Latest Documents

21-February-2023

English

OECD Compendium of Productivity Indicators 2023

This report presents a comprehensive overview of productivity in OECD and, to the extent possible, G20 economies. The different chapters feature an analysis of labour productivity levels, labour and multifactor productivity growth, labour productivity by firm size, investment and labour income across countries. This edition also presents important insights on productivity measurement and evolution since the COVID-19 pandemic, including a shift-share analysis showing how within-industry developments and reallocations across industries have contributed to aggregate labour productivity developments in the recent period and in the longer term.

1-February-2023

English

Improving Productivity Measurement Practices

The first report of the APO and OECD explores current practices and challenges in productivity measurement and provides recommendations to National Productivity Organisations (NPOs), National Statistics Offices (NSOs) and other agencies involved in the compilation and analysis of productivity statistics in APO member economies to improve measurement and cross-country comparability.

9-January-2023

English

Sensitivity of capital and MFP measurement to asset depreciation patterns and initial capital stock estimates

Statistics Working Paper N. 115 2023/1 - This paper discusses the sensitivity of capital and multifactor productivity (MFP) measurement to asset depreciation patterns and initial capital stock estimates.

9-January-2023

English

Sensitivity of capital and MFP measurement to asset depreciation patterns and initial capital stock estimates

This paper discusses the sensitivity of capital and multifactor productivity (MFP) measurement to asset depreciation patterns and initial capital stock estimates. Applying the same depreciation rates in the US as in other G7 countries would reduce the US net investment rate and net capital stock by up to one third and increase US GDP by up to 0.5%. Capital and MFP growth would be less affected. Estimating initial capital stocks often involves assuming constant investment growth, but this leads to unreliable results. Relying on average K/Y ratios across countries works well for the US, but this might not be the case for other countries due to the international dispersion in K/Y ratios. Two main recommendations for statistical agencies emerge from this analysis. First, they should regularly review asset depreciation patterns to ensure that measured differences across countries are well justified. Second, they should backcast investment series as much as possible before relying on stationarity assumptions to estimate initial capital stocks.

17-March-2021

English

Towards Improved and Comparable Productivity Statistics - A Set of Recommendations for Statistical Policy

This report, published in the 60th anniversary of the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), is the first outcome of their collaboration to develop improved and more comparable productivity statistics across APO and OECD member economies. It explores current practices and challenges in productivity measurement and provides recommendations to National Productivity Organisations (NPOs), National Statistics Offices (NSOs), and other agencies involved in the compilation and analysis of productivity statistics in APO member economies to improve measurement and cross-country comparability.

10-December-2018

English

International productivity gaps: Are labour input measures comparable?

Statistics Working Paper N. 99 2018/12 - Cross-country differences in the measurement of labour input contribute to observed productivity gaps across countries. In most countries, labour force surveys (LFS) form a primary source of information for employment related statistics, such as persons employed, employees and hours worked...

29-October-2018

English

Productivity measurement, R&D assets and mark-ups in OECD countries

Statistics Working Paper N. 93 2018/6 - A key feature of the 2008 revision of the System of National Accounts was the treatment of R&D expenditure as investment. The question arises whether the standard approach towards accounting for growth contribution of assets is justified given the special nature of R&D that provides capital services by affecting the working of other inputs as a whole...

21-July-2017

English

Can potential mismeasurement of the digital economy explain the post-crisis slowdown in GDP and productivity growth?

Statistics Working Paper N. 85, 2017/9 - The digital economy has created some new measurement challenges for macroeconomic statistics and may have exacerbated some older ones, raising some concerns about the scope and estimation of GDP. Against a backdrop of slowing rates of measured productivity growth, this has raised questions about the conceptual basis of GDP and output...

28-January-2017

English

Has the labour share declined? It depends

Statistics Working Paper N. 77, 2017/1 - We revisit the issue of how best to measure the labour and capital shares in OECD economies, distinguishing between production- and income-based perspectives. The former adopts a producer perspective with gross income as a reference: it uses a production function in a market setting.

17-June-2016

English

Measuring GDP in a digitalised economy

Statistics Working Paper N. 73, 2016/7 - Recent years have seen a rapid emergence of new disruptive technologies with new forms of intermediation, service provision and consumption, with digitalisation being a common characteristic. These include new platforms that facilitate Peer-to-Peer transactions, such as AirBnB and Uber, new activities such as crowd sourcing,...

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