Productivity accounts
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- Articles and reports: 36-28-0001202300400004Description: The COVID-19 pandemic affected the Canadian economy in numerous ways, one of which was changing the relationship between growth in production, and changes in real consumption and real gross fixed capital formation (GFCF). Typically, real consumption and real GFCF are expected to progress similarly to real gross domestic product (GDP), however during the period covered by the COVID-19 pandemic, real consumption and real GFCF grew at a stronger pace than real GDP. This article illustrates how examining real income rather than real production can address this paradox. Specifically, the roles of changes in production (the use of capital, labour and multifactor productivity used to produce real GDP) and changes in non-production sources of real income growth (the trading gain and net income from abroad) are examined.Release date: 2023-05-08
- Articles and reports: 36-28-0001202201000002Description:
Rising wages and prices have characterized 2021 and 2022. Soaring unit labour costs have raised competitiveness concerns. This article examines the relationship between real wages and productivity to see whether real wage growth (growth in real total compensation per hour worked) has lagged behind labour productivity growth in recent years. It examines whether the result is sensitive to differences in the definition of real wages.
Release date: 2022-10-27 - Data Visualization: 71-607-X2021011Description:
The Multifactor Productivity application is an analytical tool that provides custom aggregation and custom tabulation of productivity statistics based on the series in CODR table 36-10-0211. The application permits custom aggregation across industries for all published variables, data transformations such as growth rate calculations, log-transformations and index re-basing, correlation and density analysis and visualization of retrieved outputs. The output values from calculations are available as .csv files. Visualizations can be downloaded as .png files. The data in the application are annual values beginning in 1961 and ending with the most recent data available.
Release date: 2021-08-16 - Articles and reports: 11F0019M2020005Description:
Understanding intangible investments is essential for providing accurate measures of gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), gross domestic product (GDP) and productivity growth, and for understanding the innovation system. Statistical agencies need measures of intangible investment to produce economic statistics on aggregate activity that accurately measure concepts such as GDP, GFCF or savings. The levels of GDP, GFCF and savings will be underestimated to the extent that expenditures are incorrectly classified as intermediate inputs that are fully consumed during the period being measured—and not as investments that are not fully consumed during the period when the expenditures are incurred. Estimates for GDP and productivity growth rates may be similarly underestimated. This paper updates and expands upon the intangible capital estimates presented by Baldwin et al. (2009), who extended already measured intangibles (i.e., research and development [R&D], software, mineral exploration) to include additional asset classes consistent with international research on intangible capital measurement (see Corrado, Hulten and Sichel 2009).
Release date: 2020-02-12 - Articles and reports: 15-206-X2014038Description:
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.
Release date: 2014-09-15 - Articles and reports: 15-206-X2014036Description:
Leasing is an important means of gaining access to assets, of obtaining finance, and of reducing a lessee’s exposure to the risks inherent to asset ownership. A lease can be either a financial lease (capital lease) or an operating lease (capital rental). A financial lease is one where the legal owner of an asset (lessor) passes the economic ownership to the user of the asset (lessee), who then accepts the operating risks and receives the economic benefits from using the asset in a productive activity. Under an operating lease, the lessor is both the legal owner and the economic owner of the asset leased (rented), bearing the operating risks and receiving the economic benefits from the asset. The lessor transfers only the right to use the asset to the lessee.
Leasing offers firms the possibility to acquire the right to use capital assets under terms that differ from those prevailing through other financial instruments. The recording of leased assets in the Canadian System of National Accounts is ownership-based rather than user-based. The separation of capital ownership, in particular legal ownership, from the use of capital assets poses challenges to productivity measurement. To obtain consistent productivity measures at an industry level, leased and rented capital assets must be reallocated from owners’ accounts to users’ accounts. By using the General Index of Financial Information (GIFI) corporate balance sheets and detailed input-output tables, this paper tests the robustness of existing practices of data collection on leased and rented capital.
Release date: 2014-07-22 - Articles and reports: 15-206-X2014035Description:
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.
Release date: 2014-07-08 - 8. Experimental Measures of Output and Productivity in the Canadian Hospital Sector, 2002 to 2010 ArchivedArticles and reports: 15-206-X2014034Description:
Recent discussions about health care spending have focused on two issues: 1) the extent to which the increase in heath care spending is due to an increase in the quantity as opposed to the price of health care services, and 2) the efficiency and productivity of health care providers (e.g., hospital sectors, office of physicians, and long-term care).
The key to addressing both issues is a direct output measure of health care services—a measure that does not currently exist. In the National Accounts, output of the health care sector is measured by the volume of inputs, which includes labour costs for physicians, nurses and administrative staff, consumption of capital, and intermediate inputs. An input-based output measure assumes that there are no productivity gains in the health care sector. As a result, it does not provide a measure of productivity performance, nor does it allow a decomposition of total health care expenditures into price and output quantity components.
The main objective of this paper is to develop an experimental direct output measure for the Canadian hospital sector that can be used to address those issues. A large number of countries have already constructed a direct output measure of the hospital sector and other healthcare sectors.
Release date: 2014-04-23 - 9. The New Investment Paradigm? ArchivedArticles and reports: 11-626-X2012007Geography: CanadaDescription:
This article in the Economic Insights series summarizes results from current Statistics Canada research on investment and capital stock accumulation. It is based on the study, "Intangible Capital and Productivity Growth in Canada".
Release date: 2012-06-14 - 10. Intangible Capital and Productivity Growth in Canada ArchivedArticles and reports: 15-206-X2012029Geography: CanadaDescription:
Intangible capital consists of investments that do not take on the solid, physical characteristics of machinery and equipment or buildings. Nevertheless, such investments have some of the properties of other types of investments in that they yield long-lasting benefits as a result of expenditures that are made today. In the National Accounts, these expenditures need to be capitalized rather than expensed as intermediate materials for purposes of estimating gross domestic product (GDP).
Recent papers have considered issues surrounding the measurement of intangibles. Baldwin et al. (2005) discussed issues surrounding research and development (R&D). They noted that R&D is only one of the components of innovation expenditures. Baldwin et al. (2009) extended the measurement of intangible investments beyond that of just R&D. At the heart of intangible investments, of course, are software and R&D. However, intangible investments also consist of purchased science services, own-account scientific services, exploration expenses in the resource sector, and advertising expenditures, because these create an intangible asset and yield long-term benefits.
This paper extends the authors' previous work in three ways. First, it expands it into several new areas--what are referred to as economic competencies. These involve primarily investments in human capital--via management and training investments as well as management consulting services. This not only provides broader coverage; it also allows cross-country comparisons of Canada to the United States.
Second, this paper moves from just measuring investment to also developing capital stock estimates. This requires assumptions about depreciation rates. In both instances, the paper adopts assumptions similar to those used elsewhere in developing estimates for the United States, in order to ensure comparability.
Third, the paper incorporates the estimates of intangible capital into the growth-accounting framework so as to understand how it is related to productivity growth. A comparison of Canada and the United States in this regard is also provided.
Release date: 2012-06-01
Data (2)
Data (2) ((2 results))
- Data Visualization: 71-607-X2021011Description:
The Multifactor Productivity application is an analytical tool that provides custom aggregation and custom tabulation of productivity statistics based on the series in CODR table 36-10-0211. The application permits custom aggregation across industries for all published variables, data transformations such as growth rate calculations, log-transformations and index re-basing, correlation and density analysis and visualization of retrieved outputs. The output values from calculations are available as .csv files. Visualizations can be downloaded as .png files. The data in the application are annual values beginning in 1961 and ending with the most recent data available.
Release date: 2021-08-16 - 2. The Canadian Productivity Accounts: Data ArchivedTable: 15-003-XDescription:
The Canadian Productivity Accounts: Data is an electronic publication that contains a series of tables on productivity growth and related variables for the business sector and its 51 major sub-sectors based on the North American Industry Classification System. These tables allow users to have a broader perspective on Canadian economic performance. They complement the information available on CANSIM which offers more detail, particularly at the industry level.
Canadian Productivity Accounts (CPA) are responsible for producing, analyzing and disseminating Statistics Canada's official data on productivity and for producing and integrating data on employment, hours worked and capital services consistent with the Canadian System of National Accounts. To this end, the CPA comprise three programs. The quarterly program provides current estimates on labour productivity and labour costs at the aggregate level for 15 industry groups. The annual national program provides yearly estimates on labour productivity, multifactor productivity and several indicators of sources of growth and competitiveness as they apply to the major sectors of the economy and to the industry level. Lastly, the annual provincial program, as an integral part of the Provincial Economic Accounts, provides estimates on employment, hours worked, labour productivity and labour costs at the industry level for each province and territory.
The Canadian Productivity Accounts: Data covers four series of statistical tables:
Table 1: Output, labour compensation, capital cost and cost of intermediate inputs in current dollars
Table 2: Productivity and related measures
Table 3: Productivity and related measures for the business sector, Canada and United States
Table 4: Productivity and related measures for the manufacturing sector, Canada and United States
Productivity measures the efficiency with which inputs (labour and capital in particular) are utilized in production. Productivity measures can be applied to a single input, such as labour productivity (output per hour worked), as well as to multifactor productivity (output per unit of combined labour and capital inputs). Statistics Canada produces these two main measures of productivity, but other productivity ratios can also be measured (e.g., output per unit of capital services).
Release date: 2007-12-06
Analysis (28)
Analysis (28) (0 to 10 of 28 results)
- Articles and reports: 36-28-0001202300400004Description: The COVID-19 pandemic affected the Canadian economy in numerous ways, one of which was changing the relationship between growth in production, and changes in real consumption and real gross fixed capital formation (GFCF). Typically, real consumption and real GFCF are expected to progress similarly to real gross domestic product (GDP), however during the period covered by the COVID-19 pandemic, real consumption and real GFCF grew at a stronger pace than real GDP. This article illustrates how examining real income rather than real production can address this paradox. Specifically, the roles of changes in production (the use of capital, labour and multifactor productivity used to produce real GDP) and changes in non-production sources of real income growth (the trading gain and net income from abroad) are examined.Release date: 2023-05-08
- Articles and reports: 36-28-0001202201000002Description:
Rising wages and prices have characterized 2021 and 2022. Soaring unit labour costs have raised competitiveness concerns. This article examines the relationship between real wages and productivity to see whether real wage growth (growth in real total compensation per hour worked) has lagged behind labour productivity growth in recent years. It examines whether the result is sensitive to differences in the definition of real wages.
Release date: 2022-10-27 - Articles and reports: 11F0019M2020005Description:
Understanding intangible investments is essential for providing accurate measures of gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), gross domestic product (GDP) and productivity growth, and for understanding the innovation system. Statistical agencies need measures of intangible investment to produce economic statistics on aggregate activity that accurately measure concepts such as GDP, GFCF or savings. The levels of GDP, GFCF and savings will be underestimated to the extent that expenditures are incorrectly classified as intermediate inputs that are fully consumed during the period being measured—and not as investments that are not fully consumed during the period when the expenditures are incurred. Estimates for GDP and productivity growth rates may be similarly underestimated. This paper updates and expands upon the intangible capital estimates presented by Baldwin et al. (2009), who extended already measured intangibles (i.e., research and development [R&D], software, mineral exploration) to include additional asset classes consistent with international research on intangible capital measurement (see Corrado, Hulten and Sichel 2009).
Release date: 2020-02-12 - Articles and reports: 15-206-X2014038Description:
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.
Release date: 2014-09-15 - Articles and reports: 15-206-X2014036Description:
Leasing is an important means of gaining access to assets, of obtaining finance, and of reducing a lessee’s exposure to the risks inherent to asset ownership. A lease can be either a financial lease (capital lease) or an operating lease (capital rental). A financial lease is one where the legal owner of an asset (lessor) passes the economic ownership to the user of the asset (lessee), who then accepts the operating risks and receives the economic benefits from using the asset in a productive activity. Under an operating lease, the lessor is both the legal owner and the economic owner of the asset leased (rented), bearing the operating risks and receiving the economic benefits from the asset. The lessor transfers only the right to use the asset to the lessee.
Leasing offers firms the possibility to acquire the right to use capital assets under terms that differ from those prevailing through other financial instruments. The recording of leased assets in the Canadian System of National Accounts is ownership-based rather than user-based. The separation of capital ownership, in particular legal ownership, from the use of capital assets poses challenges to productivity measurement. To obtain consistent productivity measures at an industry level, leased and rented capital assets must be reallocated from owners’ accounts to users’ accounts. By using the General Index of Financial Information (GIFI) corporate balance sheets and detailed input-output tables, this paper tests the robustness of existing practices of data collection on leased and rented capital.
Release date: 2014-07-22 - Articles and reports: 15-206-X2014035Description:
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.
Release date: 2014-07-08 - 7. Experimental Measures of Output and Productivity in the Canadian Hospital Sector, 2002 to 2010 ArchivedArticles and reports: 15-206-X2014034Description:
Recent discussions about health care spending have focused on two issues: 1) the extent to which the increase in heath care spending is due to an increase in the quantity as opposed to the price of health care services, and 2) the efficiency and productivity of health care providers (e.g., hospital sectors, office of physicians, and long-term care).
The key to addressing both issues is a direct output measure of health care services—a measure that does not currently exist. In the National Accounts, output of the health care sector is measured by the volume of inputs, which includes labour costs for physicians, nurses and administrative staff, consumption of capital, and intermediate inputs. An input-based output measure assumes that there are no productivity gains in the health care sector. As a result, it does not provide a measure of productivity performance, nor does it allow a decomposition of total health care expenditures into price and output quantity components.
The main objective of this paper is to develop an experimental direct output measure for the Canadian hospital sector that can be used to address those issues. A large number of countries have already constructed a direct output measure of the hospital sector and other healthcare sectors.
Release date: 2014-04-23 - 8. The New Investment Paradigm? ArchivedArticles and reports: 11-626-X2012007Geography: CanadaDescription:
This article in the Economic Insights series summarizes results from current Statistics Canada research on investment and capital stock accumulation. It is based on the study, "Intangible Capital and Productivity Growth in Canada".
Release date: 2012-06-14 - Articles and reports: 15-206-X2012029Geography: CanadaDescription:
Intangible capital consists of investments that do not take on the solid, physical characteristics of machinery and equipment or buildings. Nevertheless, such investments have some of the properties of other types of investments in that they yield long-lasting benefits as a result of expenditures that are made today. In the National Accounts, these expenditures need to be capitalized rather than expensed as intermediate materials for purposes of estimating gross domestic product (GDP).
Recent papers have considered issues surrounding the measurement of intangibles. Baldwin et al. (2005) discussed issues surrounding research and development (R&D). They noted that R&D is only one of the components of innovation expenditures. Baldwin et al. (2009) extended the measurement of intangible investments beyond that of just R&D. At the heart of intangible investments, of course, are software and R&D. However, intangible investments also consist of purchased science services, own-account scientific services, exploration expenses in the resource sector, and advertising expenditures, because these create an intangible asset and yield long-term benefits.
This paper extends the authors' previous work in three ways. First, it expands it into several new areas--what are referred to as economic competencies. These involve primarily investments in human capital--via management and training investments as well as management consulting services. This not only provides broader coverage; it also allows cross-country comparisons of Canada to the United States.
Second, this paper moves from just measuring investment to also developing capital stock estimates. This requires assumptions about depreciation rates. In both instances, the paper adopts assumptions similar to those used elsewhere in developing estimates for the United States, in order to ensure comparability.
Third, the paper incorporates the estimates of intangible capital into the growth-accounting framework so as to understand how it is related to productivity growth. A comparison of Canada and the United States in this regard is also provided.
Release date: 2012-06-01 - 10. Revisions to Canada and United States Annual Estimates of Labour Productivity in the Business SectorJournals and periodicals: 15-212-XGeography: CanadaDescription: This paper examines the revisions published in 2011 to Canadian and the United States business sector labour productivity estimates and related variables. In addition to the usual three years revision cycle of the Canadian National Accounts, hours worked in Canada were revised back to 1981 to incorporate the historical revision of the Labour Force Survey published in January 2011. The United States National Accounts estimates were revised back to 2003 and hours worked back to 2002.Release date: 2012-03-29
Reference (6)
Reference (6) ((6 results))
- Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 15-206-X2010027Description:
Measures of productivity are derived by comparing outputs and inputs. The System of National Accounts (SNA) in Canada provides a useful framework for organizing the information required for comparisons of this type. Integrated systems of economic accounts provide coherent, consistent alternate estimates of the various concepts that can be used to measure productivity.
Release date: 2010-06-29 - 2. Producing Hours Worked for the SNA in Order to Measure Productivity: The Canadian Experience ArchivedSurveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 15-206-X2006004Description:
This paper provides a brief description of the methodology currently used to produce the annual volume of hours worked consistent with the System of National Accounts (SNA). These data are used for labour input in the annual and quarterly measures of labour productivity, as well as in the annual measures of multifactor productivity. For this purpose, hours worked are broken down by educational level and age group, so that changes in the composition of the labour force can be taken into account. They are also used to calculate hourly compensation and the unit labour cost and for simulations of the SNA Input-Output Model; as such, they are integrated as labour force inputs into most SNA satellite accounts (i.e., environment, tourism).
Release date: 2006-10-27 - 3. The 2001 to 2004 Revisions of the Canada-U.S. Labour Productivity in the Business Sector ArchivedSurveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 15-206-X2006003Description:
This paper examines the revision cycle for labour productivity estimates over the period 2001 to 2004.
Release date: 2006-10-11 - Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 11F0026M2005005Description:
The aim of this paper is to describe the actual methodology used to estimate annual hours worked by industry and province in Canada in view to be consistent with the System of National Accounts.
Release date: 2005-08-30 - Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 11F0026M2005003Description:
This paper examines the revision cycle for labour productivity estimates over the period 2000-2003.
Release date: 2005-03-10 - Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 15-002-M2001001Description:
This document describes the sources, concepts and methods utilized by the Canadian Productivity Accounts and discusses how they compare with their U.S. counterparts.
Release date: 2004-12-24
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