International Productivity Comparisons: An Examination of Data Sources

In recent years, a number of international data bases on productivity trends and levels have become publicly available. In this article, Jeremy Smith from Queen's University provides an overview of these sources of information on international productivity comparisons for developed countries. Smith first reviews a number of methodological issues associated with international productivity comparisons and then discusses what is available from the OECD, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Groningen Growth and Development Centre in the Netherlands, and other sources. He concludes by noting that the data provide no one single truth on international productivity relatives, but rather a range of estimates because of data comparability issues.