Review Article on Productivity Growth in Canada and on Industry-level Productivity and International Competitiveness Between Canada and the United States

Early 2001 saw the publication of two important contributions to the literature on productivity in Canada. In February, Statistics Canada released a research study entitled Productivity Growth in Canada, and in March, Industry Canada published a research monograph entitled Industry-level Productivity and International Competitiveness Between Canada and the United States. In this article, Andrew Sharpe of the Centre for the Study of Living Standards reviews these publications and finds that they greatly augment our knowledge base. The studies do an excellent job in exploring the data and conceptual issues related to productivity and in identifying the proximate sources of productivity growth such as capital accumulation and labour quality improvements. Sharpe argues that the priority for productivity research in Canada should now turn from measurement issues to attempts to shed light on the big questions concerning Canadian productivity growth, such as whether productivity growth in Canada is likely to follow the recent U.S. acceleration, the factors behind Canada's lower productivity levels relative to those in the United States, and the policy mix that provides the biggest boost to productivity growth.