Discussion Papers no. 818
The importance of entry and exit of workers
Understanding the productivity slowdown
Many OECD countries have experienced a slowdown in measured labour productivity from 2005 and onwards. Norway is no exception in this respect.
Many OECD countries have experienced a slowdown in measured labour productivity from 2005 and onwards. Norway is no exception in this respect. Most countries use a simple aggregate of hours worked when measuring labour productivity. One way to improve measurement of labour services is to control for worker characteristics. A theoretical rationale for doing so is given by Diewert and Lippe (2010). We generalise previous analyses by allowing for exit and entry of workers when measuring labour services using Norwegian microdata. We find that the bias from using hours worked compared to a labour index capturing various compositional effects can be substantial and systematic over time. In the case of Norway the bias explains about a quarter of the productivity slowdown after 2005.
About the publication
- Title
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Understanding the productivity slowdown. The importance of entry and exit of workers
- Authors
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Thomas von Brasch, Ådne Cappelen, Diana Iancu
- Series and number
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Discussion Papers no. 818
- Publisher
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Statistics Norway
- Topic
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Discussion Papers
- ISSN
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1892-753X
- Language
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English
- About Discussion Papers
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Discussion papers comprise research papers intended for international journals and books. A preprint of a Discussion Paper may be longer and more elaborate than a standard journal article as it may include intermediate calculations, background material etc.
Contact
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Statistics Norway's Information Centre