中国的劳动生产率：是高还是低?——兼论劳动生产率的计算方法

本文用不同的计算方法 ,从企业、制造业和国家三个角度进行了劳动生产率的国际比较 ,计算结果表明 :和大家普遍接受的观点相反 ,中国的劳动生产率并非低于发达国家 ,而是高于发达国家。这种结论上的差异并非来源于所采用的数据和计算公式 ,而是来源于计算劳动生产率时投入和产出的计量单位。在比较研究中 ,我们习惯于投入产出均用价值量指标即“元 /元”来计算资本的生产率 ,用“元 /人·年”指标来计算劳动的生产率。由于不同国家同样数量的“人·年”劳动投入折算为价值量投入会存在很大的差异 ,致使使用不同计量单位计算和比较劳动生产率会得出完全相反的结论。本文认为 ,进行国家之间劳动生产率的比较 ,正确的计算方法应当是和计算资本生产率的公式一样 ,投入产出均使用价值量指标。

China's Labor Productivity: High or Low?

This thesis makes an international comparison of labor productivity from the perspectives of enterprise , manufacturing industry and country using different methods of calculation. The results show that, contrary to the generally accepted points of view, China's labor productivity is higher rather than lower than that of developed countries. Such a different conclusion does not come from the data and formulae adopted but from the measure units for input and output in calculating labor productivity. In comparative studies, we tend to adopt value indexes or dollar/dollar for input and output when calculating capital productivity while the output value per capita per year is used for the calculation of labor productivity. In view of the considerable difference between different countries when the same amount of labor input represented by the number of employees used per year is converted to value input, completely contrary conclusions will be reached when labor productivity is calculated and compared with different measure units. This thesis points out that the correct method of calculation for comparing the labor productivity of different countries should be to adopt value indexes for input and output like the formula of calculating capital productivity.