Estimating Capital Input for Measuring Business Sector Multifactor Productivity Growth in Canada: Response to Diewert and Yu

Abstract

Diewert and Yu estimate that multifactor productivity grew at a 1.0 per cent average annual rate in the Canadian business sector from 1961 to 2011, compared to Statistics Canada’s Canadian Productivity Program estimate of 0.3 per cent. The major reason for this difference is that Diewert and Yu find capital services grew at 3.0 per cent per year, compared to Statistics Canada’s estimate of 4.8 per cent. This article identifies and discusses the three reasons for this discrepancy. First, while the Canadian Productivity Program aggregates capital services across industries to derive the capital input measure at the level of the business sector, Diewert and Yu use a top-down approach and directly compute capital and labour input series at the business sector level. Second, there are differences in the way the price of capital services is computed. Third, the Canadian Productivity Program bases its capital measures on a more detailed list of assets than Diewert and Yu. Statistics Canada estimates follow international guidelines and practices adopted by other statistical agencies in order to make estimates internationally comparable.

Keywords

• capital input
• multifactor productivity
• productivity
• capital services