IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mcm/deptwp/2023-01.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Canadian Productivity Growth: Stuck in the Oil Sands

Author

Listed:
  • Oliver Loertscher
  • Pau S. Pujolas

Abstract

We study the behaviour of Canadian total factor productivity growth over the past 60 years. We find that the observed stagnation during the last 20 years is entirely accounted for by the Oil sector. Higher oil prices made capital-intensive sources of oil like the oil sands viable to extract on a commercial scale. However, the greater input required per barrel of oil slowed productivity growth. Comparing Canadian TFP growth to that of the United States reinforces these results. However, our result should not be interpreted to carry any welfare implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Oliver Loertscher & Pau S. Pujolas, 2023. "Canadian Productivity Growth: Stuck in the Oil Sands," Department of Economics Working Papers 2023-01, McMaster University.
    • Handle: RePEc:mcm:deptwp:2023-01
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/econ/rsrch/papers/archive/2023-01.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alexandre Poisson & Charles A. S. Hall, 2013. "Time Series EROI for Canadian Oil and Gas," Energies, MDPI, vol. 6(11), pages 1-20, November.
    2. Robert C. Feenstra & Robert Inklaar & Marcel P. Timmer, 2015. "The Next Generation of the Penn World Table," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(10), pages 3150-3182, October.
    3. Paul Boothe & Richard Roy, 2008. "Business Sector Productivity in Canada: What Do We Know?," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 16, pages 3-13, Spring.
    4. Brent Neiman, 2014. "The Global Decline of the Labor Share," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(1), pages 61-103.
    5. Nancy Olewiler, 2017. "Canadas dependence on natural capital wealth: Was Innis wrong?," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 50(4), pages 927-964, November.
    6. Ian Keay, 2009. "Resource Specialization and Economic Performance: A Canadian Case Study, 1970-2005," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 35(3), pages 291-313, September.
    7. Beine, Michel & Bos, Charles S. & Coulombe, Serge, 2012. "Does the Canadian economy suffer from Dutch disease?," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 468-492.
    8. Michelle Alexopoulos and Jon Cohen, 2018. "Canadian Productivity Growth, Secular Stagnation, and Technological Change," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 35, pages 113-137, Fall.
    9. Nathan Gagnon & Charles A.S. Hall & Lysle Brinker, 2009. "A Preliminary Investigation of Energy Return on Energy Investment for Global Oil and Gas Production," Energies, MDPI, vol. 2(3), pages 1-14, July.
    10. Wulong Gu, 2018. "Accounting for Slower Productivity Growth in the Canadian Business Sector after 2000: The Role of Capital Measurement Issues," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 34, pages 21-39, Spring.
    11. Diego Restuccia & Richard Rogerson, 2008. "Policy Distortions and Aggregate Productivity with Heterogeneous Plants," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 11(4), pages 707-720, October.
    12. Berthold Herrendorf & Richard Rogerson & ?kos Valentinyi, 2013. "Two Perspectives on Preferences and Structural Transformation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(7), pages 2752-2789, December.
    13. Andrew Sharpe, 2010. "Can Sectoral Reallocations of Labour Explain Canada’s Absymal Productivity Performance?," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 19, pages 40-49, Spring.
    14. Elissaios Papyrakis & Ohad Raveh, 2014. "An Empirical Analysis of a Regional Dutch Disease: The Case of Canada," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 58(2), pages 179-198, June.
    15. Anthony Heyes & Andrew Leach & Charles F Mason, 2018. "The Economics of Canadian Oil Sands," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 12(2), pages 242-263.
    16. Dale W. Jorgenson & Paul Schreyer, 2013. "Industry-Level Productivity Measurement And The 2008 System Of National Accounts," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 59(2), pages 185-211, June.
    17. Hall, Charles A.S. & Lambert, Jessica G. & Balogh, Stephen B., 2014. "EROI of different fuels and the implications for society," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 141-152.
    18. Timothy J. Kehoe & Edward C. Prescott, 2002. "Great Depressions of the Twentieth Century," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 5(1), pages 1-18, January.
    19. Nancy Olewiler, 2017. "Canada’s dependence on natural capital wealth: Was Innis wrong?," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(4), pages 927-964, November.
    20. Timothy J. Kehoe & Edward C. Prescott, 2007. "Great depressions of the twentieth century," Monograph, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, number 2007gdott.
    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. Thomas H.W. Ziesemer, 2024. "Internal rates of return for public R&D from VECM estimates for 17 OECD Countries," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(5), pages 1-16, October.
    2. James (Jim) C. MacGee & Joel Rodrigue, 2024. "The Distributional Origins of the Canada-US GDP and Labour Productivity Gaps," Staff Working Papers 24-49, Bank of Canada.
    3. Jonathan Barr & Peter Foltin & Jianmin Tang, 2023. "Recent Productivity Trends in Canada: Navigating the Twin Transitions of Green and Digitalization," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 45, pages 93-119, Fall.
    4. Thomas H. W. Ziesemer, 2024. "Public R&D and Growth: A dynamic Panel Vector-Error-Correction Model Analysis for 14 OECD Countries," Economies, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-33, August.

    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. Juan Carlos Conesa & Pau S. Pujolas, 2019. "The Canadian productivity stagnation, 20022014," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 52(2), pages 561-583, May.
    2. Hansen, G.D. & Ohanian, L.E., 2016. "Neoclassical Models in Macroeconomics," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 2043-2130, Elsevier.
    3. Betts, Caroline, 2021. "Accounting for Japan's Lost Score," MPRA Paper 109285, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Carlos Gustavo Machicado Salas, 2018. "De Las Causas Próximas A Las Causas Profundas Del Crecimiento Económico De Bolivia Entre 1950 Y 2015," Development Research Working Paper Series 09/2018, Institute for Advanced Development Studies.
    5. Battisti, Michele & Gatto, Massimo Del & Parmeter, Christopher F., 2022. "Skill-biased technical change and labor market inefficiency," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    6. Lina I. Brand-Correa & Paul E. Brockway & Claire L. Copeland & Timothy J. Foxon & Anne Owen & Peter G. Taylor, 2017. "Developing an Input-Output Based Method to Estimate a National-Level Energy Return on Investment (EROI)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-21, April.
    7. T. Libert, 2017. "Misallocation Before, During and After the Great Recession," Working papers 658, Banque de France.
    8. Justin Yifu Lin & Wei Wang & Venite Zhaoyang Xu, 2021. "Catch‐up industrial policy and economic transition in China," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 602-632, March.
    9. Ruy Lama, 2011. "Accounting for Output Drops in Latin America," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 14(2), pages 295-316, April.
    10. Murat Ungor, 2017. "Productivity Growth and Labor Reallocation: Latin America versus East Asia," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 24, pages 25-42, March.
    11. James Macaskill & Patrick Lloyd‐Smith, 2022. "Six decades of environmental resource valuation in Canada: A synthesis of the literature," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 70(1), pages 73-89, March.
    12. Jones, C.I., 2016. "The Facts of Economic Growth," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 3-69, Elsevier.
    13. Fizaine, Florian & Court, Victor, 2015. "Renewable electricity producing technologies and metal depletion: A sensitivity analysis using the EROI," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 106-118.
    14. Juan Blyde & Christian Daude & Eduardo Fernández-Arias, 2010. "Output collapses and productivity destruction," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 146(2), pages 359-387, June.
    15. Lee E. Ohanian, 2016. "The Great Recession in the Shadow of the Great Depression: A Review Essay on “Hall of Mirrors: The Great Depression, The Great Recession and the Uses and Misuses Of History”," NBER Working Papers 22239, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Papaioannou, Sotiris K., 2017. "Regulations and productivity: Long run effects and nonlinear influences," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 244-252.
    17. Bayer, Christian & Mecikovsky, Ariel & Meier, Matthias, 2018. "Misallocation: Markups and Technology," CEPR Discussion Papers 12727, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Kaiji Chen & Alfonso Irarrazabal, 2015. "The Role of Allocative Efficiency in a Decade of Recovery," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 18(3), pages 523-550, July.
    19. Diego Restuccia & Richard Rogerson, 2013. "Misallocation and productivity," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(1), pages 1-10, January.
    20. Huang, Chen & Gu, Baihe & Chen, Yingchao & Tan, Xianchun & Feng, Lianyong, 2019. "Energy return on energy, carbon, and water investment in oil and gas resource extraction: Methods and applications to the Daqing and Shengli oilfields," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Canadian Productivity Stagnation; Oil Sector; TFP;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • O51 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - U.S.; Canada

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:mcm:deptwp:2023-01. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/demcmca.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.