Wulong Gu

Dans le present document, on examine le rendement de l'investissement au Canada et aux Etats Unis en explorant les similarites et les differences des investissements en actifs fixes de 1990 a 2011, periode durant laquelle les deux pays ont subi des chocs differents. Le declin important des marches de l'habitation qui a frappe les Etats Unis apres 2007 n'a pas affecte le Canada. L'essor mondial des ressources apres 2000 a eu un impact plus marque au Canada qu'aux Etats Unis. Le dollar canadien s'est beaucoup apprecie par rapport au dollar americain apres 2003, ce qui a entraine une reduction relative des couts des machines et du materiel importes au Canada. La comparaison se fonde surtout sur l'intensite de l'investissement, definie comme etant le ratio de l'investissement nominal en dollars au produit interieur brut (PIB) nominal, mais les taux de croissance du volume de l'investissement par rapport au volume du PIB sont egalement compares.

This paper examines the investment performance of Canada and the United States, exploring similarities and differences in investments in fixed assets over the 1990-to-2011 period. This is a period when the two countries experienced different shocks. The United States suffered from a major decline in its housing markets after 2007 that did not hit Canada. The world-resource boom in the post-2000 period had a greater impact on Canada than it did on the United States. The Canada?United States exchange rate appreciated dramatically after 2003 thereby making imported machinery and equipment relatively less expensive in Canada. The comparison is primarily based on investment intensity, measured as the ratio of nominal dollar investment to nominal gross domestic product (GDP), but rates of growth of the volume of investment relative to the volume of GDP are also compared.

Le present document fournit un apercu du programme de productivite de Statistique Canada et une breve description du rendement du Canada en matiere de productivite. Il definit la productivite et les diverses mesures utilisees pour examiner les differentes facettes de la croissance de la productivite. Il decrit la difference entre des mesures de productivite partielles (par exemple, la productivite du travail) et une mesure plus complete (productivite multifactorielle) ainsi que les avantages et desavantages de chacune de ces mesures. Le document explique pourquoi la productivite est importante. Il decrit sommairement comment la croissance de la productivite s?integre dans le cadre comptable de la croissance et comment on utilise ce dernier pour examiner les diverses sources de croissance economique. Il presente brievement les defis que les statisticiens doivent relever lorsqu?ils mesurent la croissance de la productivite. Il fournit egalement un survol de la productivite a long terme du Canada et compare celle-ci a celle des Etats-Unis, selon les niveaux de productivite et selon les taux de croissance de la productivite.

This paper provides an overview of the productivity program at Statistics Canada and a brief description of Canada?s productivity performance. The paper defines productivity and the various measures that are used to investigate different aspects of productivity growth. It describes the difference between partial productivity measures (such as labour productivity) and a more complete measure (multifactor productivity) and the advantages and disadvantages of each. The paper explains why productivity is important. It outlines how productivity growth fits into the growth accounting framework and how this framework is used to examine the various sources of economic growth. The paper briefly discusses the challenges that face statisticians in measuring productivity growth. It also provides an overview of Canada?s long-term productivity performance and compares Canada to the United States?both in terms of productivity levels and productivity growth rates.

Le document presente des estimations de la croissance effective de la productivite multifactorielle (PMF) au Canada, aux Etats-Unis, en Australie, au Japon et dans certains pays de l?Union europeenne (UE), fondees sur la base de donnees EU KLEMS sur la productivite et sur les tableaux mondiaux des entrees-sorties. La croissance effective de la PMF permet de determiner l?incidence des gains de productivite dans les industries en amont sur la croissance de la productivite et la competitivite internationale des industries nationales, ce qui procure une mesure pertinente de la croissance de la productivite et de la competitivite internationale de la production de produits de demande finale, comme les produits de consommation, de placement et d?exportation. Une part importante de la croissance de la PMF, particulierement dans les petites economies ouvertes comme celle du Canada, est attribuable aux gains de la production d?intrants intermediaires dans les pays etrangers. La croissance de la productivite tend a etre plus elevee pour les produits de placement et d?exportation que pour les produits de consommation. Les progres techniques et la croissance de la productivite dans les pays etrangers ont davantage contribue a la croissance de la production de produits de placement et d?exportation qu?a celle de produits de consommation. L?analyse presente des donnees empiriques coherentes avec l?hypothese que la croissance effective de la PMF constitue un indicateur plus approprie de la competitivite internationale que la croissance standard de la PMF.

This paper presents estimates of effective multifactor productivity (MFP) growth for Canada, the United States, Australia, Japan and selected European Union (EU) countries, based on the EU KLEMS productivity database and the World Input-Output Tables. Effective MFP growth captures the impact of the productivity gains in upstream industries on the productivity growth and international competitiveness of domestic industries, thereby providing an appropriate measure of productivity growth and international competitiveness in the production of final demand products such as consumption, investment and export products. A substantial portion of MFP growth, especially for small, open economies such as Canada?s, is attributable to gains in the production of intermediate inputs in foreign countries. Productivity growth tends to be higher in investment and export products than for the production of consumption products. Technical progress and productivity growth in foreign countries have made a larger contribution to production growth in investment and export products than in consumption products. The analysis provides empirical evidence consistent with the hypothesis that effective MFP growth is a more informative relevant indicator of international competitiveness than is standard MFP growth.

Le present rapport decrit les revisions apportees a la mesure de la croissance de la productivite multifactorielle (PMF) et aux variables connexes dans le secteur des entreprises et pour differentes industries. Ces revisions ont decoule de la revision historique du Systeme de comptabilite nationale du Canada (SCNC) diffusee le 1 er octobre 2012, des revisions apportees aux comptes de la productivite du travail du 12 octobre 2012, ainsi que des modifications apportees a l?estimation de l?entree de capital en vue d?accroitre son uniformite dans les estimations de la croissance de la PMF par industrie. Le Programme de la productivite multifactorielle produit des indices de la PMF et des mesures connexes (production, entree de capital, entree de travail et entrees intermediaires) pour le secteur des entreprises, les differents sous secteurs economiques et les industries qui les composent. Le Programme de la PMF ventile la croissance de la productivite du travail en fonction de ses principaux determinants : l?intensite du capital (variations du capital par heure travaillee), l?investissement dans le capital humain et la PMF, qui englobe le changement technologique, l?innovation organisationnelle et les economies d?echelle.

This paper highlights revisions to multifactor productivity (MFP) growth and related variables in the business sector and in individual industries, which resulted from the historical revision of the Canadian System of National Accounts (CSNA) released October 1, 2012, revisions to the labour productivity accounts released October 12, 2012, and changes in the estimation of capital input that were made in order to improve its consistency in industry MFP growth estimates. The multifactor productivity program produces indexes of MFP and related measures (output, capital input, labour input and intermediate inputs) for the business sector, broad economic sub-sectors, and their constituent industries. The MFP program divides growth in labour productivity into its key determinants: capital intensity (changes in capital per hour worked), investment in human capital, and MFP, which includes technological change, organizational innovation and economies of scale.

Aggregate labor and multifactor productivity growth slowed substantially post‐2000 in the Canadian manufacturing sector. To examine the source of the decline, this paper proposes a decomposition method that delves deeper into the two micro‐components of aggregate productivity growth: a within‐plant component and a between‐plant component. The decomposition builds on earlier work by Jorgenson and his collaborators that decomposes aggregate productivity growth into its industry components, but applies it to the plant level and introduces non‐neoclassical features of the plant‐level economic environment. It finds that the preponderance of the aggregate labor and multifactor productivity growth slowdown is due to the pro‐cyclical nature of productivity growth arising from capacity utilization. Almost all of the aggregate productivity growth slowdown is driven by exporters, as exporters experienced large declines in labor productivity growth in the post‐2000 period as a result of large declines in their capacity utilization.