Foreword

The OECD Compendium of Productivity Indicators presents a broad overview of recent and longer term trends in productivity levels and growth across OECD countries and key partner economies. It highlights the key measurement issues faced when compiling cross-country comparable productivity indicators and describes the caveats needed in analyses.

It examines the role of productivity as the main driver of economic growth and convergence, and the contributions of labour, capital and multifactor productivity to economic growth. It looks at the contribution of individual industries or sectors as well as the role of firm size in productivity performance. It explores the link between productivity, trade and international competitiveness, and analyses trends as compared with cyclical patterns in labour and multifactor productivity growth.

The 2018 OECD Compendium of Productivity Indicators was prepared in the OECD Statistics and Data Directorate by Frédéric Parrot and María Belén Zinni, and edited by Nadim Ahmad and Mariarosa Lunati. The contributions of Liliana Suchodolska and Gueram Sargsyan are gratefully acknowledged. The publication has benefited from comments from the OECD Economics Department and the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation.