Changes In Labour Productivity Research Articles

Components of Labor Productivity Growth in the Food System, 1958-67

T WO economic problems which would be on many people's list of crucial and interesting contemporary economic issues would be food costs and a recent slowing in the growth of labor productivity. These issues are interrelated. For years we had the phenomenon of a growing demand for food exceeded by an even faster growing supply of food. In recent years, there have been some changes. Labor productivity is still growing faster in the farm sector than in the nonfarm sector but the share of personal income spent for food has stabilized in the 16%-17% range. Food prices have risen and have been an important contributor to inflation. At the same time the farmers' share of the food dollar has dropped and the amount of embodied services in food purchased by consumers has risen. The well-being of an economy can be enhanced by the growth in available resources, or a more effective use of these resources. Thus, one way of lowering consumer food cost is increasing labor productivity. Obviously there are a variety of forces in operation in this situation and any attempt at partial analysis may be found wanting. Confronted with this problem, Howe, Schluter and Handy (1976) chose to use an input/output model to study changes in labor productivity in the food system. In this paper we will review the Howe, Schluter and Handy (HSH) technique and results. We will then introduce a factoring technique that allows us to solve for the contribution to total productivity of each variable in the HSH technique. Finally, we will present and discuss our results.

Basic needs fulfillment and economic growth: A simultaneous model

The relationship between basic needs fulfillment and productivity change is examined using a growth model which is explicitly simultaneous in national output and generalized measures of health, nutrition, and education. Consistent and relatively efficient parameter estimates are obtained through the application of three-stage least squares, using data from a large sample of poor countries in Africa, Asia, and Southern America. The results give support to the hypothesis that changes in basic welfare are strong contributors to labor productivity change, and conversely. In addition, they suggest substantial differences in the pattern of simultaneous interaction at different income and welfare levels.

Changes in Labour Productivity in the British Economy:

Introduction This paper describes an analysis which had two principal aims. The first purpose was to attempt to identify separate components of the change in labour productivity in various sectors of the British economy in the long run. By labour productivity is meant output per head, the ratio between the Gross Domestic Product originating in an industry and its employed labour force. The time series analysed covered the period from 1951 to 1976.

Concentration and Productivity Changes in the Long and Short Run

Changes in labor productivity are of interest to students of industrial organization because they may be partially determined by market structure and, directly or indirectly, they may be indicative of industrial performance. In particular, long-run productivity advance may have implications for cost-push inflation. For example, in defense of oligopolistic structures, Weston and Lustgarten concede that wages may rise faster in concentrated industries than unconcentrated

Contribution efficiency

A contribution efficiency for a business or process is defined as ɳ= R( cS− SVE)− AFE R( cS− cVE with a maximum possible value of unity and a value of zero at the breakeven volume of sales or output. The effect of η on the potential for increasing the profitability of a business or process is discussed in the light of the equation ΔA p/A p=φ/ɳ where φ is the percentage change in labour productivity. It is shown that breakeven charts can readily be plotted if the following three quantities only are known; the contribution to sales ratio (CSR)= cS− cVE cS the annual fixed expense A FE and the contribution efficiency ɳ o at the scheduled output. Breakeven charts are plotted for both a relatively profitable process and a relatively unprofitable process.

Labour Productivity in the South Wales Steam‐Coal Industry, 1870–1914

HE purpose of this article is to examine and account for the fluctuations in the labour productivity of coalmining in South Wales between i870 and the outbreak of the First World War in I9I4. The portion of the South Wales coalfield with which it is primarily concerned extends from Pontypool on the eastern extremity of the coalfield to the Rhondda Fawr in the West, embracing that area famed for its bituminous house and semi-bituminous steam coals.' In general, historians have tended to treat labour productivity in the national context. But by concentrating on a single coalfield, it is possible to make a closer examination of the potential sources of changes in labour productivity.2 The variable conditions of working and mining practice, which differed from region to region, are minimized and data from additional sources of material, unique to the area, may be drawn upon. Although the concept of productiveness of labour received increasing attention from contemporary commentators in the coalfield, the only data that can be derived from official statistics relate to output per man year of those employed above or above and below ground at South Wales collieries. In consequence, any discussion of labour productivity is seriously handicapped by use of such crude global measurement of output and unit labour input, although the occasional survival of colliery paybooks enables us to make some observation of output over a shorter unit labour input, and in some cases of output per hewer's shift. It is the relative poverty of statistical data that poses the chief methodological difficulty in this article. Since the Annual Mines Inspectors' Reports and the subsequent Annual Statistical Tables do not distinguish between the various sections of the labour force, we must first establish the particular groups of workers to whom movements in productivity can be attributed. It will then be possible to discuss the factors which governed the overall labour productivity of coalmining in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This will be done in terms of the effects which these factors had on the respective groups of workers. As is to be expected,

KONJAC GROWING FROM THE STANDPOINT OF ITS TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION AND GROWING AREAS

In the mountain valley drained by Kabura River the farmers have made great efforts to expand the acreage of growing konjac tuber since the middle of Meiji era, making this crop the predominant situation as an agricultural commodity in their farming. Accordingly, at present the valley region is one of highly specialized regions in the agriculture of Japan. Around 1955 the farmers of Nanmoku-mura, one of the village municipalities in the valley region, had adopted an advanced cultivation method of “transplanting cultivation” in order to increase the amount of the product through putting in a great amount of labour for growing konjac per unit of area. Recently it is noticeable that the highly labour intensive cultivation, once established as transplanting cultivation, is moving towards a newer method, saving labour by using various kinds of machinery and material goods abundantly since they appreciate this as “technological innovation in konjac growing”. Though konjac growing has long been recognized as an exclusive crop on steep slope arable land found in this valley, the technological innovation permits cultivation of this crop on gentler slope land, flat land or even on rice field in the adjacent lowland regions. The farmers in the lowland regions have begun to introduce this crop to some extent so that they are now competitive to those in the mountain valley regions. In the lowland regions konjac growing has been studied in the following two points: what kind of technological innovation in konjac growing are adopted in order to stabilize the yield? Are they expecting a further expansion of its growing in the region where they can choose various crops or enterprises? These problems are to be explained by analyzing the relationship between price change of konjac product and labour productivity. The writer studied on what kinds of technological innovation in cultivating practices are adopted and also on how much degree they have attained to a higher level of labour productivity through introduction of new techniques. The results obtained are as follows: In the valley region the use of land resources has been reached to a highly intensive level in farming, emphasizing konjac growing from the early times. Since konjac growing was obtainable of high profitability for the farmers, they put a great deal of labour in raising the yield. For instance, they developed “transplanting method” from the older method depending on natural growth of konjac tubers. Moreover, those factors such as steepness of cultivating fields, unfavourable accessibility to the fields, and dispersion of parcels of holding due mainly to the physical conditions of the mountain region are enforcing them to demand large amount of heavy labour input for its cultivation. The adoption of technological innovation has brought labour productivity to a higher level. To explain this, the improvement of mulching practice, construction of benyl pipes for spraying and irrigation, introduction of weed control medicines in case of fertilization and spraying, and application of small size tractors on steep fields, construction of tuber collectors and cables in case of ploughing and transportation are main items in technological innovation. Because of its higher profitability konjac growing has gradually expanding to the lowland regions as mentioned above. Technically it depends mainly on the advancement of spraying practices which are to stabilize the yield, land improvement and adoption of Chinese variety of konjac plant. This variety is easier to cultivate in the lowland than the native one. Thus technological innovation in konjac growing in the valley region has pushed forwards along the lines of cultivating practices-namely from labour intensive cultivation, caused by topographical limitations, to labour saving method.

LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY AND CONCENTRATION IN THE FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES

The most obvious reason for studying labour productivity is that it can reasonably be regarded as one of the dimensions of market performance: firms which exhibit a high rate of increase of labour productivity are, other things being equal, “better” than firms with a low rate of increase. Similarly, concentration, a dimension of market structure, can be regarded as having normative implications. Although the selection of these variables as being worthwhile ones for study clearly rests on their value as normative indicators, the scope of this paper is essentially positive in content. Its purposes are: first, to provide estimates of changes in labour productivity and of changes in concentration in the food processing industries in the decade 1954‐63; second, to attempt to test various hypotheses concerning the causes of different rates of change of productivity (including the hypothesis that increasing concentration has helped to raise productivity); and in conclusion to consider some of the possible effects of productivity changes.

Labor Inputs and Productivity in American Dairy Agriculture, 1850–1910

Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century and into the early part of the twentieth, American agriculture was expanding and improving under the influence of growing demand, the westward movement, mechanization of farm operations, and scientific farming developments. Under these influences, yields and labor productivity in field crops generally increased. Until recently, however, little has been known about the course of productivity change in specific agricultural activities during the nineteenth century. Dairy production was an important component of the American farm economy, accounting for about 16 percent of U.S. farm output at the beginning of the twentieth century and approximately 14 percent of gross income from farm production in 1910. Changes in dairy yields during the period 1850–1910 have been analyzed previously. The purpose of this article is to estimate labor input time, to measure the change in average labor productivity in U.S. dairy farming, and to examine the economic implications of this change, thus extending the analysis to another component of the dairy production function. The necessary data were estimated with techniques that utilized available fragmentary data in conjunction with information in literary material.

Note on Wages and Labor Costs

On the basis of data for the period from 1919 through 1941, certain tentative conclusions can be drawn regarding relationships between average hourly earnings, output per man hour, and unit labor costs in manufacturing. The results of this limited study are of significance for wage theory and for the formulation of public policy regarding increases in wage rates or in average hourly earnings both during and after the war. The distinctions between wage rates, average hourly earnings, and labor costs must be borne in mind.' Such factors as changes in labor productivity, in the hours of work, in the distribution of jobs, etc., cause these three items to diverge. It has been estimated, for example, that average hourly earnings rose twice as fast as wage rates in durable-goods manufacturing between August, 1939, and January, 1943.2 Between 1919 and 1941, labor costs per unit of output in manufacturing apparently declined 39 per cent despite an increase of perhaps 60 per cent in average hourly earnings.3 Changes in output per man hour make unit labor costs flexible despite rigidities in wage rates or average hourly earnings.4 The best available data on productivity and unit labor cost in manufacturing are the indexes for some 50-odd industries published by the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. They are based largely upon the Biennial Census of Manufactures and B.L.S. data, and represent extensions and revisions of the data originally developed by the National Research Project on Re-employment Opportunities and Recent Changes in Industrial Techniques.5 Table I presents a