This thesis uses data collected from a sample of thirty-nine Canadian and thirty-nine
American manufacturing firms to provide an empirical foundation for the assessment of
the performance of Canadian manufacturers through most of the twentieth century. The
unbalanced panel of Canadian firms covers the years 1907-1990. The unbalanced panel of
American firms covers the years 1902-1990.
To quantify the performance of Canadian manufacturers I measure relative technical
efficiency by calculating the total factor productivity (T.F.P.) and labour, capital and intermediate
input partial factor productivities of the Canadian firms in my sample relative to
the American firms. On average I find that the Canadian firms have had lower labour productivity
and intermediate input productivities, but superior capital productivity. When
measuring the productivity of the entire production process simultaneously there appears
to have been no consistent and substantial T.F.P. difference between the Canadian and
American firms, on average.
To explain the variation in the partial factor productivities between my Canadian and
American firms I disaggregate the total variation into differences due to domestically unique
input prices, output levels, biased technology and neutral technology. In general the Canadian
firms appear to have been responding to lower labour and intermediate input prices
and higher capital costs by using the relatively expensive inputs conservatively and the
relatively inexpensive inputs liberally. The Canadian firms also appear to have been adapting
their technology in response to the unique input market conditions they faced. The
evidence that the Canadian firms in my sample were choosing input combinations and
technology which reflected the domestic input prices they faced indicates behaviour consistent
with competent entrepreneur ship. Additional evidence illustrating the Canadian
producers' responsiveness to idiosyncratic and continental changes in their input market
conditions reinforces the partial factor productivity evidence:
The performance of the Canadian manufacturers' in my sample of firms, with respect to
total factor productivity and responsiveness to domestic input market conditions, suggests
that on average Canadian manufacturers have traditionally performed at least as well as
their American counterparts.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/9891 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Keay, Ian E.M. |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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