Study: Productivity growth in the Canadian broadcasting and telecommunications industry, 1984 to 2008
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Released: 2014-02-06
Labour productivity in the Canadian broadcasting and telecommunications industry increased on average 3.9% per year from 1984 to 2008.
However, labour productivity rose faster from 1984 to 1998 than in the 2000s in this industry, increasing on average 4.9% per year from 1984 to 1998 compared with 2.9% from 2000 to 2008.
Labour productivity can increase as a result of technical progress, the exploitation of scale economies, the effect of capital deepening, and purchases of intermediate inputs such as professional and business services. It can also increase from the competitive process that shifts market shares from declining and exiting firms to growing and entering firms that tend to be more productive.
From 2000 to 2008, labour productivity increased on average 2.9% per year in the broadcasting and telecommunications industry. Technical progress contributed 1.4 percentage points. The exploitation of scale economies that results from increases in firm size contributed 0.6 percentage points.
The competitive process and the capital deepening made little contribution to the growth in labour productivity from 2000 to 2008.
The decline in labour productivity growth in the 2000s relative to the earlier period was mainly a result of declines in the effects of capital deepening and the competitive process associated with entry and exit, both of which were higher in the 1990s.
The research paper "Productivity Growth in the Canadian Broadcasting and Telecommunications Industry: Evidence from Micro Data," part of the Economic Analysis Research Paper Series (Catalogue number11F0027M), is now available from the Browse by key resource module of our website under Publications.
Similar studies are available in the Update on Economic Analysis module of our website.
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