IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedgif/330.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

International comparisons of labor costs in manufacturing

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Hooper
  • Kathryn A. Larin

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative study of the level of unit labor costs in the manufacturing sectors of several countries. The paper begins by surveying earlier estimates of relative productivity and unit labor cost levels and evaluating the various methodologies that have been used in previous studies. Empirical estimates of the levels of foreign unit labor costs in dollars are derived based on labor compensation translated into dollars at nominal exchange rates and labor productivity translated into dollars at purchasing power parity exchange rates. These estimates are compared with results obtained in earlier studies. The results show that the level of unit labor costs in the United States has fluctuated significantly in recent years, predominantly with fluctuations in the nominal exchange rate. As of early 1988, unit labor costs in the United States had dropped well below the average level of other industrialized countries but were significantly above the level in a representative newly industrialized country, Korea.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Hooper & Kathryn A. Larin, 1988. "International comparisons of labor costs in manufacturing," International Finance Discussion Papers 330, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgif:330
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/ifdp/1988/330/default.htm
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/ifdp/1988/330/ifdp330.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter Hill, 1984. "Real Gross Product in OECD Countries and Associated Purchasing Power Parities," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 17, OECD Publishing.
    2. Kravis, Irving B, 1976. "A Survey of International Comparisons of Productivity," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 86(341), pages 1-44, March.
    3. Christensen, L. R. & Cummings, D. & Jorgenson, D. W., 1981. "Relative productivity levels, 1947-1973 : An international comparison," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 61-94.
    4. A.D. Roy, 1982. "Labour Productivity in 1980: an International Comparison," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 101(1), pages 26-37, August.
    5. Bergson, Abram, 1987. "Comparative Productivity: The USSR, Eastern Europe, and the West," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(3), pages 342-357, June.
    6. Linda A. Bell & Janet Ceglowski & Susan Hickok, 1988. "The competitiveness of U.S. manufactured goods: recent changes and prospects," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 13(Spr), pages 7-22.
    7. Isard, Peter, 1977. "How Far Can We Push the "Law of One Price"?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(5), pages 942-948, December.
    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. Jean Le Dem & Frédéric Lerais, 1990. "Où va la productivité du travail ?," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 237(1), pages 49-67.

    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. repec:onb:oenbwp:y::i:29:b:1 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Alberto Chilosi, 2014. "The Economic System as an End or as a Means, and the Future of Socialism: An Evolutionary Viewpoint," Palgrave Studies in the History of Economic Thought, in: Riccardo Bellofiore & Ewa Karwowski & Jan Toporowski (ed.), Economic Crisis and Political Economy, chapter 1, pages 10-28, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Jonathan Haskel & Holger Wolf, 2001. "The Law of One Price—A Case Study," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 103(4), pages 545-558, December.
    4. Ark, Bart van, 2000. "Economic growth and labour productivity in Europe: half a century of East-West comparisons," Research Report 00C01, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    5. Waights, Sevrin, 2018. "Does the law of one price hold for hedonic prices?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 55(15), pages 3299-3317.
    6. Rumler, Fabio & Reiff, Adam, 2014. "Within- and cross-country price dispersion in the euro area," Working Paper Series 1742, European Central Bank.
    7. George Alessandria & Joseph P. Kaboski, 2011. "Pricing-to-Market and the Failure of Absolute PPP," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 91-127, January.
    8. Mercedes Gumbau-Albert & Joaquín Maudos, 2006. "Technological activity and productivity in the Spanish regions," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 40(1), pages 55-80, March.
    9. Byrne, Joseph P. & Chavali, Aditya S. & Kontonikas, Alexandros, 2010. "Exchange rate pass through to import prices: panel evidence from emerging market economies," SIRE Discussion Papers 2010-46, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    10. Ron Moomaw & Lee Adkins, 2007. "Regional Technical Efficiency in Europe," Economics Working Paper Series 0709, Oklahoma State University, Department of Economics and Legal Studies in Business.
    11. Willem H. Buiter & Marcus Miller, 1991. "Real Exchange Rate Overshooting and the Output Cost of Bringing Down Inflation," NBER Chapters, in: International Volatility and Economic Growth: The First Ten Years of The International Seminar on Macroeconomics, pages 239-277, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Rodolphe Blavy & Luciana Juvenal, 2009. "Mexico's integration into NAFTA markets: a view from sectoral real exchange rates," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 91(Sep), pages 441-464.
    13. Matthias Morys & Martin Ivanov, 2024. "Did living standards actually improve under state socialism? Real wages in Bulgaria, 1924-1989," Working Papers 0267, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    14. Ana Iregui & Jesús Otero, 2011. "Testing the law of one price in food markets: evidence for Colombia using disaggregated data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 269-284, April.
    15. repec:dgr:rugggd:199941 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. D M Hanink & R G Cromley, 1993. "Univariate Classification of Differentiated International Markets," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 25(3), pages 409-424, March.
    17. Dale W. Jorgenson, 2007. "Information Technology and the G7 Economies," NBER Chapters, in: Hard-to-Measure Goods and Services: Essays in Honor of Zvi Griliches, pages 325-350, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Helliwell, John F. & Sturm, Peter H. & Salou, Gerard, 1985. "International comparison of the sources of productivity slowdown 1973-1982," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(1-2), pages 157-191.
    19. Felix Rioja & Neven Valev, 2014. "Stock markets, banks and the sources of economic growth in low and high income countries," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 38(2), pages 302-320, April.
    20. Caselli, Francesco, 2005. "Accounting for Cross-Country Income Differences," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 9, pages 679-741, Elsevier.
    21. Frenkel, Jacob A. & Mussa, Michael L., 1985. "Asset markets, exchange rates and the balance of payments," Handbook of International Economics, in: R. W. Jones & P. B. Kenen (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 14, pages 679-747, Elsevier.
    22. Shujing Li & Mr. Hamid Faruqee & Isabel K. Yan, 2004. "The Determinants of International Portfolio Holdings and Home Bias," IMF Working Papers 2004/034, International Monetary Fund.

    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:fip:fedgif:330. 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: Ryan Wolfslayer ; Keisha Fournillier (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbgvus.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.