The Long View: Labour Productivity, Labour Income and Living Standards in Canada

In this chapter, Tony Fisher and Doug Hostland provide an historical perspective on trends in labour productivity, labour income and living standards in Canada. They find that, once the appropriate adjustments are made, the labour share and the non-labour share (composed of profits, interest and investment income, and incorporated business income) in national income tend to revert to their historical means over the 1926-2001 historical period, although divergences may last for several years. They note, for example, that the decline in the labour share in Canada since 1994 has not been due to any increase in profit share, but to an increase in the share of depreciation or capital consumption allowances associated with the short services lives of high-tech investment goods.