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Groningen Growth and Development Centre
Faculty of Economics and Business
Groningen Growth and Development Centre Productivity Productivity Level Database

ICOP 1987 Benchmark

ICOP Industrial Database

International Comparisons of Output and Productivity by Industry

All series derived from this database need to be referred to as: "Groningen Growth and Development Centre, ICOP Database 1987 Benchmark, http://www.ggdc.net"

Summary Tables for Comparisons of Manufacturing Productivity

The tables summarise the main results of the currency conversion factors (unit value ratios) and manufacturing labour productivity levels for 1960, 1973, 1987, 1998 and 2000. These results are largely based on benchmark comparisons for the late 1980s (mostly 1987) which were extrapolated over time using time series on output and labour input. Meanwhile more recent benchmark comparisons are undertaken, some of which can be downloaded below.

  • Summary Table 1 presents the currency conversions ratios (unit value ratios) for total manufacturing with the exchange rate and total GDP purchasing power parity for the benchmark year.
  • Summary Table 2 presents levels of value added per person employed and value added per hour worked in manufacturing relative to the United States for 1960, 1973, 1987, 1998 and 2000.
  • The source note provides the references to the individual benchmark studies. Some of these studies can be downloaded below.

Full Database for Manufacturing Productivity Comparisons

The following tables provide time series on output, persons employed and working hours from 1950 to 2000. These time series are linked to the benchmark estimates for the late 1980s and extrapolated over time to obtained comparative levels of value added per person employed and value added per hour worked in manufacturing relative to the United States from 1950-2000.

Description Output Table Source Table Period
Real Value Added in manufacturing Table 1 Source Table 1 1950-2000
Persons employed in manufacturing Table 2 Source Table 2 1950-2000
Average hours worked per person employed in manufacturing Table 3 Source Table 3 1950-2000
Value Added per person employed in manufacturing, relative to the US level Table 4 1950-2000
Valude Added per hour worked in manufacturing relative to the US level Table 5 1950-2000
List of publications and downloadable papers

A large number of papers is underlying the ICOP 1987 Benchmark Database. A complete list of ICOP papers, notes, publications up to 2000 is available. Our latest comprehensive write-up of the ICOP project is Bart van Ark and Marcel Timmer, PPPs and International Productivity Comparisons: Bottlenecks and New Directions, paper for Joint World Bank-OECD seminar on Purchasing Power Parities, 30 January . 2 February 2001, Washington D.C. A shorter account has been published in the International Productivity Monitor (Center for the Study of Living Standards), by Bart van Ark and Marcel Timmer, titled The ICOP Manufacturing Database: International Comparisons of Productivity Levels (Number 3, Fall 2001). The chapters from the Monograph Series No. 1 by Bart van Ark, titled: International Comparisons of Output and Productivity. Manufacturing Productivity Performance of Ten Countries from 1950 to 1990 (Groningen, 1993).

The following downloadable ICOP publications are published after 2000:
Prasada Rao, D.S. (1993), Intercountry Comparisons of Agricultural Output and Productivity, FAO Economic and Social Development paper 112, Rome 1993
Wu, Harry X., Comparative labour productivity performance in Chinese manufacturing, 1952-1997: An ICOP PPP Approach (July 2001) GGDC Research Memorandum Nr. 49
Monnikhof, Erik and Bart van Ark, New Estimates of Labour Productivity in the Manufacturing sectors of Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, 1996 (January 2002), GGDC Research Memorandum Nr. 50.
Mulder, Nanno, Sylvie Montout and Luis Peres Lopes, Brazil and Mexico's Manufacturing Performance in International Perspective, 1970-1998 (January 2002), GGDC Research Memorandum Nr. 52
Szirmai, Adam, Francis Yamfwa and Chibwe Lwamba, Zambian Manufacturing in Comparative Perspective (January 2002), GGDC Research Memorandum Nr. 53
Sleifer, Jaap, A Benchmark Comparison of East and West German Industrial Labour Productivity in 1954 (October 2002), GGDC Research Memorandum Nr. 57
Szirmai, A., M. Prins and W. Schulte, Tanzanian Manufacturing in Comparative Perspective (November 2002), GGDC Research Memorandum Nr. 59

Last modified:23 October 2023 10.51 a.m.