International Industrial Productivity: a Comparison of Britain, America and Germany

Abstract

This paper presents some results derived from a wider National Institute study of labour productivity differentials in non-service activities in the British, American and German economies, to be published as a NIESR Occasional Paper during the autumn 1982. For the most part the present paper focuses on the international labour productivity differentials which emerge at the major sector level—for agriculture, extractive industries, manufacturing, construction, public utilities and transport. The complete study will also consider productivity differentials for component activities in these sectors and seek some explanation of contrasts in international industrial performance in terms of such factors as capital intensity, market size, rates of growth, labour force quality etc.

Comparative Productivity in British and German Industry 1907–37

“…Although our figure for the productivity gap in 1935 is substantially above Rostas' (1943) estimate for 1936, it may be that Rostas has excluded the Saar. It may also be that cyclical factors are important here, since our estimate for 1937 is very similar to that of Rostas. In Table 4 conceivable that British productivity was higher in cars but lower in vehicles overall, but we think this unlikely, since evidence from Anglo/American comparisons suggests that this sector has been notoriously inefficient in Britain throughout the twentieth century (Broadberry and Crafts, 1990a, Frankel, 1957, Smith et aL, 1985. Unfortunately we cannot check Rostas' calculations, since no details were provided.…”

Policy Review Section

“…the volume of output per operative, through bettcr attcntion to detail and the superior utilization of machinery and materials. (This was strongly implied by the matched plant comparisons between thc U K and west Germany-D A L Y et al., 1985;WAGNER, 1987, 1989; and also by the interregional and international comparisons involving NI and thc RI-HITCHENS and O'FARRELL, 1987, 1988a, 1988bHITCHENS et al, 1990;HITCHENS andBIRNIE, 1993, 1994). Secondly, and this may be cven more important in complex factor product activities, the skills and experience of management may determine the quality component of productivity (i.e.…”

“…In terms of the percentage of thc manufacturing labour force with a degree the RI proportion was broadly similar to that of both thc UK and west Germany. In NI, howcver, the proportion is only about half that for the U K as a whole (HITCHENS andBIRNIE, 1993, 1994). Emigration implies a substantial proportion of the Rl's output of advanced skills are not applied domestically though the scale of any impact on domestic economic performance remains unclear (WALSH, 1993).…”

Output and Productivity Performance of Hong Kong and Singapore's Transport and Communications Sector, 1990 to 2005*

“…Some studies consider the importance of differing average haul distances or passenger trip lengths and that the output measure must take separate account of loading and unloading services and costs, which are more important, proportionately, in a country with shorter hauls or passenger trips. This activity of loading and unloading, called terminal services, is taken into account in studies such as Paige and Bombach (1959), Smith et al (1982), Mulder (1994) and Lee and Shepherd (2002). For the communications industry, Rostas (1948) and Paige and Bombach (1959) use the number of calls and access lines and the volume of mail handled.…”