Productivity in the Mauritian textile and apparel sector: the case of Mauritian and Chinese workers

Abstract

As more and more industries experience the globalisation of business activities, measuring productivity performance has become an area of concern for policy makers all around the world. This paper provides a cross-sectional analysis of the firms operating in the Mauritian Textile and Apparel sector in the period 2004. Itsmain interest lies in the productivity comparison of Chinese and Mauritian workers in this particular sector. An extension of the Cobb-Douglas model with heterogeneous labour has been used to capture any productivity differences, and a survey has been carried out of some of the possible factors that explain the productivity differences for both sets of workers. On the basis of a sample of 25 firms from theMauritian Textile and Apparel sector and a sample of 120 machine workers, the results suggest that Chinese workers are in general more productive than Mauritian ones.