Canadian Manufacturing Volume I

From the back cover: VOLUME 1 outlines the study's methodology and considers the explanations that have been proposed for Canada's productivity showdown. The study's data suggest that the decline is attributable more to outdated caiptal equipment than to the commonly cited "slump" in labour productivity. Author Uri Zohar applies the study's findings to the problem of industrial strategy: since the performance of different industries is highly disparate and subject to rapid change, macroeconomic policy is unlikely to be beneficial to all of them at once. A more specialized policy is needed one that backs "winner" industries identified on the basis of productivity measurements and national choices about social and economic development. VOLUME 2 provides the most extensive time-series studies done to date on manufacturing industries. Performance in each of the nineteen industry groups is studied using four production functions that quantify various factors contributing to productivity, and each industry group is compared against a benchmark average for the entire sector.