Labor Productivity in Food Wholesaling and Retailing, 1929-1958

Abstract

T HIS paper represents recent estimates of the rate of growth of output and labor productivity in wholesaling and retailing foods of farm origin destined for United States civilian consumption.' Technically, primary interest in the paper is in the results of using different measures of output for a trade group. These measures include an index of gross output and two indexes of net output, a double-deflated value added series and a margin-weighted series. The double-deflated value added series is nearest to an ideal measure of unduplicated output, whereas the margin-weighted index is a compromise usually dictated by available data.2 Margin-weighted net output indexes were used by Barger [2], Kendrick [5], and Alterman and Jacobs [1] in order to measure net output in total trade. As far as I know, there have been no previous attempts to estimate double-deflated value added net output for trade. I know of no previous studies of labor productivity in food trade. The major findings presented in this paper are: (a) net output per man-hour in wholesaling and retailing farm-originated foods grew at an average yearly rate of 2.8 per cent from 1929 to 1958, substantially faster than in the private nonfarm sector but less than in agriculture; (b) the double-deflated value added measure of net output rose significantly more than the margin-weighted measure during the period; and (c) gross output grew at about the same average yearly rate for the three decades as a whole as net output measured by doubledeflated value added.