OECD Compendium of Productivity Indicators

Abstract

Pursuant to Article 1 of the Convention signed in Paris on 14 th December 1960, and which came into force on 30 th September 1961, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shall promote policies designed: • To achieve the highest sustainable economic growth and employment and a rising standard of living in member countries, while maintaining financial stability, and thus to contribute to the development of the world economy. • To contribute to sound economic expansion in member as well as non-member countries in the process of economic development; and • To contribute to the expansion of world trade on a multilateral, non-discriminatory basis in accordance with international obligations. FOREWORD Over the past few years, productivity and economic growth have been an important focus of OECD work. This work has included both efforts to improve the measurement of productivity growth, as shown in the development of the OECD Productivity Manual, published in 2001, as well as work to enhance the understanding of the drivers of productivity performance. In the course of this work, questions about data choices and the measurement of productivity were examined at several occasions. At the same time, OECD was confronted with a growing interest in internationally comparable data on productivity growth. The continued interest of many OECD member countries in productivity led to a decision to develop an OECD Productivity Database, based on data that were considered to be as comparable and consistent across countries as possible. This database and related information on methods and sources is available through the OECD Internet site and free of charge at: www.oecd.org/statistics/productivity In 2005, a large number of indicators on productivity were being combined in one document for the first time to coincide with an OECD workshop on productivity measurement, held in Madrid. The present document constitutes the 2006 update of the productivity compendium. Its primary source is the OECD Productivity Database, although indicators are drawn from other sources, such as the OECD STAN database, which enables productivity calculations for individual industries. The compendium includes indicators as well as methodological notes and describes the measurement challenges and data choices that were made as well as the remaining measurement problems. Further detail is available in a number of specific annexes.