Export Growth, Capacity Utilization and Productivity Growth: Evidence from Canadian Manufacturing Plants
Economic Analysis (EA) Research Paper No. 075
42 Pages Posted: 28 Feb 2012
Date Written: December 12, 2011
Abstract
Labour productivity growth in the Canadian business sector slowed substantially after 2000. Most of the slowdown occurred in the manufacturing sector. This paper examines how this slowdown was associated with the restructuring that occurred in manufacturing as a result of the increase in excess capacity, the dramatic increase in the Canada – U.S. exchange rate and a slowdown in export growth. The paper finds that at least half of the slowdown in aggregate productivity growth is because of the pro-cyclical nature of productivity growth arising from capacity utilization. Almost all of the aggregate productivity growth slowdown is driven by exporters, who had large declines in labour productivity growth in the post-2000 period.
Keywords: business sector, capacity utilization, exchange rates, exports, labour productivity, manufacturing, productivity growth
JEL Classification: O47, J24, D24, F43, L60
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
Joint Estimation of Price-Cost Margins and Union Bargaining Power for Belgian Manufacturing
-
Product Market Integration, Wage Dispersion and Unemployment
-
Imports as Product and Labour Market Discipline
By Herve Boulhol, Sabien Dobbelaere, ...
-
Imports as Product and Labor Market Discipline
By Herve Boulhol, Sabien Dobbelaere, ...
-
International Product Market Integration, Rents and Wage Formation
By Torben M. Andersen and Allan Sorensen
-
Product Market Integration and Labour Markets: Aggregate Gains at the Cost of More Inequality?
By Torben M. Andersen and Allan Sorensen
-
Panel Data Estimates of the Production Function and Product and Labor Market Imperfections
-
Panel Data Estimates of the Production Function and Product and Labor Market Imperfections
-
Panel Data Estimates of the Production Function and Product and Labor Market Imperfections