Gains de productivité globale, prix relatifs et rémunération des facteurs dans les industries manufacturières au Québec Total Factor Productivity Growth, Relative Prices and Earnings in Quebec ManufacturingIndustries

Résumé

L’objectif de cette contribution est double. Il s’agit, d’une part, de présenter une estimation de l’évolution de la productivité globale des facteurs sur la base de la production brute dans l’industrie manufacturière au Québec; d’autre part, d’analyser la répartition des gains de productivité entre diverses parties prenantes (employés et salariés, détenteurs de capital, État et consommateurs), de façon à mettre en évidence les interrelations entre l’évolution de la productivité, les modifications intersectorielles de prix relatifs et l’évolution du taux de rémunération des facteurs.

Abstract

This paper presents an estimate of the growth in total factor productivity, on the basis of gross production, in Quebec manufacturing industries from 1967 to 1978. The purpose of the paper is to characterize the distribution of the productivity gains between the various economic parties involved so as to emphasize the relationship between productivity growth, intersectoral changes in relative prices and the formation of primary income at the production level. By definition, total factor productivity growth is the increase in gross production which cannot be "explained" by an increase in the total volume of factors (labour, capital, industrial materials). On a purely accounting basis, an increase in total factor productivity at the sectoral level consequently generates a wealth surplus which must be distributed either to factors of production in the form of a rise in their relative prices (i.e. as an increase in the relative prices of industrial materials or in the real earnings of capital and labour), or to "consumers" of the final products in the form of a fall in relative selling prices. It is also necessary to consider government's share because a productivity gain can be absorbed by a rise in tax rates without any price effects on the other parties.