Growth without productivity: Singapore Manufacturing in the 1970s

Abstract

There is often a tendency to associate high total factor productivity (TFP) growth with rapidly-growing output. The evidence for Singapore manufacturing industries indicates that this has not been the case. TFP growth has been very low for the majority of Singapore manufacturing industries during 1970–1979. Three hypotheses are suggested as the possible reasons for this result — the predominance of foreign capital in Singapore manufacturing, the government's lowage policy combined with the influx of low-skilled foreign labour and the relatively low level of industrial competence in Singapore.