scholarly journals Acceleration of Labour Cost Along with Deceleration of Productivity: How the Slovak Manufacturing Lost the Advantage of Low Unit Labour Cost

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-196
Author(s):  
Karol Morvay ◽  
Martin Hudcovský

Abstract The recent development in the Slovak economy erased a significant competitive advantage of manufacturing – low labour cost. The paper analyses the driving factors of rising unit labour costs in the manufacturing sector. The paper aims to explain why the unexpectedly rapid loss of traditional competitive advantage took place in the group of V4 countries and why this phenomenon was particularly pronounced in Slovakia. The paper identifies the driving factors that caused a strong increase in labour costs in addition to factors that also caused a slowdown in productivity growth. The decomposition of ULC dynamics has shown that the primary problem in the case of Slovakia is a very significant slowdown in labour productivity growth. Especially, from a marginal perspective, the components of gross value added developed strongly in favour of increasing compensations of employees. The decrease in the working-age population represented a significant driving force of increasing labour cost (wages) along with a halt in productivity growth caused by relatively low investment rate and absence of convergence in capital-to-labour ratio. Such development was identified in all V4 countries; however, the least favourable trend took place in Slovakia.

Ekonomika ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jolanta Žemgulienė

This paper examines the tendencies of Lithuanian services sector’s value added and labour productivity during 1995-2006. Comparative analysis of the average annual labour productivity growth in manufacturing and service industries reveals arguments supporting the W. Baumol’s consideration that there can be sporadic productivity increases in nonprogressive sectors. During 1995-2000, labour productivity growth in services exceeded productivity growth in manufacturing. The paper offers an interpretation of the Verdoom law for empirical regularities of the relationship between the cross-sectorial labour productivity growth rate and the value added growth rate.


Author(s):  
Jochen Hartwig

SummaryThe paper shows that the assessment of the speed of productivity growth crucially depends on how one chooses to measure value added. According to a widely held view, the growth rate of labour productivity has increased significantly in the U.S. since the mid-90s. The U.S. is perceived to outperform most European countries in this respect by a wide margin. Comparing the U.S. with Switzerland, we show this view to rely - at least in part - on statistical artefacts.


2015 ◽  
pp. 30-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Voskoboynikov ◽  
V. Gimpelson

This study considers the influence of structural change on aggregate labour productivity growth of the Russian economy. The term "structural change" refers to labour reallocation both between industries and between formal and informal segments within an industry. Using Russia KLEMS and official Rosstat data we decompose aggregate labour productivity growth into intra-industry (within) and between industry effects with four alternative methods of the shift-share analysis. All methods provide consistent results and demonstrate that total labour reallocation has been growth enhancing though the informality expansion has had a negative effect. As our study suggests, it is caused by growing variation in productivity levels across industries.


Upravlenie ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 24-30
Author(s):  
A. O. Ivanov

The article gives an overview, performs analysis and classification of successful managerial practices applied at Russian industrial enterprises in the framework of the national project “Labour productivity and employment support”. The paper emphasizes the main factors of labour productivity growth as follows: investment policy, growth of human capital, and efficient use of managerial capital of enterprise. In order to determine the need of enterprises to increase labour productivity, the author proposes four universal criteria that signal the existing inefficiency even before the loss of competitiveness: 1) the dynamics of labour productivity in the company is not positive during a given period; 2) the company is behind competitors by labour productivity indicator; 3) the company is behind competitors by labour productivity growth rates indicator for a certain period; 4) unit production costs rise. These criteria allow you to take into account the situation both within the enterprise and in comparison with other enterprises. Each criteria can be considered separately or in combination with the others, applied to enterprises of different industries, specialization, and scale. Criteria indicate the direction of development in which the company is experiencing difficulties at the moment, or may experience them in the future.


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