COMPARISONS OF PURCHASING POWER, REAL OUTPUT AND LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY IN MANUFACTURING IN JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND THE U.S.A., 1975–85

This study presents binary comparisons of real output and labour productivity in manufacturing in Japan, South Korea and the U.S.A. in 1975, made according to an "industry of origin approach." The 1975 benchmark comparisons have been updated to 1985. Value added per hour worked in Japanese manufacturing increased from 54 percent of the U.S. level in 1975 to 76 percent in 1985. In certain important branches such as electrical machinery, metal products and machinery and transport equipment, productivity leadership shifted to Japan. In South Korea, labour productivity in manufacturing increased rapidly from 1975 to 1985, both in absolute terms and relative to the U.S.A. Nevertheless, in 1985 value added per hour worked was only 14 percent of the U.S. level.     

Growth differentials in OECD countries: some reflections

This note briefly addresses two questions related to growth performance in the OECD area, namely: 1) why have so few OECD countries seen an increase in productivity related to investment in Information and Communications Technology (ICT); 2) how does the environment for firm creation affect growth in OECD countries? The note points to some recent empirical work with firm-level data on these issues and suggests that further cross-country research with such data could be very helpful.     

MULTILATERAL COMPARISONS OF OUTPUT, PRODUCTIVITY, AND PURCHASING POWER PARITIES IN MANUFACTURING

This paper presents multilateral comparisons of output, productivity and purchasing power parities in manufacturing, for 1975 and 1987. Two multilateral approaches are considered, namely the Geary–Khamis method and the generalized Theil–Törnqvist method based on the EKS procedure. The paper discusses the problem of lack of additive consistency of the generalized Theil–Törnqvist index and the absence of constant price comparisons within this framework. Some procedures that lead to near additive consistency are proposed. The empirical results show that multilateralization does not substantially affect the results and that both the Geary–Khamis and the generalized Theil–Törnqvist index give results comparable to the binary comparisons.     

THE SECTORAL PRODUCTIVITY PERFORMANCE O F JAPAN AND THE U.S., 1885–1990

This paper provides a disaggregated productivity comparison between Japan and the U.S. for the period 1885–1990. It combines two detailed productivity comparisons for 1939 and 1975 with time series to provide a long-term sectoral perspective. There is much diversity in the Japanese experience. The agricultural sector has shown relative stagnation since 1885. The service sector showed considerable growth before the Second World War and reached high productivity levels in the post-war period. Within services there is great diversity in productivity levels. Japan's manufacturing sector has shown the fastest catch-up and its productivity level is currently close to that of the U.S.     

On the relationship between Dutch and German interest rates

Summary In this paper the relationship between Dutch and German short-term and long-term interest rates is examined. Using cointegration techniques, it is found that the covered interest parity hypothesis holds for short-term interest rates. This evidence supports the recent shift of emphasis of Dutch monetary policy. It appears that the uncovered short-term interest differential is stationary. The long-term interest differential is stationary with a shift in mean. This does not imply that the uncovered interest parity (UIP) holds. Using the indirect approach suggested by Fama (1984), we show that a risk premium exists and that, therefore, UIP does not hold.The authors would like to thank H. Garretsen, L.H. Hoogduin, J. Jacobs, C.A. de Kam and two anonymous referees for their helpful comments on a previous version of this paper.Economic Bureau NMB-Postbank.