volume (Discontinued), in: Palle Andersen & Jacqueline Dwyer & David Gruen (ed.),Productivity and Growth, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    2. Roger Betancourt & David Gautschi, 1996. "An international comparison of the determinants of retail gross margins," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 23(2), pages 173-189, June.
    3. Peter Hooper & Elizabeth Vranlovich, 1995. "International comparisons of the levels of unit labor costs in manufacturing," International Finance Discussion Papers 527, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    4. Sharon Kozicki, 1997. "The productivity growth slowdown: diverging trends in the manufacturing and service sectors," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, issue Q I, pages 31-46.
    5. Jean Albert & Maryvonne Lemaire, 1993. "Le commerce de détail en Europe : nouveaux marchés et spécialisation," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 267(1), pages 59-68.
    6. Polák, Petr, 2017. "The productivity paradox: A meta-analysis," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 38-54.
    7. Ark, Bart van & Broersma, Lourens & Jong, Gjalt de, 1999. "Innovation in services : overview of data sources and analytical structures," GGDC Research Memorandum 199944, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen.
    8. Rashmi Banga, 2005. "Role of Services in the Growth Process: A Survey," Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi Working Papers 159, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi, India.
    9. Stephen D. Oliner & Daniel E. Sichel, 1994. "Computers and Output Growth Revisited: How Big Is the Puzzle?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 25(2), pages 273-334.
    10. Roger W. Ferguson & William L. Wascher, 2004. "Distinguished Lecture on Economics in Government: Lessons from Past Productivity Booms," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(2), pages 3-28, Spring.
    11. Maroto-Sánchez, Andrés & Cuadrado-Roura, Juan R., 2009. "Is growth of services an obstacle to productivity growth? A comparative analysis," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 254-265, December.
    12. Robert J. Gordon, 2000. "Interpreting the "One Big Wave" in U.S. Long-Term Productivity Growth," NBER Working Papers 7752, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. repec:dgr:rugggd:199944 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Daron Acemoglu, 2002. "Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(1), pages 7-72, March.
    15. L. Becchetti & David Bedoya & L. Paganetto, 2003. "ICT Investment, Productivity and Efficiency: Evidence at Firm Level Using a Stochastic Frontier Approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 143-167, September.
    16. Patrick Musso, 2006. "Capital Obsolescence, Growth Accounting and Total Factor Productivity," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 97(5), pages 217-233.
    17. Andrés Maroto-Sanchez, 2010. "Growth and productivity in the service sector: The state of the art," Working Papers 07/10, Instituto Universitario de Análisis Económico y Social.
    18. Donald S. Allen, 1997. "Where's the productivity growth (from the information technology revolution)?," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Mar, pages 15-25.
    19. Ian Goldin & Pantelis Koutroumpis & François Lafond & Julian Winkler, 2024. "Why Is Productivity Slowing Down?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(1), pages 196-268, March.
    20. Esther Gordo & Javier Jareño & Alberto Urtasun, 2006. "Radiografía del sector servicios en España," Occasional Papers 0607, Banco de España.
    21. Scott, Susan V. & Van Reenen, John & Zachariadis, Markos, 2017. "The long-term effect of digital innovation on bank performance: An empirical study of SWIFT adoption in financial services," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(5), pages 984-1004.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rba:rbardp:rdp9505. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Paula Drew (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rbagvau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.