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The Impact of Productivity Growth on the Costs of Production in Australian Manufacturing Industries *
Author(s) -
WHTTEMAN JOHN L.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
economic record
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.365
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1475-4932
pISSN - 0013-0249
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4932.1990.tb02524.x
Subject(s) - technological change , nexus (standard) , production (economics) , productivity , economics , manufacturing , unit (ring theory) , total factor productivity , technical change , factor cost , factors of production , industrial organization , business , economy , economic growth , macroeconomics , engineering , marketing , mathematics education , mathematics , embedded system
The primary objective of this study is to examine the impact of technological progress on costs of production in 34 Australian manufacturing industries. An analytical model incorporating the notion of factor‐augmenting technological change was developed and applied to each industry. The results indicated that in most of the industries technological progress during the period 1954–55 to 1981–82 had been biased towards augmenting labour and thereby reducing the cost of labour per unit of production. The implication of the analysis is that there is a nexus between incomes policy and the rate and bias of factor‐augmenting technological change.