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New Zealand's productivity performance and prospects

Author

Listed:
  • Aaron Drew

    (Reserve Bank of New Zealand)

Abstract

New Zealand’s medium-to-longer-run growth prospects and general standard of living critically depend upon its labour productivity performance. Relative to most OECD countries, the level of labour productivity in New Zealand is low and,when measured as GDP per worker, the historic growth performance has also been relatively poor. The apparently poor performance is a key concern for policymakers and has attracted much research attention. The focus has been to understand why performance has not been better, given that cross-country indicators of New Zealand’s economic environment broadly suggest New Zealand should be amongst the highest performers, not a laggard. In this article, the research is synthesised and recent official productivity data released by Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) is analysed. A key conclusion is that the historic productivity performance has in fact been significantly better than is suggested by looking at the aggregate measures of productivity in isolation, and there is some cause for optimism that this will continue.

Suggested Citation

  • Aaron Drew, 2007. "New Zealand's productivity performance and prospects," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, vol. 70, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:nzb:nzbbul:march2007:3
    as

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    File URL: http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/-/media/ReserveBank/Files/Publications/Bulletins/2007/2007mar70-1drew.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Cited by:

    1. Jamie Culling & Hayden Skilling, 2018. "How does New Zealand stack up? A comparison of labour supply across the OECD," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, vol. 81, pages 1-19, April.
    2. repec:bla:ausecr:v:41:y:2008:i:4:p:394-398 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. repec:bla:ausecr:v:41:y:2008:i:4:p:389-393 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Aaron Drew & Rishab Sethi, 2007. "The transmission mechanism of New Zealand monetary policy," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, vol. 70, June.

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