House of Representatives Committees

| House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics

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Inquiry into raising the productivity growth rate in the Australian economy

28 April 2010

View the report as a single document - (PDF 924KB)

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Preliminary Pages	(PDF 115KB)
Foreword Membership of the committee Committee secretariat Terms of Reference List of abbreviations List of recommendations

Chapter 1 Introduction	(PDF 65KB)
Background Objectives and scope Key factors influencing Australia’s productivity growth rate Declining growth since the 2003-04 productivity cycle Public policy backdrop Key growth rates and reform timeline since the 1980s Conduct of the inquiry Reader guide and structure of the report

Chapter 2 Productivity growth and its importance	(PDF 115KB)
The economic concept of productivity The components of productivity Productivity growth is not production growth Productivity levels versus productivity growth rates Productivity cycles The importance of productivity growth Economic growth Living standards Committee conclusion The official productivity measures The ABS methodology Productivity growth measurement—statistical limitations International comparability of Australian productivity measures Committee conclusion

Chapter 3 Productivity growth trends	(PDF 179KB)
Long term productivity growth Performance in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s Government response to lagging productivity growth The productivity growth surge What caused the high productivity growth of the 1990s? Declining productivity growth since 2003-04 Key reasons for the productivity growth decline Committee conclusions

Chapter 4 Productivity in other nations	(PDF 91KB)
International trends in developed countries International productivity leaders this century The United States of America Norway Finland Singapore France Productivity in developing economies China and India Problems with international comparisons Differences in measurement Economic differences What can we learn from other nations? Committee conclusions

Chapter 5 Australia’s future productivity growth rate—the challenge	(PDF 287KB)
The Australian economy in the 21st century The challenge presented by structural change The rise of the services sector The dominance of the mining sector Other major challenges for future productivity growth The ageing population Workforce participation Impacts of climate change and the mitigation of climate change Macroeconomic policy constraints Setting a productivity growth target Committee conclusions

Chapter 6 The economics of productivity growth	(PDF 95KB)
The production possibility frontier How productivity growth can be boosted Immediate causes Productivity growth in the economy Government policies to influence productivity growth Committee conclusion

Chapter 7 Promoting future productivity growth	(PDF 154KB)
The national policy approach to facilitating productivity growth Key productivity drivers and current policy frameworks Human capital investment Physical and spatial infrastructure investment Innovation and R&D Regulatory reform, harmonisation and reducing red-tape Continuing competition frameworks Maintaining flexibility in workplaces The importance of careful policy selection Committee conclusions

Chapter 8 Beyond official productivity statistics	(PDF 101KB)
Productivity is not a perfect measure for evaluating policy The non-productivity determinants of wellbeing Committee conclusion The need for a policy evaluation framework Committee conclusion Government service provision The exclusion of the voluntary sector

Appendix A – Submissions	(PDF 30KB)

Appendix B – Public hearings	(PDF 52KB)

Appendix C – Exhibits	(PDF 49KB)

Appendix D — Glossary of terms	(PDF 29KB)