This paper describes a weekly economic index (WEI) developed to track the rapid economic developments associated with the onset of and policy response to the novel coronavirus in the United States. The WEI is a weekly composite index of real economic activity, with eight of ten series available...

This article presents the IAB working time measurement concept, which determines the hours worked in Germany and their individual components. These statistics are essential for a proper analysis of aggregate labour market trends and cyclical fluctuations. We outline the conceptual and...

This paper has two objectives. (i) Assess the availability and the quality of the data series necessary to construct productivity measures for the Chinese economy. (ii) Produce a set of productivity statistics that can be integrated into the existing set of OECD productivity indicators and that...

A number of studies, mostly on the US economy, have shown that real GDP growth could be underestimated due to the imperfect accounting of quality changes of goods and services. Moreover, GDP growth as the indicator reflecting the aggregate growth of the output of the economy does not enable one...

This article presents the Working Time Measurement Concept of the Institute for Employment Research, which determines the hours worked in Germany and their individual components. The Working Time Measurement Concept is the key data product on working time in Germany and underlies the German...

Dirk Pilat and Paul Schreyer of the OECD discuss the new OECD Productivity Database. The database covers 26 OECD countries for labour productivity estimates, as well as 14 countries for multifactor productivity estimates. While the database represents the most comparable productivity estimates...

The purpose of this paper is to provide a thorough discussion of the definitional and data issues associated with the measurement of aggregate labour productivity growth in Canada and the United States. The paper examines all data sources for output, employment and hours estimates in the two...

Jeremy Smith of the Centre for the Study of Living Standards looks at the comparability of productivity growth measures in Canada and the United States, and finds that comparisons of aggregate productivity performance are sensitive to whether trends are assessed at the business sector or total...