Productivity in Australian Enterprises: Evidence from the ABS Growth and Performance Survey
Melbourne Institute Working Paper No. 20/98
Date: August 1998
Author(s):
Abstract
This paper constructs a measure of labour productivity from the ABS Growth and Performance Survey. An overview of labour productivity is provided by considering differences between industry, firm size and firm age categorisations. In addition, the distribution within these categories are analysed. Labour productivity is found to vary substantially across industries and firm size. Since labour productivity does not control for the level of capital used in production, this is to be expected. Less expected is the fact that levels of firm productivity within industries (and firm size categories) also vary substantially. This suggests that the factors determining firm productivity must be investigated at the firm level and cannot be assumed to be similar within an industry.