CONVERGENCE, SCALE AND THE RELATIVE PRODUCTIVITY PERFORMANCE OF CANADIAN-UNITED-STATES MANUFACTURING-INDUSTRIES

This research is a comparative investigation of productivity performance within the manufacturing sectors of Canada and the United States. Labour and multifactor productivity levels and growth rates are measured and analysed for an exhaustive sample of two-digit level manufacturing industries. An aggregate analysis is conducted by grouping industries in accordance with their degree of capital intensity. The findings generally suggest that productivity in Canadian manufacturing industries initially converged upon, but has more recently diverged from, those levels displayed by their US counterparts. An empirical analysis focuses on the convergence hypothesis and scale effects in explaining differences in measured productivity growth rates.