We consider the response to incentives as an explanation for productivity differences within a firm that paid its workers piece rates. We provide a framework within which observed productivity differences can be decomposed into two parts: one due to differences in ability and the other due to...

In this report, we estimate returns to training (in terms of wages and productivity) using data from the Workplace and Employee survey from 199-2004 and investigate whether these returns vary with age. Although we find that the returns to training on wages is fairly constant across all age...

This paper addresses the paradox between an increasing share of employment and a lower productivity growth of Canadian services vis-à-vis the rest of the economy in the period spanning the three decades from 1961 to 1992. It attempts to reconcile this apparent contradiction with the so-called...

We propose a new measure of total factor productivity (TFP) growth in a general equilibrium setting.It measures by how much the efficiency frontier moves outwards given the availability of primary ressources, the technology and the structure of domestic final demand. Prices are endogenous. We...

We investigate the impact of occupational safety and health (OSH) and environmental regulation on the rate of growth of total factor productivity (TFP) in the Quebec manufacturing sector during the 1985-88 period. Our results show that environmental regulation and OSH protective reassignments (a...

We examine the effects of different sequences of work and rest on the daily productivity of workers who planted trees in the province of British Columbia, Canada, comparing the intertemporal productivity profiles of planters who were paid either fixed wages or piece rates. We find that planters...

This paper measures factor productivities (and hence total factor productivity growth) directly on the basis of the fundamentals of the economy (endowments, preferences and technology), without recourse to market prices. The factor productivities are the Lagrange multipliers of a linear program...

The standard measure of productivity growth is the Solow residual. Its evaluation requires data on factor input shares or prices. Since these prices are presumed to match factor productivities, the standard procedure amounts to accepting at face value what is supposed to be measured. In this...

This paper is the first to examine empirically how work sharing influences workers' productivity, using a unique data set from a large Canadian firm. This firm has adopted a work sharing scheme for one year, which allows us to introduce a natural experiment approach of comparing workers'...

In this paper, we estimate returns to classroom and on-the-job firm sponsored training in terms of value-added per worker using longitudinal linked employee-employer Canadian data from 1999 to 2006. We estimate a standard production function controlling for endogenous training decisions because...